Villaseca de La Sagra


Church parish

Panoramic

Information about Villaseca de La Sagra:

Telephone: 925 275 259
Web: http://www.villasecadelasagra.es/areas/turismo/turismo/-que-visitar
Info:
Email: turismo@villasecadelasagra.es

This municipality was created during the Christian Reconquest due to the abandonment of the hamlet of Aceca, which belonged to the present-day town. From the 12th century onwards, the layout of the town centre took shape, which underwent a major transformation in the 16th century due to the destruction of part of its houses and monuments in the well-known War of the Communities. From the end of the 16th century onwards, the village was rebuilt and its most notable monuments, such as the parish church and the hermitage of the Virgen de las Angustias, were built. In the 17th century, its historical heritage was enhanced with the construction of the Hospital de San Bernardo, today a cultural centre and library. A stroll through its streets is a first-hand experience of its historical past, where the visitor can see different ancestral homes or the well-known palace of the Marquises of Montemayor, tradition and rurality that invite you to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet of village life.

Villaseca's territory is predominantly flat, with the occasional low hill from where you can enjoy a panoramic view of the region of Villaseca. Land where cereal fields predominate, thus belonging to the so-called granary of La Sagra. Its lands are furrowed by the Tagus River, which provides a riverside ecosystem that differs from the rest of its territory, on its banks we can find fauna and flora characteristic of this type of environmental surroundings where the visitor can enjoy bird watching or fishing. Different paths and trails, such as the natural path of the Tajo (GR-113), run through the municipality so that hikers and cyclists can enjoy the natural surroundings of the area.

Tourist Information

Find out more

What to see?

Parish Church of Santa Leocadia

It dates from the 16th century and is in the Baroque style. The body of the church is rectangular, with a Latin cross plan and is made up of three naves, the central nave being wider and higher than the side naves. In turn, the main nave is divided into four bays with a straight apse at the chancel and a choir raised at the foot of the nave. The naves are separated by semicircular arches supported by quadrangular pillars. At the foot of the epistle nave is a square chapel. The interior walls are plastered with mouldings, arches, pilasters and counter-pillars, architrave, frieze and cornice. Windows in the central nave and the chancel give light to the ensemble. The exterior walls are made of brick and masonry, using white stone for the plinth, jambs and lintel of the doorways. On the outside, the gable at the foot of the church is noteworthy, organised in the form of a three-street façade. The tower, solid and slender, has a square ground plan and is decorated with brickwork forming raised coffers, a plinth decorated with lozenges and the belfry. Inside, its artistic decoration was lost on two fateful dates, 1936 and 1971. In the middle of the 17th century, the old church of Villaseca de la Sagra was almost in ruins, and in 1651 work began on its demolition. In 1659, Fray Lorenzo de San Nicolás was commissioned to draw the plans for the construction of the tower, the body of the church and the main chapel, and work began on 10 September of that year. Its first master builder was Pedro Díaz Mejorada, a resident of Añover. After many vicissitudes, economic difficulties, changes in the direction of the work and the intervention of a number of craftsmen, around 1693 the aforementioned works were completed, although the main chapel was not finished until 1714.


