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Well if you have been reading my blog, for which I thank you; you know my sentimental attachment to Cuenca and many family vacations. I ,also, have, several posts on the city and surrounding areas in Castilla La Mancha autonomous community. However, there was one older post crammed with several churches of great architectural and historical value that I have decided to spin off into individual posts giving them the credit they deserve in my blog. Hope you enjoy each of them as we did!

The Church of San Nicolas de Bari (13/14C) of Cuenca. On your left side further down you come to the old cementary, there is a statue sitting there in the middle now, The Church of San Nicolás de Bari seems to have already been built in the 15C, although architecturally speaking, its structure does not resemble the typical Renaissance buildings of this century. The church is built on the basis of ordinary masonry walls, with mortar coating, and is reinforced at its corners by ashlar masonry.

The Church of San Nicolas de Bari has three very simple facades. The main one, in the Plaza de San Nicolás, contains the access door to the church, made up of a pointed arch with a molding, supported by attached pilasters, with a simple capital. The tower, attached to the church, has a rectangular floor plan and is made up of two bodies: The lower one, built with masonry coated with mortar and reinforced at the corners with ashlars, and the upper body, all made of ashlar masonry, topped by a stone cornice and eaves. The roof of the tower is tiled with four waters. The Church of San Nicolas de Bari has a single nave, divided into three bodies. Separating each of the sections are attached pilasters, topped by entablature, on which semicircular arches rest. The vault of the temple is half-barrel with lunettes.

In the first body is the High Altar, in which we find an image of the saint supposedly buried in Italy, and some red marble niches on both sides of it. On the right side of the Altar there is a door, through which you reach some stairs, Beautifully made of stone and helical in shape, they give access to the tower’s bell. Inside, the Capilla de los Condes de Priego or Chapel of the Counts of Priego and some carvings on the main altar stand out. The church reflects characteristics from different periods: the tower is from the 16C and the exterior, together with the head of the naves and the transept, are late Gothic. The rest is later, as it had to be rebuilt after the fire suffered in 1839.

The great renovation of 2019. The intervention consisted in the elimination of the sources of humidity from the outside of the church, with the provision of a chamber to ventilate the subsoil and the base of the walls. Worked was done on the air conditioning system and the electrical installation and lighting have been renewed, as well as the fire and emergency detection system. The flooring has been replaced by marble tiles, the carpentry has been renovated and a windbreak has been installed as access to the church. Likewise, access from the outside has been restructured.

The Castilla La Mancha regional tourist office on the Church St Nicolas de Bari :http://en.www.turismocastillalamancha.es/patrimonio/iglesia-de-san-nicolas-31364/descripcion/

The Parish Diocese of Cuenca on the Church St Nicolas de Bari : https://www.diocesisdecuenca.es/parroquia/parroquia-de-san-nicolas-de-bari/

There you go folks, a dandy nice Church San Nicolas de Bari in wonderful Cuenca; we love it. There is so much to see in this Unesco World Heritage Site indeed. Hope you enjoy the post as much as I did. And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!

Well if you have been reading my blog, for which I thank you; you know my sentimental attachment to Cuenca and many family vacations. I ,also, have, several posts on the city and surrounding areas in Castilla La Mancha autonomous community. However, there was one older post crammed with several churches of great architectural and historical value that I have decided to spin off into individual posts giving them the credit they deserve in my blog. Hope you enjoy each of them as we did!

The Church of San Pedro (St Peter) is located in the highest part of Cuenca. It must have been built with three naves and a tower at the foot shortly after the city was conquered by king Alfonso VIII.  The  Chapel of San Marcos,  which,  according to the frieze,  was completed in 1604, is covered with a magnificent octagonal coffered  ceiling in the Mudejar tradition.  Later, this chapel became the property of the counts of Toreno.
 

The original church building was built shortly after Alfonso VIII entered Cuenca in 1177, making it the oldest church in the city. That building was completely destroyed after it was bombarded from the Cuenca Castle (see post) during the battle between Castilians and Aragonese in 1449. In the 15C, a new Gothic-style church was built, which was remodeled several times in the following years to beautify one of the chapels with plasterwork and renovate the tower, which was found to be in terrible condition. In the 18C, the church was completely refurbished and acquired its current form, with a body of bells included. At the end of the 20C, the church had to be restored again, since it suffered serious damage during the Spanish Civil War.

In the 17C, the Church San Pedro tower was in such poor condition that it threatened to collapse. At the end of 1660, it was decided to rebuild it as soon as possible. The tower, which is made up of three decreasing bodies, was finished off at the end of the 18C with a body of bells. The remodeling of the old church, of which the coffered ceiling of the chapel of the counts of Toreno remains, which is a work from the end of the 16C, as well as the bell tower, The ascent to the bell tower is accessed through 20 straight stone steps and 69 iron steps that form a spiral helix.

