Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady: Gothic Parish Church in Colmenar Viejo
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Castile, Spanish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Basilica
On this page19 sections
History
The Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady is a Roman Catholic parish church in Colmenar Viejo, Spain. Begun at the end of the fifteenth century in the Late Gothic period, it occupies the site of an earlier parish church dedicated to Saint Mary and became the center of the town’s Catholic religious life.
Late Gothic construction
Construction began under the patronage of the Mendoza family, the powerful Castilian aristocrats who held lordship over Colmenar Viejo and the Real de Manzanares. The initial direction belonged to Juan Guas, a fifteenth-century architect associated with Late Gothic architecture in Castile and with royal building projects during the reign of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.
Work continued into the mid-sixteenth century under Hannequín de Cuéllar and Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón. The finished church combined a predominantly Gothic structure with Renaissance insertions. It was originally dedicated to Our Lady Saint Mary, but its dedication changed during the sixteenth century to the Assumption of Our Lady, the Catholic feast and doctrine concerning the Virgin Mary’s taking into heavenly glory.
Damage, restoration, and changing use
A lightning strike in 1649 destroyed the spire, part of the bell tower, and other structures. Restoration began in 1650 and was completed in 1656, preserving the church after the disaster. Later centuries brought further changes to its furnishings, including the installation and alteration of several Baroque, Churrigueresque, and Rococo altarpieces.
The building was designated a Spanish Cultural Heritage monument in 1997. It became a minor basilica by decree on 23 January 2002. Between 1999 and 2003, the bell tower underwent restoration that replaced a lost rose window, rehabilitated its interior rooms including the clock room, restored the bell chamber, consolidated the facades, and repaired sections of the gargoyles and cornice.
A museum of sacred art was established inside the basilica on 18 July 2009. It brought together paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo periods, along with choir books, gargoyles, liturgical objects, and vestments originating from the church. The basilica has also hosted classical-music concerts because of its noted acoustics. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the religious play Auto de los Reyes Magos has been performed there during the first days of January.
Remains
Plan and structural form
The basilica has an east-west axis, a polygonal apse at the eastern end, and a basilical plan with three naves and a transept. The three naves are divided into five bays and covered with ribbed cross vaults that include intermediate ribs. Most of the ribs are straight, while those over the choir follow concave and convex curves. The choir occupies the western bay of all three naves and is reached by a large staircase from a chapel in the north nave. A sacristy is attached to the south side, and a possible crypt has been identified beneath the presbytery.
A cornice decorated with spherical moldings runs around the building. Buttresses correspond to the pillars and to changes in the building’s section, creating the same structural division between levels that appears on the bell tower. The church retains five former side altars and an altar retable transferred from the nearby Chapel of Saint Anne.
Portals and bell tower
North portal
Three dolomite portals open on the north, west, and south sides. The north portal is the principal entrance and displays the Late Gothic manner associated with Juan Guas. Its trilobed arch stands beneath a semicircular arch framed by an alfiz, a rectangular decorative surround. The tympanum, the enclosed area within the arch, contains a Pietà with Saint John and Mary Magdalene, while the outer archivolt, the molded band following the curve of an arch, bears a Crucifixion.
Floral ornament and a sculpture of the Madonna and Child rise above the arch. Decorated piers carry statues of Saints Peter and Paul, while Mendoza and Pimentel heraldic shields flank the entrance. Eleven beehives refer to the arms of Colmenar Viejo. The existing wooden doors, fitted with metalwork, date from 1779.
West and south portals
The west portal, also called the portal of the bride and groom, occupies a U-shaped recess between the bell tower, the facade, and the choir staircase. An oculus stands above the entrance. Below it, a three-centered arch is enclosed by a trilobed arch with an archivolt and several alfiz moldings. The decoration includes tortoises, birds, fantastic animals, nude male and female figures, Mendoza and Pimentel shields, flowers, and a Gothic tomb represented in the tympanum.
The south portal, known as the sun portal, is smaller and simpler. It consists of a semicircular arch decorated with colonnettes and is sheltered by a wooden portico supported by three Tuscan columns. The portico dates from the late seventeenth century.
Bell tower
The square bell tower stands on the south side of the facade as an appendage to the church. Designed by Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón and dated to 1530, it measures 8.80 metres on each side and rises 50.12 metres. Its several levels are built of regular stone ashlar and culminate in an octagonal limestone spire with pinnacles and gargoyles.
