The foundations were erected between 1593 and 1621 and, over 500 years, the temple has been completed with remnants from other centuries. The church of Santa María La Antigua, a brick building in the historic center of Vicálvaro, was the parish of the Madrid district long before this town was incorporated into the capital in 1951. «It brings together architectural values of great importance and technical level , a reflection of the evolution and aesthetic changes that are taking place in religious architecture”, explains the Community of Madrid. This week, the Governing Council has declared it a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC) in the monument category.
The first written mention of the existence of the temple dates back to 1427, but the plan that is currently preserved was not built until the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 17th, by order of Philip II.
The body of naves was designed with the traces of the architect Francisco de Mora, Master of Royal Works and of the Works of the City of Madrid, and belongs to the current of classicist mannerism, the style of the last decades of the Renaissance that began to adopt the ornate baroque aesthetic.
“The temple is an outstanding example of regional architecture from the mid-sixteenth century and early seventeenth”, highlights the regional government, although it has many later elements. The original structure of the church, made of brick with masonry chains, has a polygonal head, a body with three vaulted naves (the widest central one) and a choir at the foot between the tower and the baptismal chapel. In the 18th century the sacristy was added; in the 19th century, a chapel dedicated to the Virgen del Pilar and, at the end of the same century, a second chapel was added.
The interior of the temple, the furniture, the images, the baroque altarpiece from 1602 and the pipe organ built in 1760, did not survive the Civil War. The church of Santa María La Antigua was looted in 1936 and its cemetery was reduced to ashes. From that time, however, an anecdote is preserved: a bomb fell next to the parish and did not detonate.
A “miracle” that the people of Vicalvar attributed to the protection of their patron saint, the Virgen de la Antigua, who guards the building and takes care that it remains standing after so many years. It was not until 1940 that all the possessions destroyed during the war were restored. The process of restoring the church was undertaken decades later, between 1980 and 1990 and, today, as the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Santa María de la Antigua y del Carmen, “it is in a correct state of conservation”, they assure from the Executive from Madrid.
The “high historical and cultural value” of the property, reads the official statement, has motivated its BIC shielding in the category of monument, which refers to the construction or work product of human activity of relevant historical, architectural, archaeological or artistic interest. . This figure requires, among other things, that the building be in the public domain and inseparable from its surroundings, that authorizations be necessary before undertaking any work or modification, the inspection and investigation of the building and tax privileges.
