Once again, found several pictures in my vault not in my blog as yet, This is a must to be here as it brings lots of memories to my family and as this blog is my life’s history will indulge more into ti with this addtional post Yes ,I know most go to the big cities and ventures into the popular places, but Spain is everything under the Sun! I like to take you again back in time to my lovely Province of Cuenca in the Autonomous Comunity of Castilla La Mancha.
We had great memories of it while with my dear late wife Martine and the boys. Many strong souvenirs that will not fade away with time indeed. The town is well connected as it passes through the road N-320 that goes from Cuenca to Albacete, I will deal again with the town of Villanueva de la Jara, and its main Basilica Church of the Assomption !!! or Iglesia Basilica de la Asuncion. This is the main thing you should take a detour and visit this town ,and the church is located in Calle Jesùs Casanova s/n.
The Basilica Church of Our Lady of the Assumption of Villanueva de la Jara is a late Gothic temple built on a castle owned by the Marqués de Villena from the 16C. The church is one of the most beautiful examples of religious architecture in the province of Cuenca. The church is located on a castle ,and there is a legend that says that the altar is occupying the place that was previously occupied by an Arab Mosque, The church is of ample proportions, with a single nave, divided into four sections occupied by seven side chapels, a presbytery with a polygonal apse, a sacristy and a chapter house. This Church was built with the stones of the old arab castle in the 15C. Built in ashlar stone, it has a polygonal apse and high-rise buttresses. The high Altar has a beautiful retable on three bodies of golden wood. Its tower frames a chapel that is said to be the primitive one of the castle of the Marquis of Villena, on whose building the church was built, You see next to it, three slabs with circular towers all that is left of the castle of Villanueva (Marquis of Villena).
The original portal consists of two lowered arches with vegetal decoration under a large circular window, like a Gothic rose window, framed by a wide blind semi-circular arch whose voussoirs are decorated with circular geometric and floral motifs. On the mullion a small sculpture can be seen of the Virgin and Child in a niche. The access main portal consists of a Renaissance-style arch framed like a triumphal arch and a covered atrium that leads to the garden, the perimeter of which follows the layout of the old medieval wall. The other portal, also Renaissance, it has a semicircular arch, with niches on both sides of the door created by two pairs of pilasters behind Ionic columns on high rectangular podiums and topped by an entablature with a running cornice on which decorative motifs can be observed. Typical of the time of the Catholic Monarchs such as balls and diamond points
The bell tower, 65 meters high, obeys Renaissance canons; quadrangular in shape, at the end of the 17C, it was finished off with a baroque style hood with conical finishes and three series of semicircular arches that decrease in size as the finish rises. The church is of ample proportions, with a single nave, divided into four sections occupied by seven side chapels, a presbytery in a polygonal apse, a sacristy and a chapter house. The vaults of the central nave are starry Gothic. The openings that communicate with the side chapels are framed by pilasters on which semicircular arches rest.My sons are in front.
There are five most important chapels in the church, and they are : the Capilla Mayor or Main Chapel, located in the apse or head, where a Baroque altarpiece is installed between 1693 and 1697, The Main Chapel took 15 years to build it. It is carved in wood with very high gold leaf and braised, it has the same dimensions as the vault and the central nave of Baroque style, In the center was located an image of more than 2 meters of the Virgin of the Assumption that gave its name to the Basilica Church, On both sides the images of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, carvings of 2 meters. Eight Churrigueresque columns support the chapel and another 4 Solomonic columns whose base is formed by 4 angels as corbels that rise to the upper cornice where the top of the altarpiece begins, which is a quarter-sphere shell that ends in the same vault. See on the left my dear Martine and good twins boys.
The Chapel of the Immaculate Conception with its transitional altarpiece from Flemish Gothic to Renaissance. One of the 7 privileged altars by the Bull of Pius IX in the year 1871. It is presided over by the image of La Inmaculada; to the left of it are Saint Leo the Great, with a tiara for being Pope, and Saint Augustine, bishop with his miter; below Saint Martin of Tours, giving his cape to the poor; and to the right Saint Jerome, translator of the Bible into Latin, and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus.
The Chapel of the Virgen del Rosario, with its Baroque altarpiece, made at the end of the 17C with a Greek cross plan and covered by a half orange dome on pendentives full of plant and animal motifs in white plaster; This is a deep chapel that is the best exponent of the devotion to the Rosary lived by the inhabitants of Villanueva throughout the 18C. Although worship and prayer began many years before, the Chapel was finished in 1722 and was structured in the following spaces: A Sacristy, an ante-chapel covered with a groin vault; a central section in the form of a transept, closed by a spectacular dome filled in the form of a transept, closed by a spectacular dome filled with plant plasterwork and the presbytery or main altar area, occupied by the altarpiece of the Virgen del Rosario, and also vaulted.
The Chapel of the Virgen del Pilar ,the altarpiece dates from 1569 It is of Gothic and Plateresque Art, It is presided over by the image of the Virgen del Pilar. Above this image is the painting titled “The Descent of the Lord”; below is Saint Francis in his transfiguration; on the left side “The Praying Virgin”, San Pedro and San Lorenzo, Santa Bárbara and Santa Lucía; and on the right side the Angel of the Annunciation, San Lorenzo.
And finally, the Chapel of Cristo de la Llaga or the sore of Christ with a starry vault; the meaning is obvious.
The Sacristy is rectangular in shape. The Chapterhouse with rococo ornamentation has a neoclassical baptismal font, The daring and original vault about 30 meters high and about 45 meters long, not counting, of course, the side chapels. The tower is 65 meters high, The heavy and profusely carved pulpits were attached to the two side columns, to the plateresque ones, and the ornaments and sculptures of the apostles were bathed in rich gold and fine paint in red and blue. Of this there is only a pulpit that is not completely complete. Among the works of art that preserves, highlights, in the first chapel of the Epistle, the altarpiece of Saint Martin, outstanding sample of Spanish-Flemish painting. The chapter house features a neoclassical baptismal font.
The town of Villanueva de la Jara on its history:http://www.villanuevadelajara.es/historia.html
The province of Cuenca tourist board on the church: https://www.descubrecuenca.com/es/enclaves-y-poblaciones/la-manchuela/basilica-de-nuestra-senora-de-la-asuncion-villanueva-de-la-jara-52
The Castilla la Mancha region tourist board on the church : http://en.www.turismocastillalamancha.es/patrimonio/iglesia-basilical-nuestra-senora-de-la-asuncion-69064/
There you go folks, another dandy on the roads of Don Quijote in my dear Spain, traditions to hold on to for life. Again, hope you enjoy this additional post on the Basilica Church of the Assomption of Villanueva de la Jara !!! as I,
And remember, happy travels , good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 