Alcabón


Panoramic

Church of Santo Tomás Casturiense

Information about Alcabón:

Telephone: 925 779 480
Web: http://www.alcabon.es/conoce-alcabon/edificios-y-lugares-de-interes.html
Info:
Email: ayto.alcabon@gmail.com

The word Alcabón is of Arabic origin, and can mean "The vault". The village is documented from 1095 onwards. In 1156, Alfonso VII donated the village of Alcabón to Count Pérez de Lara. He later gave the castle of Alcabón to the Archbishop of Toledo in exchange for La Rinconada de Perales. In 1177, he gave all that he had left in Alcabón to endow the altar of Santo Tomás that was being erected in the Primate Cathedral. It remained under the lordship of this church until it was sold to Gutierre de Cárdenas, first Duke of Maqueda.

Alcabón is a small village, with the charm and flavour of a quiet village, far from the hustle and bustle of the city. With an interesting past, today it offers us the opportunity to enjoy a pleasant stroll through its streets to discover, for example, its most interesting monuments, such as the rollo or pillory, the parish church or the hermitage of Nuestra Señora de la Aurora. One of the great attractions of the municipality is the wine and oil museum in the Plaza de España. The Almazara de Alcabón, considered one of the oldest mills in Spain, its visit takes us back in time to the 16th century and the knowledge of how oil was produced at that time.

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What to see?

Parish Church of Santo Tomás Cantuariense

Located in the south-west of the town, it is the most emblematic religious building. It was erected in 1645 by Felipe Lázaro Goiti, then architect of Toledo Cathedral. The masonry is made of masonry and solid brick, resting on a strong base of stone ashlars. The church has a Latin cross plan, with the nave divided into three bays and a barrel vault roof with large lunettes. The transept is formed by semicircular arches with a half-vaulted roof. Of notable interest are the altarpieces of the main altar, dedicated to Saint Thomas and the one dedicated to Saint Anthony, from the 17th and 18th centuries respectively. Next to the entrance porch is a bell tower with three sections, the upper two of which are decorated with pilasters at the corners, the last one housing the four bell holes.


Hermitage of Ntra. Sra. de la Aurora

The building, dedicated to the patron saint of Alcabón, is on the outskirts, on the road towards Torrijos. Dating from the 17th century, it is a popular hermitage with a Latin cross plan The single nave opens onto the transept through a semicircular arch, which is covered by a semicircular vault on a pendentive, while the nave has a false lintelled ceiling.

Two semicircular arches, with a smaller span than the previous one, lead to the transept arms, which are closed with a barrel vault. Once again, two semicircular arches provide the passage to the presbytery, which has similar dimensions in plan to the arms, although with the second body, the one that forms the chancel, of a lower height. On either side of the chancel are two small closed rooms corresponding to the sacristy and a storeroom. The building is made of masonry and brick. On the outside, the body of the transept stands out, taller than the rest, with a hipped roof. The entrance is through a lintelled doorway, with a simple one-eyed belfry with a curved roof rising above the gable at the foot of the church. Of the old stone Stations of the Cross that linked the hermitage with the parish church, hardly any remains remain.

The roll

From the end of the 15th century is the simple jurisdictional roll, symbol of the privilege that D. Gutiérrez de Cárdenas granted to the town of Alcabón It stands in what is now the Plaza de España. This example was one of the so-called quartering type, and consists of a column with an octagonal shaft, topped at the top by a small capital devoid of decoration, except for a few small balls at the four corners. The capital is topped by four hooks, known as wrought-iron knobs. The whole "scroll" is carved in dark granite stone. The stands on which it stands are currently made of brick.

Wine and Olive Oil Museum

The mill is located in an 18th century building where the wine press pond used to be located. It is worth mentioning its great historical and ethnographic value, the survival of a very old oil mill, as well as a wine cellar attached to it. Two huge press beams of twelve metres each will catch our attention, as they date back to the 16th century. In the milling hall, two blood mills were powered by the draught of an animal. The building, which houses a museum-restaurant, is a private property that holds as its most precious jewel an exceptionally well-preserved industrial mill dedicated to the manufacture of oil, which, according to the research that has already been carried out, can be considered unique in Spain.