Historic Route

It was served by the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God. Its foundation dates back from the second half of the 17th century. We know that during the French occupation it was used as barracks being misused and losing valuable items and different statues and pictures.

Today it is the Town Council, housing in it several offices of administrative character. Some works have been recently carried out not only in the main patio but also inside. You can still appreciate the beauty and kindness of its old capitals, columns and arches.

This church is in front of the square known as "Del Derribo".

It is important because of its architectonic characteristics. It is made up by three naves. The oldest one is the one of the ante-presbyterySpace inside a Catholic temple or cathedral before the Main Altar. (which makes us think about the closer Renaissance) and both sections in each of the side naves. The coffered vault dates back from the 16th century of the Main Chapel.

The naves of the body of the Church date back from the 18th century.

On July 19, 1936 the church caught fire, being Mr. Juan de Talavera, Sevillian architect, the person in charge of the reconstruction works. The fire caused the loss of the last three sections of the central nave, the works of art the Church had (The Main Altarpiece outstood) and the roof.

Route inside the Church beginning for the right-hand nave:

1. Side Chapel to the right, Capilla del Rosario or Chapel of Our lady of the Rosary.
2. Low Chorus, meeting place of the canons for the prayer of the Divine Office.
3. Parish priests' room, tithe barn, place where collections were gathered.
4. Chapel of Jesus from Nazareth (Capilla de Jesús el Nazareno).
5. Milagrosa's altar (Virgin of the Miracles), where there is an altarpiece from the 16th century.
6. Altar de la Inmaculada, Immaculata's Altar.
7. Main Altar (or altar of the Main Chapel) from the 18th century. The Tabernacle is from the 17th century. The image that dominates the Main Altar is attributed to Montañés.
8. Altar of the Sacred Heart (del Sagrado Corazón).
9. Altar of the Blessed Souls (de las Ánimas).
10. Altar of St Joseph (San José).

This 123 metre long figurative bridge is covered in tiles Gaudí style. It is the first figurative bridge in Europe. Its 123 metres contain two roads 7 metre wide plus 2.5 metre pavements. This bridge is part of the connection of our town to our neighbour locality Dos Hermanas.

The body of the dragon is made up by an ovoid section 4 metre high and 2 metre wide made in reinforced self-compacting concrete. Its figure has been covered with trencadís technique, using 4,500 square metre of tile.

Four openings supported by three piles and two supports, with foundations made up by 42 piles of 1.5 metres in diameter and 20 metres deep in the bridge's structure.

This connection is part of the town's ring road that makes traffic more fluid avoiding many vehicles passed through Alcalá's downtown.

The actions on this area will continue with the recovery of the "cordel Pelay Correa" livestock way using a lower crossing, besides a whole landscape restoration creating a large bank park for leisure at the river's banks next to the Dragon Bridge.

The temple is located in the fold Medieval Village of Alcalá, crowning the hill in which the castle rises up. Its origins date back from the 14th centuries, being initially built on the probable place of an Islamic mosque, which would coincide with the surface of the present-day nave of the Epistle, at a later time christianized after the conquest by King San Fernando in 1276.

We have to highlight the mural painting of International Gothic style in the before mentioned nave, made with a mixed technique of tempera and fresco, depicting Saint Matthew, Alcalá's Saint Patron, when giving his Gospel St. James, who was in charge of spreading the doctrine in Spain.

The Church has three naves of different width, divided in five sections by pillars that support ogival arches. The roofs are wooden, decorated with glazed tiles, which were made by the middle of this century.

The presbyterySpace inside a Catholic temple or cathedral before the Main Altar., of polygonal floor-plan, is high over the rest of the Church, and is covered up by a beautiful groined vaultIt is a kind of vault made up by a series of arches or groins with structural function. The spaces generated between them are called webs, kind of curved panes with a secondary function, as fillers. of twelve groins or arrises, which rest on eight pilasters with carved capitals.

The main entrance door is Gothic with ogival arch and the lateral one is Neoclassical with a brick staircase.

At the outside we find an exempt tower 28 metres high and 7 metres of base; this tower up to the bell level would be the minaretIs the name used for the towers of the mosques. Its main function is, therefore, making easier for the maximum people to hear every one of the five daily calls to prayer. That is the reason why it has often in its highest part a balcony surrounding it, from which the muezzin made the traditional call to prayer. Nowadays the muezzin has been frequently replaced with a megaphone. of the former mosque. The last body is of Mudejar style, crowned by a terrace roof with battlementsSet of prisms and intermediate holes to fire that used to crown the tops of walls or fortresses; they were used as defensive elements and later it started to be used as a decorative motif. They are also known as merlons.

