The Church de San Andrés (Spanish: ''Iglesia de San Andrés'') is a church in
Madrid, Spain. It was declared ''
Bien de Interés Cultural'' in 1995.
It was built using the ruins that had a previous church in the same place. The primitive church in turn was previously occupied by a mosque located next to the
albarrana tower
An albarrana tower ( ar, البراني, al-barrānī, lit=exterior) is a defensive tower detached from the curtain wall and connected to it by a bridge or an arcade. They were built by Muslims when they occupied the Iberian Peninsula between the ...
in what was later the Palacio de Laso de Castilla, residence of the
Catholic Monarchs and
Cardinal Cisneros when they were in Madrid. The previous church had been frequented as a parish church by the patron saint of Madrid,
St. Isidore the Laborer, and his wife
Santa María de la Cabeza, who lived nearby.
The adjacent chapel of San Isidro was built at the site of the saint's house. Its construction began in 1657, after the saint was canonized in 1622. Further reconstructions were performed in 1663 and 1669, and later in 1783 and 1789. The initial construction in
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
style was fashioned by
José de Villarreal
José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ).
In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...
, and later
Pedro de la Torre and
Juan de Lobera
''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of '' John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, ...
. Much of the internal decoration, including paintings, was destroyed at the beginning of the
Spanish Civil War by the Communist and Socialist forces.
See also
*
Catholic Church in Spain
*
List of oldest church buildings
*
Romanesque churches in Madrid
The first parishes of the Christian Madrid were the ten mentioned in the letter of granting of the Fuero of Madrid; some of them would be rebuilt of mosques prior to the conquest of Alfonso VI of León and Castile, and others built during the Cast ...
References
External links
Andres
Baroque architecture in Madrid
Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in Madrid
Buildings and structures in Palacio neighborhood, Madrid
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