The church of Frigiliana has a new façade after its remodeling

The church of Frigiliana has a new façade after its remodeling

EUGENIO CABEZAS Monday, February 14, 2022, 4:18 p.m.

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The church of San Antonio de Padua in Frigiliana already shows off its new exterior image, after the restoration work carried out by the Bishopric. The intervention allows us to contemplate the different periods of construction of the building, from the factories of the 16th century, in the central nave, in the tower and its first body of bells, to the remodeling and extension of the temple in the 18th century, when the nave was added. of the Gospel, the height of the tower was increased, raising the bells, and windows were opened in the new choir and in the tower.

Over the centuries various repairs were made to the portal and the tower. The works have respected the contributions of all periods, as well as the patinas, which constitute the property's own value, having eliminated the layers of paint that covered the original materials. These modifications are differentiated by the color of the lime mortar and by the sand used in its elaboration: the one from the 16th century was more grayish in tone and the whitish one was from the 18th century.

As reported by the Bishopric, the works have been carried out by the company Chapitel Conservation and Restoration, SL and have been directed by the technical architect Pablo Pastor. The works have been carried out thanks to the collaboration agreement between the Diocese of Malaga and the City Council of Frigiliana, with the investment amounting to 62,840.2 euros.

The church of San Antonio de Padua de Frigiliana, as Pablo Pastor explains, "was instituted in 1505, at the request of Queen Isabel, under the patronage of Santa María, by order of the then Archbishop of Seville and Metropolitan of Malaga, the Dominican Fray Diego de Deza, according to a bull of Pope Innocent VIII and confirmed later, in 1510, by Pope Julius II. »The primitive mosque, converted into a Christian temple, would probably be used initially«, they have detailed.

County of Don Inigo Manrique de Lara

In 1630, Felipe IV granted the county of Frigiliana to Don Íñigo Manrique de Lara, warden of the castle and citadel, building his palace in this town in 1640. «It is on the initiative of these nobles that they vote for the construction of this church, on the old hermitage To this end, the work was entrusted to Bernardo de Godoy, senior master of the Bishop's factories, who, at the end of 1617, built the churches of Igualeja and Frigiliana. The promoter of both performances was the Dominican Bishop Fray Alonso de Santo Tomás, whose coat of arms appears on the access cover?, they explained.

Built in Mudejar style, it initially had a central nave and a nave on the epistle side, as well as the tower, which was one body shorter than the current one, where the bells were located. In the central nave, taller and wider than the lateral ones, its wooden frame with knuckle and almizate stands out, with tie straps that rest on corbels or canes, the lower lateral nave is covered with a simple wooden frame hanging, in its walls niches are opened to house images.

In the last brace of the central nave that is next to the façade, there is the legend: "Bernardo de Godoy Maestro Maior fesi me since the foundations year of 1676 years". In 1779 the extension of the church was authorized, where its current more baroque interior appearance is configured, as well as the detailed actions, which can now be seen more clearly, as highlighted by the Bishopric of Malaga in a statement.

Image of the temple in the Cadastre of Ensenada. / SOUTH A local researcher raises the possibility of a crypt The restoration of the façade of the church of San Antonio de Padua in Frigiliana has revealed some interesting details that previously simply remained hidden from the viewer. This has been highlighted by the local investigator and lawyer Pablo Rojo. Through social networks, this neighbor has highlighted "a sgraffito located under the ridge, right in the central axis of the gabled roof, in the middle of which you can see what appears to be a Maltese Cross." «We can perfectly distinguish the work of the primitive temple, which dates from between 1676 and 1678, and the new lateral nave, which began to be built from 1780. This extension was paid for by the residents of Frigiliana themselves, and not by the Bishopric, as shown by an interesting existing document in the Provincial Historical Archive of Malaga?, explained Rojo, detailing that the work consisted of the construction of the two lateral naves, not only the one opposite the tower, the transept and the apse. «Therefore, the primitive church was extremely simple, one of the so-called 'drawer' ones, in which the main altar only had to be separated from the rest of the temple by means of a so-called 'toral arch'. The expansion was completed in 1794 with the inauguration of the new main altar, destroyed in 1936. It is absolutely uncertain, contrary to what is still indicated in some official texts, that the church of San Antonio is rebuilt on the old Muslim mosque, if not which was erected as a new plant on a site donated for this purpose by the first count of Frigiliana, Íñigo Manrique de Lara«, the local researcher pointed out. On the other hand, according to him, there was indeed a hermitage of San Antonio, but this temple was located in the surroundings of Placituela, on a plot of land that was sold years later. «It was in this humble building where the residents of Frigiliana attended mass while the Parish Church was being built. Therefore, it is not true that both temples, church and hermitage, shared the same space. There was also a Christian church of an earlier date, which probably occupied the space of the hermitage, and which was destroyed during the Moorish Rebellion (1569-1571)", he pointed out. For Rojo, "if we observe the representation made of the Church of San Antonio in the Ensenada Cadastre, dated 1752, we observe the existence of a door under the steps of the temple." «This could correspond, almost certainly, to access to an underground crypt, given the considerable unevenness of the ground. It is possible that there is another cavity just in front of the main altar, where you can see, at first glance, a considerable sinking of the ground", the author has described, noting that in these underground vaults "the ecclesiastical staff of the temple was buried, as well as members of the of some religious brotherhoods such as that of Ánimas, of great implantation in the locality».

TOPICS

TopicsFrigiliana, Málaga (Province), Málaga, Architecture, SUR History, archeology

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