Carmena
Parish Church of Santiago Apóstol
Cristo Rey Square
Information from Carmena:
Telephone: 925 742 151
Web: http://ayuntamientocarmena.com/monumentos/
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Email: ayuntamientocarmena.com
Celtic peoples populated its lands and it is very likely that they gave rise to the creation of this locality, which would continue its existence in Roman and later times. It would be in the 13th century when this municipality began to take shape until it reached its apogee in the 16th century, when its cultural heritage began to be created with the construction of its parish church and later its urban area, an area in which popular architecture began to shape its streets and alleys, streets in which the visitor can see ancestral homes from the 17th century that have been preserved to the present day. A town with a traditional flavour that has managed to preserve its traditions to the present day and where visitors can enjoy its Easter Week, declared to be of Regional Tourist Interest.
This practically flat land is located in the well-known crystalline plateau of Toledo, where crop fields predominate, a territory that is crossed by a multitude of roads that allow the visitor to easily cross its territory, roads as important as the road to Guadalupe, a pilgrimage route that crosses these lands allowing both the pilgrim and the visitor to enjoy the extensive plain and contemplate the immensity of the Tagus valley between the mountains of Toledo, the San Vicente and Gredos mountain ranges. A spectacle of nature that gives this valley and these lands a unique singularity in the peninsula.
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It dates from the 16th century and is Renaissance in style. It seems to have been built on the remains of an ancient castle of which the base of the present-day bell tower would have formed part. The church consists of a single nave divided into three bays and barely developed transept arms. Its apse has a flat layout, with a rectangular crypt underneath, and to the left of it, two rooms that make up the sacristy. The roof has a lunette vault, which runs over a continuous cornice, as does the presbytery. Above the transept is a lowered dome on pendentives. On the left side is a small chapel with corner pilasters, richly decorated with baroque themes, covered by a half-orange dome. The bell tower is of simple construction, with a base of three sections: the two lower sections are square in plan and the upper section is octagonal. It has been resolved with one opening on each of the first two floors and eight openings (one per side) on the third floor. The tower is topped by an octagonal slate spire with four openings and a pinnacle. The openings of the two lower sections and the cushioning of the voussoirs of the arches and corners have been stylistically related to the Tavera Hospital in Toledo. Although whitewashed on the inside, the masonry is of Toledo style, with the exception of the dome, which is made of brick. The north wall of the baptistery houses a Roman funerary slab, epigraphed with capital letters, dated to around the 4th century AD.
A small rectangular 19th century chapel on the outskirts of the village. The factory is made of lime and stone, although it is now whitewashed. It is covered with a four-sloped roof, the interior being flat-roofed. In the place where this hermitage is located, there is a Calvary which is the end of the Way of the Cross that leaves the village. In the past there were fourteen stations formed by stone columns on which stood iron crosses. Today there are small brick buildings with a picture and a phrase according to the season. The central cross of the Calvary, unlike the rest of the cross, stands on a square-shaped tier of three steps of ashlar masonry.
Of popular stylistic affiliation, its chronology spans mainly from the 18th to the 20th century. The urban ensemble of interest in the locality comprises the oldest part of the settlement, defining a form tending towards the almond-shaped. Most of the buildings are of a typically rural typology and construction, with whitewashed lime and stone walls or of Toledo style, with two storeys and a multi-slope roof with Arabic tiles. There are also some examples of manor houses.
Its stylistic affiliation is historicist and its chronology is in the 20th century. This institutional building, which encloses one side of the Plaza de Cristo Rey, has a regular ground plan and two storeys, forming an angle on one side and a party wall on the other. The masonry is of Toledo style, based on courses and blocks of very well treated and rigorously laid brick. On the axis of the main gable and interrupting the eaves, there is a tower that houses a clock, all made of brick and framed by pilasters. Above the ensemble, a wrought-iron templete houses the bell. It is a building of considerable architectural interest and environmental value, as it is located in a high quality setting.
The date of this mansion is 1538 because this is reflected in a tile panel, in the access arch; the coat of arms of the Quevedo family also appears. It is a rectangular, two-storey building with a masonry and brickwork construction, i.e., Toledo style. On the façade, on the upper floor, painted in imitation of ashlars, there are very small openings, latticed and located immediately next to the eaves, in addition to the tiled coat of arms. The ground floor is pierced with four openings with wrought iron railings and a large doorway with a semicircular arch. The internal space consists of a large hallway in which there is another coat of arms with a Marian image from the 18th century.
They date from between the 17th and 18th centuries and can be identified by a series of common characteristics: they are large houses built in the Toledan style with two storeys, solid window grilles, noble coats of arms on the façade and Arabic tile roofs. They are isolated dwellings located in different places;
They date from the Roman period and are a funerary stele from the 4th century AD. C. dedicated to Minia Ciae Chreste. It is built into the north wall of the church.
