Paredes de Escalona


Environment

Church of San Vicente Mártir

Information from Paredes de Escalona:

Telephone: 925 780 951
Web: https://paredesdeescalona.es/que-hacer-o-que-visitar-en-paredes/
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The municipality has been inhabited since Neolithic times and continued to be populated in pre-Romanesque, Roman and Visigothic times, as demonstrated by the few archaeological remains found in the area. It was from the 11th-12th century onwards that a more permanent settlement developed in the area, as evidenced by the rock-hewn tombs found in some parts of the town. It was at the end of the 12th century and beginning of the 13th century when the town began to take shape with the construction of its church, culminating this process of settlement in the 17th century when the town became independent and became a town, erecting its justice roll to administer its laws.

This municipality has a beautiful natural setting with rocky valleys and hills, with streams running through them that add an exceptional touch to its green landscape. The area is also pasture land and the eastern Leonese and Segovian cattle trails used to pass through it, which together with the different routes that run through its territory, allow visitors to enjoy hiking or cycling to discover the scenic value of its surroundings.

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Parish Church of San Vicente Mártir

Despite the scarce documentary sources on the building, all of them speak of a medieval foundation around the 13th century, with a cultural ascription to the late Romanesque and not so much Mudejar as Mª Concepción Abad Castro points out in her work Arquitectura mudéjar religiosa en el Arzobispado de Toledo (Mudejar religious architecture in the Archbishopric of Toledo). Access to the church is through the doorway located on the south façade, consisting of a semicircular arch with large voussoirs and ball decoration on the impost line, preceded by a porch with two stone columns and horizontal wrought ironwork of more modern construction. The small building has three naves, the central nave being wider than the side naves, divided into three sections by columns on a high octagonal base with unequal sides and geometric arrowhead decoration; the capitals are of a simple design, those of the two naves being different; those of the gospel nave are decorated with balls and those of the epistle nave consist of an undecorated die. The apse is located at the head of the church and is the most interesting element of the building as it is the oldest. Built in brick masonry on a disconcerted masonry base, now covered with cement rendering, it is semicircular in plan both inside and out and is preceded by a straight section. It follows the pattern of an apse with seven panels, in this case seven, although the edges produced at the junction between one panel and the other are barely perceptible. Each panel is framed by a round arch, very slender, bent and blind. The architectural element of later construction is undoubtedly the tower. In the Herrerian style, with an almost square rectangular plan, it is attached to the back of the central body. It is built with thick masonry walls of well-carved stone masonry, on a levelling base of ashlar masonry, with a larger section and low height, with three sections of very well executed ashlar masonry.


Town hall

The town hall is shown as it has looked since 1759 (although restored several times, most recently between 2012 and 2013). Of neoclassical style, it has a first floor of large ashlars and an enormous balcony, also made of stone, which separates it from the second body, whitewashed. The balcony is supported by four Doric columns, two in the centre of the doorway and one at each corner. Above, a clock has been telling the time since 2013.

Rollo de justicia

Located opposite the town hall, it stands on a flight of ashlar steps, with a square base and a short cylindrical shaft, topped by a simple capital and an inscription dated 1793 on the pyramid trunk.

Fuente del caño y pilón

Popular architecture of the 19th century.

Casa del Curato

Stone door, which according to quotes from older people belonged to the parish priest's house, built in 1799, although there is no evidence to verify the fact of this house. The jambs and lintel, made of huge ashlars, are still standing, and it is located at the entrance to the town.

Necropolis of the Castillejos

A disorderly necropolis belonging to a dispersed rural settlement. The tombs excavated in granite rock outcrops must have been sculpted between the 10th and 12th centuries in the early medieval period. None of them are anthropomorphic, but there are also some oval tombs.