Drivers on the A-7 Coastal highway east of Estepona will have seen the silver capped tower against the blue sky and wondered what the building was. The answer is the first ever purpose-built Russian Orthodox church on Costa del Sol's and Andalucia.
This simple model of a Mudejar church, with a single nave drawer plan, was not always so minimalistic. Built in 1530, it managed to survive the Moorish rebellion, various fires and an earthquake, until it was moved to another location. However, during this journey, it lost the back section of the sanctuary and the main chapel, and was reduced to this simple temple.
One of the finest examples of Baroque architecture in Seville, San Luis de los Franceses (known simply as San Luis) is an extravagantly decorated circular church in the Macarena district.
Seville's parish churches display a fascinating variety of architectural styles. Several are converted mosques with belfries built over their minarets, others range through Mudejar and Gothic (sometimes in combination), Renaissance and Baroque.
This whitewashed 15th-century chapel is famous for its associations with Christopher Columbus. Positioned on El Conquero hill, about 3 km north of the city centre, it commands a wonderful view of the Odiel wetlands. Like most sanctuaries and hermitages, it was originally built outside the town centre and used to be surrounded by fields and open countryside
Huelva's oldest parish church, the Iglesia de San Pedro, was constructed in the 15th and 16th centuries on a hilltop site of a mosque and next to the remains of a medieval fortress. It faces a pleasant palm tree-lined square, the Plaza San Pedro.
The Iglesia de la Merced used to serve as the church of the neighbouring convent, the Convento de la Merced, and was designated a cathedral in 1953. It is one of the best examples of Baroque architecture in Huelva province, with a striking pink exterior and a bright white marble interior. It dominates the Plaza de la Merced, an elegant square lined with tall palm trees.
La Soledad hermitage on Calle Jesús de la Pasión was first erected in the early 1500s as a church for the neighbouring Hospital de la Misericordia, which was founded in 1516. From 1854 the hermitage was used as a school and a hospital.
The church of Nuestra Señora de Los Remedios is close by in the Plaza San Francisco. It was built in the 18th Century of local sandstone, which is rich in iron ore. As you walk around the outside walls, you will see many pieces of iron ore still embedded in the stone blocks.
The hermitage building was built at the beginning of the nineteenth century, with records dating back to 1829. It is believed that this hermitage was at first constructed for lepers who were encouraged to reside out of town. Since 1875, however, the site was established as a sacred building. The original building was distroyed in the Civil War in May 1936 and the present structure rebuilt after the Civil War.
In 1538, the construction of a new building dedicated to San Francisco was agreed. This work would have been one of the best examples of the Andalucian Renaissance but unfortunately it was never completed.
This complex was part of a seminary, Seminario de la Compañía de Jesús, built at the beginning of the seventeenth century and finished in 1648. After the confiscation, the entire complex was demolished, with only the church itself saved.
The first Friars settled in Baeza in 1607. In 1615, they were given permission to build on a new settlement that was completed in the eighteenth century. After the confiscation of Mendizábal, the convent was destroyed but the church was saved thanks to citizen collaboration.
This church dates from the beginning of the sixteenth century and held the title of Collegiate Church from 1764 to 1852. In the seventeenth century, the altarpiece was placed, in which the dressing room stands out where the Gothic carving of the Virgen del Alcázar, patron saint of the city, is located.
The church was built at the end of the fifteenth century and finished in 1665 by the architect Eufrasio López de Rojas. The original cover was replaced by the current one, in Baroque style. Inside are the remains of Pablo de Olavide.
The church was erected on October 18, 1595, 26 years after the death of the Holy Doctor San Juan de Ávila, whose portrait hangs on the wall of the Epistle, inside the church. Work on this chapel was completed at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
The Colegiata de Nuestra Señora Santa María de la Encarnación is the Catedral de Baza. Constructed on the site of a Muslim mosque, was initially used by the church in its constructed mosque form.
This baroque-style church was founded in 1566 and rebuilt in the seventeenth century.
This church has its origins in the last years of the seventeenth century. Since 1680 there has been in the city a Convent to worship the Virgen del Carmen.
The church is part of the earlier Convent of San Agustín, of which only the old cloister is preserved, along with some rooms, and the chapel.