During the last restoration works, carried out in 1999, remains of the walls of the buildings from the 12C and 15C were found, as well as the cemetery that functioned in the temple until the 19C. Located under the altar of Cristo de la Vera Cruz, (Christ of the True Cross) it is a true viewpoint to the past of the church. Differentiated with different colors you can see three layers, corresponding to the churches of the 12C, 15C and 18C. In the deepest layer you can see an anthropomorphic tomb belonging to the medieval church and at an intermediate level you can see three boxes found in children’s burials corresponding to the Gothic period.

In the bell tower, you can see the three 19C bells installed after the Spanish Civil War. The largest of them is called Santa Cruz. It was cast in 1853 and has a weight of 230 kg and a diameter of 75 cm. Due to a crack, the sound of this bell was impoverished, so, in 2008, a fourth bell of the same weight and size as the one currently rung was added to the set.

The Castilla La Mancha regional tourist office on the St Peter’s Church : http://en.www.turismocastillalamancha.es/patrimonio/iglesia-de-san-pedro-29964/descripcion/

The Parish Diocese of Cuenca on San Pedro y Santiago : https://www.diocesisdecuenca.es/parroquia/parroquia-de-santiago-y-san-pedro/

There you go folks, a dandy nice Church San Pedro in wonderful Cuenca; we love it. There is so much to see in this Unesco World Heritage Site indeed. Hope you enjoy the post as much as I did. And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!

Well if you have been reading my blog, for which I thank you; you know my sentimental attachment to Cuenca and many family vacations. I ,also, have, several posts on the city and surrounding areas in Castilla La Mancha autonomous community. However, there was one older post crammed with several churches of great architectural and historical value that I have decided to spin off into individual posts giving them the credit they deserve in my blog. Hope you enjoy each of them as we did!

The Church of Virgen de la Luz in Cuenca is famous for housing the Black Virgin. The church was built in the 16C and finished in the 18C, It has a magnificent interior decoration, in the rococo style. Outside there are two covers, one of them plateresque corresponding to the old convent that existed in this place. The image of the patron saint is a Black Madonna, of great medieval tradition.

Two hermitages were once located on the site located above the current church, one dedicated to Nuestra Señora del Puente or Our Lady of the Bridge ,the name by which the Virgen de la Luz or Our Lady of Light was known in the 16C, and to San Antonio Abad. The two hermitages were under the care of the Hospital de San Antonio, built in 1352, and located next to the hermitage of Our Lady. Due to the poor quality construction, both hermitages deteriorated little by little, until it was decided to replace them with the current church, thus grouping both spaces into a single larger temple.

The Church of Virgen de la Luz has a single nave, which has a marked longitudinal axis cut by two transversal ones; these axes are made up of both the transept of the church and the intermediate side chapels. In its interior, among other artistic manifestations, the canvases that house the Capilla Mayor or Main Chapel stand out, as well as the fresco mural paintings, made around 1764. The main iconographic cycle throughout the church refers both to the Virgin Patron of Cuenca and to Saint Anthony Abad. You can appreciate the abundant rococo-style decoration, with profuse boxes with rockeries and latticed tribunes. In addition, it has a barrel vault with lunettes and transverse arches in the nave and an elliptical dome on a drum with windows and a lantern in the transept. Its exterior is plastered and painted in colour; its two portals stand out, corresponding to the two hermitages previously located in the same place. The left doorway ,the Gospel side, is in the Plateresque style and is currently unused; It is the old portal of the Hermitage of Our Lady of the Bridge and it is the only part of the old hermitages that was preserved when the current church was built. The right portal ,side of the Epistle, corresponds to the current entrance of the church and was modified in the middle of the 20C, due to the fact that its low height made it difficult to exit the processional steps.

The nice historical anecdote ,we are told here is that as the Christian troops of King Alfonso VIII the Noble noticed, fixing their attention one night during the siege and surrounded the square, a strange and surprising flashing light with intense and brief bursts visible on the slope of the hill of the Majestad that together with that of San Cristóbal and del Socorro, surround the old basin, while they shimmered in the green and nearby waters of the Júcar river. The young Castilian monarch who wanted to investigate and inquire the truth of the surprising event and, when approaching the space where the constant light shone every night, the Virgin appeared to King Alfonso, giving him courage and encouragement to continue the siege that, according to the chronicles, ended on September 21, 1177, the feast of the evangelist Saint Matthew, with the taking of Cuenca by Christian troops. Voilà !

The Cuenca tourist office on the Church Virgen de la Luz :https://visitacuenca.es/es/content/descubre-el-legado-de-la-iglesia/iglesia-virgen-de-la-luz

The Castilla La Mancha regional tourist office on the Church Virgen de la Luz : http://en.www.turismocastillalamancha.es/patrimonio/iglesia-de-la-virgen-de-la-luz-30464/descripcion/

The Parish Diocese of Cuenca on Our Lady of light, or Virgen de la Luz : https://www.diocesisdecuenca.es/parroquia/parroquia-de-ntra-sra-de-la-luz/

There you go folks, a dandy nice Church Virgen de la Luz in wonderful Cuenca; we love it. There is so much to see in this Unesco World Heritage Site indeed. Hope you enjoy the post as much as I did. And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!