Four spiral stairways, one at each corner, lead through the tower. Each stairway connects two levels and also contributes to the tower’s structural stability. Piers decorated with sequences of spheres mark the levels externally. The bell chamber rests on a projecting, multi-level cornice. Its lower level has corbels supporting ashlar blocks decorated with two tiers of arches; the middle level alternates projecting wedge-shaped blocks with blocks bearing four-petalled roses; and the upper level alternates floral and spherical ornament.
Eight gargoyles project from the cornice, including dragons at the corners and lions at the center. Each side of the bell chamber has two semicircular-headed windows with colonnettes at their bases and spherical decoration in the moldings. A later upper cornice has Renaissance ovolo, fillet, and cavetto moldings, together with sixteen limestone dragon gargoyles that drain water from the spire.
The octagonal spire has scale-like decoration and two horizontal moldings beneath its summit. Its sides carry crests, lions, dogs, and griffins. Eight pinnacles on blocks surround its base, which is enclosed by a balustrade.
Principal retable
Structure and commission
The principal retable is a Renaissance Plateresque altar composition made mainly from gilded, polychromed, and estofed wood, with an alabaster altar front. Plateresque is a highly ornamental Spanish form of late Gothic and Renaissance art. Made between 1563 and 1579, the retable follows the chamfered, octagonal form of the presbytery. It has a two-level predella, the lower section of a retable, three bodies with three streets and eight interstreets, and an attic. The architectural orders rise in sequence, with Doric in the first body, Ionic in the second, and Corinthian in the third.
The work was commissioned in 1566 from the Toledo masters Juan de Tovar and his brother-in-law Francisco Linares. They appear to have directed its design and execution until Tovar’s death in 1572 or 1573. Tovar handled the architectural work in the family workshop, while Linares was responsible for the figurative work. The traditional attribution to Francisco Giralte is not supported by the available evidence. The retable belongs to a model common in the Archdiocese of Toledo, with the superimposition of architectural orders as its principal innovation for the period.
Predella and painted panels
The lower predella contains large brackets dividing panels with high reliefs inspired by the Old Testament. Two horizontal panels show David and Solomon, and Moses and Aaron. Four vertical panels depict the major prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
The upper predella includes reliefs of Saints Barbara and Martha, the cardinal virtues Prudence, Fortitude, Justice, and Temperance, and the Doctors of the Church Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, and Gregory the Great. It also presents scenes from the life of the Virgin, including the Meeting at the Golden Gate and the Birth of the Virgin, together with Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, the theological virtues Faith and Charity, and the four Evangelists. The sequence rises toward the tabernacle, which extends into the first body.
Each lateral section has a central street with six oil paintings on canvas and two interstreets with three-dimensional sculptures. The left section includes the Annunciation, attributed to Diego de Urbina, and the Nativity and Adoration of the Magi, attributed to Alonso Sánchez Coello. The right section contains the Visitation, attributed to Luis de Velasco, and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple and Jesus among the Doctors, attributed to Hernando de Ávila.
The authorship of the paintings has been interpreted in two ways. One attribution assigns the six paintings to Diego de Urbina, Hernando de Ávila, Alonso Sánchez Coello, and Luis de Velasco. Another gives the entire painted ensemble, including the works inside the tabernacle, to Hernando de Ávila. In the multi-artist attribution, the tabernacle paintings remain anonymous. Documentary evidence also connects Hernando de Ávila, Rodrigo de Vivar, Diego de Urbina, and Alonso Sánchez Coello with the painted work, while later documentation associates the painting with Hernando de Ávila and Sánchez Coello and the on-site gilding and polychromy with Santos Pedril.
Sculptural program
The central part of the retable is entirely sculptural. In the first body, a temple-shaped tabernacle occupies the central street. Its outer doors show Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene, the Incredulity of Saint Thomas, the Ascension, and Pentecost. The inner doors contain sixteen Old Testament scenes. Four larger scenes depict the showbread, the explorers of the Promised Land, Passover, and the granting of manna in the desert. Twelve smaller scenes represent episodes involving Isaac, Tobit and the angel, Jacob, Moses, the bronze serpent, Sinai, the tablets of the law, Pharaoh, the Red Sea, Elijah, and David before the Ark.
A relief of the Last Supper formerly occupied the lower part of the tabernacle but was lost during the Spanish Civil War. A circular monstrance now stands above that area. The interstreets contain apostles including John, Peter, Paul, and James, as well as Augustine, Benedict, Francis, and Dominic, the founders of religious orders. Only two of the latter group remain, relocated to the second body.
