The Parochial Church of Santa Marina Virgen y Mártir

To the southwest of the urban helmet, already in its limits, the parochial Church of Alameda del Valle is raised, dedicated to Santa Marina, where they are, among others, the statures of Santa Marina and Santa Ana, this last one of century XIII. A unique location from which beautiful views of the mountains are contemplated, and next to the one that passes the Natural Way, a beautiful walk frequented by neighbors and visitors.

The church began to be built in the sixteenth century under the direction of the master builder Juan de la Piedra, and documents were kept in which he was accountable to the Procurator of the Monastery of El Paular, reporting the expenses associated with the works. Already in the XVIII, several reforms were made, expanding in large part in what are now the Sacristy and the vestibule. Also, in recent years reforms have been carried out such as the restoration of the perimeter wall of the complex, the retejado, the placement of a choir at the foot of the main nave or the interior walls that today look the original stone.

The exterior of the building, built in masonry and with large ashlars at the corners of the construction, stands out for the imposing bell tower that stands out from the general height of the temple, being this one of square plan, of two bodies and with four windows of ashlar. It also highlights the head, presided by a semicircular apse reinforced by huge buttresses. Next to the entrance portico we find a stone ashlar window dated 1738.

The interior, rectangular in shape, stands out for its spaciousness and elegance. The Main Chapel, that occupies almost all the head, is closed by a semicircular vault and separated from the nave by a half-point triumphal arch resting on pilasters. Attached to it is the Chapel of the Tabernacle (former Sacristy), rectangular in shape and covered by a barrel vault with lunettes and moldings. And finally, the lobby, "separated from the nave by two semicircular arches supported by a column of Tuscan order"

The Church has two access roads. The main one (located on the side and aligned with the stairway) through a beautiful wooden portico (corresponding to the reforms of the SXVIII) supported by two pillars of Plateresque style of square plan, resulting in an extension of the roof. And a second access, and reality the oldest, located in the head by means of a door made with stone ashlars that form a semicircular arch with voussoirs. The building is surrounded by a masonry wall decorated with Herrerian-style balls placed on pilasters of rhomboidal relief (like the ones that crown the access stairway to the historic site), which forms an irregular courtyard around the Church.

The nests of storks are an attraction of this unique building of which we have a small model, which is located in the Multi-purpose Classroom and Tourist Diffusion. And as a curiosity, to point out that in the movie "Mando perdido" appear the exteriors of the church in the middle of the XXth century.

Galería de Imágenes