The Royal Basilica of Our Lady of Atocha or Real Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Atocha is a large church in central

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

on Avenida de la Ciudad de Barcelona, 1. It is run by the

Dominican order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

.https://www.esmadrid.com/informacion-turistica/basilica-de-nuestra-senora-de-atocha

History

It is one of the six

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

churches in Madrid, alongside the ''Our Father Jesús de Medinaceli'', ''San Francisco el Grande'', '' St. Michael's Basilica, Madrid'', ''Basílica Hispanoamericana de Nuestra Señora de la Merced'', and ''

Church of La Milagrosa Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

''. The buildings on the site have a long history. The original name refers to a lost icon from a chapel which was found among some high grasses -referred to as tocha- during the time of the ''

Reconquista The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...

''. The site was given to the

in 1523 by concession of

Pope Adrian VI Pope Adrian VI (; ; ; ), born Adriaan Florensz Boeyens (2 March 1459 – 14 September 1523), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 January 1522 until his death on 14 September 1523. The only Dutch people, Du ...

. The old church was in disrepair and rebuilt in the 1890s in a

Neo-Byzantine Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a Revivalism (architecture), revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine architecture, ...

style designed by

Fernando Arbós y Tremanti Fernando Arbós y Tremanti (22 October 1844, Rome - 18 December 1916, Madrid) was a Spanish architect; best known for the Iglesia de San Manuel y San Benito (Madrid), Iglesia de San Manuel y San Benito. Life and work He was born in Rome to the ...

. The church was destroyed on 20 July 1936 during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. Its reconstruction was completed in 1951. Adjacent to the church is the

Pantheon of Illustrious Men The Pantheon of Illustrious Men () is a royal site in Madrid, under the administration of the Patrimonio Nacional. It was designed by Spanish architect Fernando Arbós y Tremanti, and is located in Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Atocha in the ...

or ''Panteón de Hombres Ilustres'' of Madrid. It holds the remains of only a former president of the council of ministers, José Canalejas, however it also contains a number of interesting monuments from and just after the turn of the 19th century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atocha, Basilica of Nuestra Senora de Roman Catholic churches in Madrid Basilica churches in Spain 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Spain Buildings and structures in Pacífico neighborhood, Madrid

History

See also

References