Hermitages & Churches
Icons of the region
Villalgordo Hermitage
Period: XIII | Robledo
Villalgordo is one of the first parishes founded in the area after the conquest of Alcaraz by Alfonso VIII. It is one of the oldest architectural remains in the province of Albacete. From Pentecost Sunday until the last Saturday in September, the Virgin of the Incarnation remains there until she is moved to the church of San Lorenzo Mártir in El Ballestero.
The Villalgordo Hermitage is one of the first parishes founded in the area after the conquest of Alcaraz by Alfonso VIII. It is one of the oldest architectural remains in the province of Albacete. From Pentecost Sunday until the last Saturday in September, the Virgin of the Incarnation remains there until she is moved to the church of San Lorenzo Mártir in El Ballestero.
Hermitage of Pinilla
Period: XVII | Viveros
The building complex of the Ermita de Pinilla, a 17th and 18th century work, has an interesting Mudejar coffered ceiling from the 16th century and Baroque vaults with geometric decoration. Its urban complex also conserves popular architecture.
Adjacent to the nave, on both sides, there are other rooms or outbuildings that were added to the building. However, they seem to date from the end of the 17th or 18th century, as they form the same lateral body. These rooms are: Ethnological museum room, dining room with attached kitchen (and above it a small study), possible men's dormitory, possible women's dormitory, toilets, storeroom, sacristy. All surrounded by a green area of almost 5.000 m².
Church of Nuestra
Señora del Rosario
Period: XVI | Balazote
Dating from the 16th century, for many years the nave was covered with a plaster ceiling that concealed an ancient Mudejar coffered ceiling that has recently been recovered. The presbytery is presided over by a 17th century Baroque altarpiece from the Franciscan convent of Alcaraz and four other small altarpieces of the same origin. It also has an estimable collection of paintings, although among all the elements we must mention a beautiful tabernacle.
Church of San Sebastián
Period: XV | Munera
The church of San Sebastián has a single nave covered with a starred rib vault in the body of the nave. The nave is divided into six bays. At the foot of the church stands the tower with a square base and three sections. The first two are solid, and the last one alternates a double bell tower with a single bell tower crowned with a simple cornice and ending with a cone-shaped top. In the central section of the nave there are two entrance doors, the southern one is semicircular, the northern one is richly decorated.
The temple shows a certain constructive confusion, due to the influence of the two stages in which the works were carried out, the first in the 15th century - Gothic style - and the second in the 16th century - Renaissance style. It has no chapel, and the openings in the canvases are reduced to several niches. There are no altarpieces either. Both masonry and ashlar were used in the construction of this church, and it is covered on the outside with curved Arabic tiles.
Church of La Asunción
Period: XVI | Lezuza
The church of La Asunción de Lezuza is of transitional Gothic-Renaissance style and its construction is linked to the new situation of the municipality during the 16th century.
The church has a single, very long nave with five sections, forty-eight metres long by only eight metres wide and thirteen metres high. It is covered with gothic vaults of varied design. The arches that separate the sections are supported by a kind of cornice. During the Baroque period, some chapels were enlarged. In the main chapel there is a baroque altarpiece and at the opposite end there is a choir. On the outside is the tower.
Church of San Sebastián
Period: XV | Villapalacios
The Church of San Sebastián of Villapalacios is a 15th and 16th century building in the late Gothic style, with a rectangular floor plan and diaphragm arches that divide the space into seven sections. Due to the resulting space and the attached pillars, the chancel may have been covered with a vault. The bell tower rises at the foot of the church.
The choir is the most artistic part of the church. It is made up of long wooden beams placed horizontally and a wooden column, also placed vertically in the centre, which serves to support the choir. The horizontal beams are carved in the shape of heads. Above the choir there is a unique Renaissance wooden tribune with twelve heads of figures, almost all of them depicted as monstrous, with pointed ears, bulging eyes, huge teeth and even horns. Under the choir there are polychrome decorations with Mudejar motifs, plant patterns and geometric motifs, constituting the most valuable artistic and pictorial contribution of the church, due to its good conservation since the Middle Ages.
Church of San Bartolomé
Period: XVI | Bienservida
The church of San Bartolomé is located in Bienservida, a village that formed part of the historic Señorío de las Cinco Villas, in the Sierra de Alcaraz region. Its main altarpiece is a great jewel of the Renaissance that occupies the entire head of the altar. It stands out for its majesty and large dimensions. Fourteen metres high and nine metres wide, it is presided over by the patron saint, Saint Bartholomew. Sculpture and painting are combined with great skill, giving the whole a great aesthetic unity.
