Méntrida

The most important and emblematic is this 16th century Renaissance parish church. Its slender tower topped by a graceful spire is striking. Inside the church there is a large Mudejar coffered ceiling, interesting altarpieces and sculptures, old ornaments and objects for worship, a parish cross and Gothic silver monstrance, a baptismal font, an excellent Baroque pipe organ, all dating from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The temple was declared a National Historic-Artistic Monument.

From the middle of the 17th century, in baroque style, it is a centre of pilgrimage for the people of Mentrid who constantly visit their beloved patron saint. Inside: 17th century Baroque altarpiece, superb silver throne for the statue of the Virgin Mary, and a late 17th century chapel.

It has a neo-Mudejar stylistic affiliation and dates from 1918. Located 3 kilometres from the village, it was built by the master mason Andrés Gómez, and its outstanding feature is the doorway with a pointed, poly-lobed arch in the Mudejar tradition. It replaces the original hermitage that burnt down one night in 1917, intentionally as revenge against the guardian of the mountain, who had locked up the tools and a load of acorns, which the arsonists had apparently stolen.

Its chronology spans from the 17th to the 20th century. The urban layout of Méntrida is defined by its adaptation to an irregular topography, as the town was built on hills whose steep slope gives it a singular aspect. The layout of its streets is therefore adapted to the requirements of its location. A wide and spacious place is its main square, a rectangular space with two through streets of unequal height running along its smaller sides and two series of buildings distributed along its most extreme flanks. That is to say, it has been ordered and delimited following a rigorous orientation with respect to the cardinal points, since the streets are oriented in a north-south direction, while the series or curtains of the buildings are oriented from east to west. On the north-facing side of the street sits a sturdy double flight of stairs. This square has, like all the main squares, its importance of the first order since, as well as covering the commercial needs and the needs of the citizens, in it are the institutional buildings such as the town hall, a hermitage, popular houses with balconies and of a more cultured register, etcetera. The profile of the town, which obtained the status of town in the time of the Catholic Monarchs, is dominated by the dominant silhouette of the parish church of San Sebastián, a 16th century work with a monumental bell tower that gives it an unmistakable stamp. The spire that crowns it rises vertically in sharp contrast to the horizontal, almost closed volume of the church. Other buildings of note are the town hall and the posito (both from the 18th century) and the slaughterhouse (20th century) which, together with the popular dwellings, help to shape and maintain the quality of the town's urban fabric. Outside the walls of the town stands the hermitage of the Virgen de la Natividad, on the meadow of the stream, in the old settlement of Berciana, apparently the origin of the present-day town of Méntrida.

Known as the Plaza Grande, it is a large enclosed rectangular space bounded on the smaller sides by two through streets, i.e. they do not converge directly on the square, at different heights due to the unevenness of the terrain. It is also delimited by the buildings, with the town hall on one side, the granary (today the house of culture) on the opposite side, and a bastion in the background, centred on the square is an iron lamp post with several arms.

It dates from the late 16th and 17th centuries. The building seems to have been built on the original construction from the end of the 16th century and successive adaptations have led to the present-day result. It is built around a two-storey volume with an irregular rectangular floor plan, the largest side of which occupies the main façade. On the upper floor, which is accessed by a double flight of stairs, are the town hall's rooms, including the assembly hall, which preserves an interesting decoration from the end of the 19th century and which should be preserved and protected from ill-advised interventions. The oldest remains are on the ground floor, in the prison that was located there, with the original dungeons, carpentry doors and locks (cast iron pin hinges and solid oak woodwork, somewhat rough but of interest). The façade is of great austerity and compositional dignity, although it has been refurbished by imitating a series of ashlar masonry in the facades and in the window and door frames, in a totally inadequate manner.

An 18th century building, although it does not exist as such, today it is the House of Culture, but it conserves its original façade, with some changes, and on the main door there is an inscription that says: "It was built in 1783, during the reign of Carlos III". The pósitos or alhóndigas were granaries, especially for wheat, created with the aim of lending grain to farmers, both to cover their food needs and for sowing in the autumn. The granary building of Méntrida was erected in front of the town hall, forming part of the Plaza Grande. The difference in level with Baluarte Street was used to open doors to each of its two floors, with the ground floor being used as a public slaughterhouse with a butcher's shop and the upper floor as a granary with access to Baluarte Street.

Of Renaissance stylistic affiliation, approximately 15th century. It is made up of a thick, stubby column of Berroqueña stone, with a circular base and capital on four circular steps. It has two superimposed mouldings and above the projecting lions, of which only three remain, another cylindrical shaft and capital protrudes above the previous one, all topped with a cone and iron ball. It was the Catholic Monarchs who gave this town the status of a town, so the initial rock must have been from that time (15th century). Located in the Plaza Grande, it was demolished in the 1930s and has been restored by replacing the missing pieces.

The construction of underground wine cellars for wine storage in Méntrida has its origins in the construction of the houses of the local harvesters, as spaces linked to the above-ground cellar, where the wine press was located, a specific area destined to the elaboration of the wine. It is common to find these cellar-caves, differentiated from the space dedicated to the wine cellar, where the corresponding beam was used to press the must and the containers (jars and vats) for making wine.