The Parish Church of St. Peter the Apostle was founded in 1739 on the site of an ancient chapel. Gradually, the building was expanded and in 1888 acquired its present appearance. Before finishing that century, in 1899, it was built the chapel of the Communion, located between the bell tower and the chapel of the Immaculate Conception. In the twentieth century, in 1908, the bell tower is restored and after the Civil War a comprehensive restoration of the temple took place, acquiring much of the altars and images existing today. In the late 80s he carried out a new comprehensive rehabilitation of the building, and since 2003 proceeded to rehabilitate the interior and exterior walls. Although the building has a Latin cross, it presents a special development in the left wing, where the privileged altar and the chapel of the Virgen del Remedio, Patroness of the Villa is located.
The church is built on top of one of the mosques from the Islamic city. The saints it is named after are the patron saints of the city as the celebration of their martyrdom coincides with the 'Reconquering' or the winning back of the city which took place, it is said, on July 17 1243. This is a gothic temple with just one nave, with chapels between butresses, dating from the XIV and XV centuries. The presbytery is Renaissance in style, as is the side door depicting the Annunciation. Parallel to the nave is the 'Gradas' Baroque door, by Antonio Villanueva and Cristóbal Sánchez, with borrominesque trimmings. The bell tower is definitely worth a mention; it is gothic in style and of great beauty, it is thought that the building of the bell tower must have finished somewhere in the middle of the XV century. In the corners we can see the drainpipe gargoyles and sculptures of fantasy animals. Of particular interest is the clock which the local council ordered to be installed in 1439.
Set in the heart of Moraira town centre, this rectangular building consists of three naves separated by pillars and is in four sections. This first of these, next to a portico with four arches (reminiscent of the typical riu-rau buildings) is an extension which was added in 1981. Three of the arches have now been glazed in.The square belltower is to the left. The main altar in this church has a mosaic showing religious scenes with a fishing theme.
It is a temple with a Latin cross plan. The main nave is covered by a barrel vault followed by a hemispherical dome, with lunettes where the windows are located, while the two lateral naves, formed by the perforation of the buttresses, house the chapels where various images are venerated. The cruise, with a dome on sculpted scallops, is formed by the discontinuity of the side chapels. On the Gospel side, we access the Chapel of the Virgen del Remedio. Large, has its own entrance, by the 'jardinet' (little garden), which has two columns on its exterior holding a cornice and, on those, two others that serve as an adornment to a niche occupied by the image of the Virgin of the Remedy, sculpted in 1765. Inside, an interesting altarpiece made of gilded and polychrome wood, recently restored, a work made in 1774 by the sculptor Francisco Mira, houses the dressing room with the image of the patron saint of Monóvar presiding over the chapel. its dome on pendentives sculpted with reliefs on the life of the Virgin. Through this chapel there is access to a third dedicated to San Miguel Arcángel, of neoclassical type, built in 1813, smaller, with a rectangular floor and a barrel vault, which is in a state of ruins. On the transept, on the side of the Epistle, there is attached a baroque organ, box José Martín, originally built in 1771 by the conqueror Julián de la Orden and rebuilt in the nineteenth century by Alberto Randeynes (1893). It was restored in its entirety throughout 2007. This church, although simple, is very solid, since it is all made of stone, except for the vaults. It has two towers, one of them unfinished, so only one is visible.
The origins of the temple go back to 1588, although its current style is neoclassical. It has a Latin cross plan, with three sections and chapels, without a dome, with a vault over the presbytery and a choir added to the feet, in the first section of the nave. The Communion chapel is next to the main altar, closing the rectangle of the floor. The temple was burned in 1936 and subsequently rebuilt. Highlights the classic altarpiece of the main altar, with Corinthian columns. Masonry walls and sloping tile roofs.
The Basilica of Santa María is the oldest religious building in Alicante. From the remains of the largest Islamic mosque in the city, this church was built in the 14th century. It was built with a single nave, without a transept and has side chapels between the buttresses. After a fire suffered during the fifteenth century, the Basilica of Santa Maria had to be rebuilt, hence its facade is baroque and is crowned by two asymmetrical towers built in the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries respectively. The cover with an image of the Virgin, made by the sculptor Juan Bautista Borja stands out. Inside the building, attention should also be drawn to several elements that stand out: the eighteenth-century Rococo altar and the chapels of Baptism, the Immaculate Conception and the Communion. In the Chapter Room there is a huge baptismal font from the 16th century and a Valencian Baroque organ from 1653.
It was built in 1989, it carved into the rock of a small hill, in the place where from 1926 to 1974 there was a drinking water reservoir. Until then, the chapel was located in a built in the 70's room, now converted into the Social Center of Barrio de Santa Catalina. The current chapel houses the image of the patron saint of the district, Santa Catalina and the Risen Christ, who participated in the last of the processions of Holy Week pinosera.
Built on top of one of the mosques of the Islamic city, the oldest known documentation regarding its construction dates back to between 1402 and 1417. This church has just one nave, with chapels between buttresses. The older gothic work was altered considerably by refurbishments and parts being added between the XVI and XVIII centuries. The renaissance presbytery in the shape of an arch of triumph and the chapel dedicated to the 'Holy Family' (1765-1766)by a group of sculptors led by the sculptor Francisco Salzillo are of particular interest. The main doorway, of Isabelline, gothic style shows the coat of arms of the Catholic Kings in its tympanum, whose doorway was built between 1726 and 1735.
This chapel has a simple, elegant, Renaissance style entrance (17th century). The remainder of the building is in the Baroque style and is divided into two bays. The interior decoration with geometric and plant motifs is dated 1861. There is a belfry over the door and the first tranche of the roof consists of a dome with green tiles. In times gone by, a guild carried the statue through the streets in procession and, every year they held a festival with the donations received. These days, the Colla el Falçó – Asociación de “dolçainers i tabaleters” in Teulada organises a festival every September in honour of the Divina Pastora.
The current church and convent of the Franciscans of Cocentaina is situated on the site of an ancient hermitage of the 14Th century dedicated to the martyr St. Sebastian. In 1516 the friars remodelled the ancient building to found the convent. The building which has survived to our era has its origin in the last of 16Th century, when the building of the church was carried out in renaissance design by the brothers Andrés and Jaime Terol, under the sponsor of the counts of Cocentaina. In 1604 the work was finished, including the count’s gallery and pantheon. From that time onwards other diverse works were carried out such as the extension of the chapel of the Third Order or the ‘Santísimo Cristo’, which was finished in 1726, and was attributed to the master Tomás Peris. The perfect integration of the baroque and renaissance styles can be appreciated from the diverse rooms which are conserved inside. In your visit you can contemplate the baroque ornamentation of the presbytery, the recently restored gallery of the counts of Cocentaina, with their herald in a renaissance setting, wall paintings of the tabernacle the 18Th century, and the vault compartments of the cloister, in which is represented the life of Saint Francis of Asissi, work of father Antonio Villanueva. A possibly unique testimony of the ancient hermitage exposed in the chapel the gothic Cross carved in stone of the 15Th century, with a replica in the convent square.
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