Although there is no documentary proof, its financing is attributed to the Countess of Paredes, who in the 16th century wished to acknowledge the faithful and sincere treatment that this small town had given her throughout her life, by ordering the construction of this beautiful complex, which was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 1991.
Church of the Holy Trinity
Period: XV | Alcaraz
The church of the Santísima Trinidad is of a transitional style between Gothic and Renaissance and dates from the 14th and 15th centuries. It has a square floor plan of seven metres on each side, with three naves, the central one higher and four sections. It has ogival ribbing, with four-pointed stars in the central nave. The weapons of the Catholic Monarchs appear on the central vault. On the epistle side of the presbytery, there is a Renaissance chapel with a vaulted ceiling with a clear Vandelvirian influence. The interior dome is divided into cassettes of decreasing size, also in a Vandelvirian style.
It has several side chapels such as the chapel of the Nazarene, the chapel of the Soledad, or the chapel of Pedro de Aragón, which resembles a triumphal arch. The baptistery of the church is a Renaissance addition. The cloister was built in the Renaissance. The main doorway is Gothic in style, flanked by pinnacles on both sides. It has an exterior arch with Gothic flourishes and busts and reliefs of knights and saints. It is also notable for its altarpiece, the work of the Renaissance painter Juan de Borgoña.
Church of Santa Catalina
Period: XVI | El Bonillo
The church of Santa Catalina de El Bonillo is an example of 16th century Renaissance architecture. The sacristy and the choir are of architectural interest. The former is located at the east end of the building, and is rectangular and large. The choir is located at the foot of the church, over a lowered arch.
The tower is located on the west façade. It is divided into four sections; the first section has a plateresque window; the second and third sections are plain (the town clock stands out in the latter). The fourth section houses the belfry and the whole complex is crowned with a chapitel. On the outside, there are two classic-style entrance gates, located to the south and west respectively. The west doorway consists of a semicircular arch circumscribed between two pilasters.
Church of Ntra.
Señora de la Esperanza
Period: XVIII | Peñas de San Pedro
The church of Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza de Peñas de San Pedro is one of the best examples of Baroque architecture in the province of Albacete due to its monumentality and rich interior decoration. It was built over a period of thirty years at the end of the first half of the 18th century.
It has a Latin cross floor plan and follows the Jesuit model of a single nave with four bays, with chapels covered by vaults. It has a large dome over the transept covered by a pyramidal roof.
The interior is articulated by pilasters with decorated capitals. The tower has a square base and four sections. At its base is the baptismal chapel.
Church of San Lorenzo
Period: XVI | El Ballestero
This church was completed in the 16th century. Its characteristics, which were initially Romanesque, were later modified by different styles, Gothic and Renaissance. It is a unique example of local architecture, which is why it was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 2001.
In the 15th century there must have been a small church with a single nave, which later, in the 16th century, was enlarged with the current transept nave and presbytery, according to the design of Andrés de Vandelvira. This 16th century addition, in Renaissance style, is today the most admirable part of the church, not only because of the work of the distinguished architect from Alcaraz, but also because of the beauty of an austere but magnificent work.
Church of San Sebastián
Period: XVI | Vianos
This village in the Sierra de Alcaraz is perhaps the one that best preserves its popular architecture. Its church, built in the 16th century, with a single nave, stands out for its Baroque altarpiece that covers the apse, including the vault. Also of note is the Renaissance doorway that joins the baptismal chapel with the nave of the church. The tower, which starts out as a square and becomes an octagonal prism, is the work of Andrés de Vandelvira.
Hermitage of
La Purísima Concepción
El Bonillo
Located in Cruces Street in the town of El Bonillo, and recently restored, this historic hermitage is one of the exponents of the municipality's past closely linked to the ecclesiastical world. It is known, from the remains found throughout the village, that in the Middle Ages there were numerous population groups in the area, and perhaps El Bonillo is one of the places in the region where more sacred spaces have been found. We know that hermitages were dedicated to La Magdalena, Santa Ana, San Roque and La Pura. But there is also the convent of the Augustinians and the Gothic church of Cerro Bueno, today called Santa Catalina, and also the hermitage of Sotuélamos.
