Santa María (Ateca) facts for kids
41°19′51.37″N 1°47′37.13″W / 41.3309361°N 1.7936472°W
Quick facts for kids Church of St Mary |
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| Native name Spanish: Iglesia de Santa María |
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| Location | Ateca, Spain |
| Type | Non-movable |
| Criteria | National monuments of Spain |
| Designated | January 12, 1983 |
| Reference no. | RI-51-0004782 |
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The Church of St Mary (or Iglesia de Santa María in Spanish) is an old Roman Catholic church. You can find it in a town called Ateca, in the province of Zaragoza, Spain. This church is really special because it was built a long, long time ago, in the Middle Ages. It has a unique building style called Mudéjar. This style mixes Christian and Islamic art, making it look very cool! Aragon, the region where Ateca is, has many buildings like this.
Contents
Exploring the Church of St Mary
The Main Building
This church is like a fortified church from the 1200s, built with strong bricks. It has one main room, called a nave, that ends in a seven-sided area called an apse. Over hundreds of years, more parts were added to the church.
Inside, you can still see two original chapels, which are like small rooms for prayer. These are the Ciria and Ramírez chapels. Four more chapels were added later, two on each side of the church.
Special Chapels and Art
One chapel, dedicated to the Virgen de la Peana, is very interesting. It has a fancy style from the 1500s called Baroque. Inside, there are two huge paintings. One shows the Virgen de la Peana from the 1700s. The other is called La Soledad. Both paintings have been carefully cleaned and fixed recently.
The La Soledad painting is amazing because it looks like real architecture, but it's just painted! It even has curtains that can be moved. Below this painting, you'll find the "Christ of the Cradle" statue. This statue is very important for Holy Week in Ateca. It was carved around 1661 by Bernardino Vililla. Originally, its arms could move, but now they are fixed.
Next to the La Soledad chapel, on the north side, is the chapel of the Virgin of the Pillar. It has an altarpiece (a decorated screen behind the altar) from the 1600s. Across from it is the chapel of the Child Jesus. The stairs to the bell tower are right next to this chapel.
The Choir and Organ
The back part of the main room, where the choir sings, was added later in the 1500s. This section is very strong and built with limestone, unlike the rest of the church. It even has a gallery with pointed arches at the top.
The church also has a beautiful organ from the late 1700s. It was made by a famous organ builder, Fernando Molero, between 1798 and 1802. This organ sounds wonderful and has been fully restored. You can find it in the choir area. Below the organ is the baptismal font, where people are baptized.
The Main Altar and Oldest Paintings
The main altarpiece is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. It was made in the mid-1600s by Martin de la Almunia and Bernardo Ibáñez. The central statue of the Virgin Mary, from the 1700s, came from the Monastery of Santa María de Huerta.
During a restoration in 2012, workers found the oldest Mudéjar paintings in Aragon right here in this church! These hidden paintings are a fantastic discovery.
Above the choir, there's a beautiful Gothic Christ statue from the late 1300s. It used to have statues of the four evangelists at the ends of its cross, but those are now lost. This Christ statue likely used to be the main focus of the church.
Other interesting pieces include altarpieces of Santa Quiteria (from 1574) and the Annunciation (late 1500s). There are also some old silver objects, an altar table, and a red velvet suit from the 1500s.
The Bell Tower
The bell tower of Santa Maria de Ateca is a great example of Mudéjar style in Aragon.
Tower Design and History
The bottom part of the tower is square and has two clear sections. The lower part of the tower is built like an Almohade minaret (a tower from which Muslims are called to prayer). Some experts believe it might actually be an original Almohade tower from the late 1000s, which would mean it belonged to a mosque that was there before the church. Others think it's a Mudéjar tower from the 1200s.
What makes this tower special is how it's built. Instead of a central pillar with stairs around it, this tower has an inner tower inside the outer one. Stairs connect these two towers. The inner tower has four rooms stacked on top of each other, each with a different type of ceiling.
The outside of the lower tower has cool decorations. You can see overlapping bands of pointed horseshoe arches, squares with designs inside, spikes, and other pointed arches. All of this is mixed with green and honey-colored ceramic bowls and pots, which are very unique. During a recent restoration, hidden parts of the tower revealed original ataifores (plates) with designs from the Caliphate era. This discovery supports the idea that it might be a real Almohade tower from the 1000s.
Originally, this tower stood separate from the church. It was connected to the church when the church was made bigger in the 1500s.
The top part of the tower is a Baroque addition. It was built to replace an older bell section. Some think the old top might have looked similar to the tower of the Church of San Miguel Arcángel in Belmonte de Gracián.
The entire church and its tower were declared a site of Bien de Interés Cultural (Cultural Interest) on January 12, 1983. This means it's a very important historical monument in Spain.
See also
In Spanish: Iglesia de Santa María (Ateca) para niños
- List of Bien de Interés Cultural in the Province of Zaragoza
