Santiponce Itálica

Heritage

An immense legacy waiting to be discovered

San Juan Bautista Parish Church

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The Mudejar-style Church, named after the town’s patron saint, also has Gothic and Renaissance art elements. It was built over an ancient mosque destroyed by an earthquake in the fourteenth century. The old presbytery has been preserved from its initial construction. 

This spacious, single-nave temple resembles a fortress. The large buttresses built between the 15th and 17th centuries sought to reinforce the collapsed vaults. The first two sections of the nave are covered with ribbed vaults and the third with elliptical sail vaults.

Highlights inside include the main altar built by the Portuguese school in 1699. It is a single block with Solomonic columns and ornaments. To the right are the remains of what was likely a wall painting that covered the entire baptistery. Although it is still under investigation, it is attributed to Valdés Leal or his school. To the left is the Chapel of St. Bartholomew, financed by Bartolomé Gómez del Castillo, a wealthy inquisitor who donated his entire fortune to the church in the 17th century.

Other elements of interest are the Tabernacle Chapel, with an altarpiece attributed to Martínez Montañés, and the altarpiece and image of the Our Lady of Carmen by Castillo Lastrucci.

On the outside is the three-level bell tower, topped by beautiful. From the viewpoint known as “El Porche”, above the Puerta del Perdón, one can see the web of meandering streets of the town and the bullring.

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