The second body contains a representation of the Resurrection. The original composition showed Christ wearing only a loincloth between two Roman soldiers, while the present statue of the risen Christ is later than the retable’s construction. Its interstreets include Andrew, Thomas, two lost apostles, and the virgin saints Agnes, Lucy, Agatha, and Catherine. Catherine’s statue is the only one of that group that remains. Four profile figures in relief occupy roundels above the niches.
The third body has the Assumption of the Virgin in its central street. Its interstreets contain four apostles and four saintly bishops, expressing the ecclesiastical hierarchy. One of the bishops is Augustine, shown with the Christ Child at his feet. The statues and columns stand on plinths decorated with reliquary busts, profile medallions, and putti.
The attic contains a Calvary beneath a triangular pediment with God the Father and allegories of Abundance. An apostle and Saint Sebastian flank the composition, while roundels depicting Isaiah and Jeremiah crown the lateral sections.
Side altars and transferred retable
Churrigueresque altars
One late-seventeenth-century side altar has a Baroque-Churrigueresque retable, an especially elaborate Spanish Baroque form, measuring 3.5 metres wide and 5 metres high. Four twisted columns are decorated with grapes and vine leaves. A later statue of the Immaculate Conception occupies the center, and an angel has replaced the original statue of Saint Cajetan in the attic. A statue of Saint Peter and lost reliefs of Saints Ferdinand, Hermenegild, Bernard, and Isidore were also associated with the altar.
A second contemporary Churrigueresque retable contains original but retouched painted medallions of Ildefonsus, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, and Eugenius, bishop of Toledo. Its central statue of Our Lady of the Rosary came from the disappeared Hermitage of Our Lady of the Rosary. A statue of Saint Nicholas of Bari, transferred from a former retable beneath the choir, now occupies the attic in place of the original statue of Saint Dominic.
Seventeenth-century altars
A mid-seventeenth-century gilded and polychromed retable has a predella with vegetal motifs, a central body divided into three streets by Corinthian columns, and an attic containing a window. Its central high relief depicts the Annunciation. The lateral streets hold statues of Isidore the Farmer and John the Baptist, while an early-nineteenth-century statue of Saint Joseph with the Christ Child occupies the attic.
Another retable, contemporary and stylistically similar, contains a statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel beneath an arch. Its original lateral statues of Saint Anne and Saint Joachim were surmounted by paintings of Elijah and Teresa. Recent statues of Teresa of Avila and Thérèse of the Child Jesus have replaced them, while the original statues are displayed in the parish museum after restoration.
Rococo altars
A first-half-eighteenth-century Rococo retable has an allegorical predella decorated with a tree, branch, and buildings. Rococo is a later decorative style characterized by light, curved, richly ornamented forms. Its original titular saint was moved to the attic of the Immaculate Conception retable and is now displayed in the parish museum. Saint Anthony of Padua occupies the central street, while the lateral streets contain images of the martyrs Crispin and Crispinian, donated by the shoemakers’ guild in 1702.
The attic contains a relief of Saint John of Nepomuk’s body being found on the surface of the Vltava River through the light of five stars. The same motif is repeated on the altar.
Retable from the Chapel of Saint Anne
The retable transferred from the Chapel of Saint Anne probably entered the basilica in the 1950s, during restoration of the chapel. This eighteenth-century Rococo work is 8 metres high and 4.5 metres wide. It has Corinthian columns, a predella, three streets, and an attic. Saint Anne occupies the central niche; the lateral streets contain the four Evangelists, while James the Greater and Andrew stand at predella level. A crucifix occupies the attic beneath a trilobed arch. The central niche originally held the Immaculate Conception. Marian allegories include the ivory tower, cedar, well of living water, and morning star, drawn from the Song of Songs and the Book of Revelation.
Other interior features and museum collections
A tomb for the priest Benito López is set into the south wall beside the sacristy. López died in 1500, and his effigy is carved on the tomb slab. The choir houses the sacred-art museum, whose holdings include paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo periods, choir books, gargoyles, liturgical objects, and vestments originating from the basilica.
The roof supports a breeding colony of lesser kestrels, known locally as “alcotanes.” Pairs of white storks also breed on the building. Black storks, griffon and cinereous vultures, booted and imperial eagles, and red and black kites have been observed around the basilica.