It was built in Abu Yacuf Yusuf times. From mid 16th century until 18th century the fortress will not reach its definitive character. There are no remains of the fortress inside. It has three well differentiated parts: the Well Yard, the Silos Yard and the Palace area. You enter the Castle through the Royal Entrance that will take you to the first patio or yard, named Well Yard because of its well. In this section there are Moorish Restrooms. The biggest tower of the yard with the coat of arms of doña Leonor de Guzmán on it allows the entrance to the following yard, the Silos Yard, named so after the three huge silos excavated in it. In this point we can see the remains of the wall that used to divide the yard in two parts and right opposite to it there is what is known as Royal Alcázar, the Alfonsí Tower and the Gorda (Fat) Tower, also known as Tower of the KeepCentral structure of the medieval castle. It is an outstanding tower, higher than the curtain wall and generally it could be possible to isolate it from the rest of the fortress. It is the main tower, the one that is used as residence by the Lord and also has the most important functions of the castle, housing the main rooms and, occasionally, as food store. It is in the best-covered position regarding a possible outer attack, so if the rest of defences fell under, this tower would provide a last refuge.; also there is the Seville Entrance or Treason Gate.

Castilian King Fernando III stayed in 13th century and we know thanks to its large granaries and cisterns that the fortress was ready enough to stand the long sieges it used to suffer.

In 1924 it was declared Monument of Historic Artistic Interest. In 1985 it was declared Item of Cultural Interest.

This convent started to be inhabited in 1567, helping the town council to its construction with 2,000 ducats.

One of the main functions of this convent was Sor María de Jesús's procession in November 1737; her image was brought from the Oratory of don Manuel Jiménez, in Seville. Today, it is still kept in the Communion Rail.

It has been dated from the end of 15th century and restored in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some of the elements to be taken in account are, for example, the High Altarpiece by Pineda Calderón with canvas by Enrique Blanco and Sebastián Santos's Inmaculata.

Pineda Calderon is the greatest main protagonist at this building. He had already before 1936 participated in its chapels' pictorial decoration, and also in restoring several images.

The Main Chapel Altarpiece is also a work made by this versatile artist. It is wood-carved and gilded. We highlight in it the canvas depicting St. Sebastian's Martyrdom, which follows baroque models (pierced with arrows and tied to a tree),a work made by Enrique Blanco Gavira in 1954.

His hands also gave shape to the image of Our Father Jesus the Captive (Nuestro Padre Jesús El Cautivo), to Our Lady of Hope (Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza) and to Our Lady of the Sorrows (Nuestra Señora de los Dolores), all of them placed in the chapel with the same name, the Chapel of the Sorrows.

At the Chapel of the souls we find the image of the Santísimo Cristo del Amor (Holy Christ of Love) that belongs to the Fraternity of Amargura (Bitterness) and Saint John Evangelist, both of this same Fraternity.

The Chapel of Our Lady of the Sweet Name (Nuestra Señora del Dulce Nombre) and the one of the Holy Burial (Santo Entierro) also have representative images of the work of this author.

The pictorial decoration of the faces, pillars, arches, pendentives and vault of the Main Chapel is carried out by him with the assistance of Manuel Silva.

Route inside of the Church beginning at the right nave:

1. 1st chapel: Nuestra Señora del Dulce Nombre (Our Lady of the Sweet Name)
2. 2nd chapel: Nuestra Señora de las Ánimas (Our Lady of the Souls)
3. 3rd chapel: Main Chapel
4. 4th chapel: Tabernacle and Inmaculata Chapel
5. 5th chapel: Chapel of Servita Fraternity and Virgen de los Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows).

Hours of worship:

• Monday to Saturday: 8:30 pm
• Sunday: 11, 12 and 8:30 pm
• Open every evening from 5:30 to 9pm

The order of creation came from the very Town Council, having Mr Pedro Gutiérrez Calderon as Mayor, who was influenced by the Latin American Exposition of 1929 in Seville and so brought the likeness of urban walks where people from the locality could take a walk and rest. The persons in charge of such project were the well-known architects Juan Talavera and Aníbal González.

The park leans on two former farms: the higher, where Hotel Oromana is placed (made by Juan Talavera in 1929) and a lower one, shadier and cooler where the park strictly speaking is. Its botanical wealth is visible, with several levels of plants able to welcome the walkers any season of the year. As an example, we can mention the wild olive trees, mastic trees, brooms, hackberry trees, European fan palms or different types of oak trees, as well as other typical plants of the area. An element that was a symbol of this environment are the several fountains and courses of water ( today in a lesser number) that refreshed the atmosphere and offered the visitor a cool drink to his/her comfort. At these surroundings, you will find the mills that were across the River flow and used its power to grind the grain that afterwards would be used in the making of the famous bread of Alcalá.

It was founded in 1570 and rebuilt in 1886. San Roque (St. Rocco) was another one of the protective saints of the Middle Ages, considered protector from the Plague.

The structure of the hermitage is of a single nave restored in the 19th century.

The Main Chapel is covered by a groined vault. In its inside San Roque's images are kept and venerated. The image of Nuestra Señora de Belén (Our Lady from Bethlehem) is dated from ca. 1570.

The fact that the Holy Week of Alcalá had been declared of National Tourist Interest is related to this hermitage, as each early morning of Good Friday, it is a secular tradition the Jesús Nazareno's climb to the Calvary.

It is also a main figure in the climb of the Epiphany Parade of Alcalá.