St Bernard's Hospital

A 17th century Baroque style complex, consisting of the church and the hospital, corresponding to a large building that occupies an entire city block. The hospital has a rectangular ground plan with two bays and a porch-shaped façade that is continued with the church's annexe. This church has a Latin cross plan and a main nave with a vaulted roof. The complex is two storeys high, although it has two higher bodies that give the complex a certain grandeur, together with the brick and stone masonry treatment of the masonry. The building currently houses the municipal public library. Located in the complex in Calle Real, the church was built following the design of Fray Lorenzo de San Nicolás, and executed by the master builder Pedro Díaz Mejorada, and was completed in 1669. The Hospital, attached to the church, dates from well into the 18th century. The chapel of Ntra. Sra. de los Peligros has a latin cross and a rectangular floor plan. It is accessed through an atrium under the choir. The main nave is made up of two stacked bays to which four small chapels, two on each side, open up through semicircular arches on quadrangular pillars. It is covered with a half-barrel vault with lunettes. It is followed by the transverse nave, or transept, and where it meets the main nave, the transept, there is an octagonal dome that serves as the base for a half-orange dome on pendentives that supports a blind lantern and four spans of light. At the head of the presbytery is a flat apse, to which open two elongated sacristies, one on each side, centred with a half-barrel vault and decorated with simple plaster decorations. From both sacristies there is access to the burial chapel, the burial chamber where the founders are buried, which is located behind the apse. From the outside, it is strikingly sober and pure in its lines, which further emphasises its elegance. The facing of the complex is of Toledo-style masonry, with lime and stone walls between bricks, on a stone plinth, with the lintel decoration of the windows in a simple apalmetada form, and with a line of impost and cornice in sardinel brick forming a series of mouldings. The main façade is made entirely of brick, and is organised into three streets: the central one, rectangular in shape, contains the doorway framed by a round arch and the choir window, all decorated with brick pilasters, mouldings and cornices; the two side streets, smaller in size, also contain a round arch to give access to the interior atrium, as well as windows to illuminate the side naves. The façade is crowned, in its central part, by a belfry with two bell spans and finished with a semicircular pediment with a smaller one.


Hermitage of Ntra. Sra. de las Angustias

The baroque style building dates back to the 15th century. It has a single nave, with a choir and a main chapel, the latter separated from the rest of the nave by a wooden grille. It is enclosed by a barrel vault with lunettes over the nave, and the main chapel has a half-orange vault topped by a lantern. The main façade is sober, yet elegant. It is composed of a central door framed by a bell arch and protected by a small tiled roof; above it, a niche with the image of the patron saint; above it, a wide cornice on which rises the belfry with a single bell span and topped by a triangular pediment. Its exterior, walls of Toledan masonry modified by successive restorations, the last one in 2007, with great success. Stone plinth, brick masonry with stone masonry panels, three quadrangular ornaments on the belfry plinth, a few pilasters and some mouldings are enough to give it an airy and distinguished appearance. In the surrounding area, a stone cross on a Doric-Tuscan column, an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a landscaped area enhance the surroundings.


Hermitage of Aceca

Located in the south of the Aceca area, next to the Tagus River. The chapel is dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima. It is a small chapel with a single nave, with a small, rather disproportionate tower and a colonial style. The façade is plastered, with an area of false ashlars defining straight lines. Access is to the west of the building through a false atrium attached to the hermitage.


Palace of the Marquises of Montemayo

The architectural ensemble formed by the palace-residence and house of trades has been declared an Asset of Cultural Interest. Plateresque in style, it dates from the 16th century. The palace-residence corresponds to the family that owned the lordship of Villaseca. In the 16th century, after the battles of the comuneros, the building was partially destroyed and burnt down, although Emperor Charles V ordered it to be rebuilt, apparently with part of the fabric of the ravaged house of Padilla in Toledo. The free-standing building has a rectangular ground plan with two storeys and four projecting bodies at the corners. With a simple façade overlooking the main square. On the main floor there are balconies on wooden corbels, with wooden handrail and right feet, also made of wood. The building is articulated around a large rectangular courtyard which is accessed through an entrance hall, with a corral at the back enclosed by a wall. The Casa de Oficios, located opposite and parallel to the palace-residence at 6 and 8 Entretorres Street, has a rectangular floor plan originally distributed in two equal parts. The southern half is organised into two floors: the lower floor with access through an entrance hall and stables leading to the inner courtyard and the staircase leading to the upper chamber. The northern part corresponds to a large shed used as a hayloft or barn. The interest of this building lies in the economic facet of feudal power, forming part of the palace complex.


Villaseca-Mocejón Train Station

Located in the south of the Aceca area, next to the Tagus River. It has two single-storey railway buildings with tiled roofs. The facades are masonry with wooden eaves. The enclosure is closed with a key to the masonry and rendering. It is not currently in use.


Villaseca halt

Located to the east of the town centre next to the old railway line. It is an abandoned two-storey building on a flat platform at railway level. The construction has no outstanding features, except for the heritage of its previous use.


Rivera del Tajo Natural Park

Recently built picnic park located on the right bank of the Tagus River, where the old residential area of the Aceca neighbourhood used to be located. In the past, there was also the flour factory, a one-storey building with a tiled roof.