Collegiate Church of Santa María in Calatayud

On the way back towards the A-2, Calatayud is about 30 minutes away. Its collegiate church of Santa María has an octagonal Mudéjar tower more than 70 metres high, the city's great landmark, and it forms part of the Mudéjar architecture of Aragón, a World Heritage Site.

History

According to the municipal leaflet "Santa María, the church of light", tradition says that after the surrender of Calatayud in 1120 the main mosque was consecrated as the church of Santa María, known as Mediavilla; remains of a large Islamic building have turned up beneath the present apse. In 1249 a Romanesque church with three apses was consecrated, probably badly damaged in the War of the Two Peters and rebuilt in the late 14th and early 15th centuries in the Mudéjar style. The cloister and the lower sections of the apse and the tower date from then, and these are the elements recognised by UNESCO. The tower follows the structure of a minaret and is one of the tallest in Aragón.

The medieval church was replaced between 1605 and 1613 by a Classicist church by Gaspar de Villaverde, built as a hall church: three aisles of equal height, the central one almost twice as wide, with twelve chapels.

What to see inside

• The Renaissance doorway, in alabaster from Fuentes de Jiloca, the work of Juan de Talavera and Esteban de Obray between 1525 and 1528, with doors carved with the Annunciation. It was probably the reason the church was declared a National Monument in 1884.
• The choir, in walnut and almost intact, with its screen and a lectern topped by a Christ on the way to Calvary.
• The retrochoir, with twenty Solomonic columns of Calatorao stone and the equestrian images of Saint George and Saint James, and the Baroque organ by Silvestre Thomas, from 1762.
• The chapels at the west end, from exuberant Baroque to Rococo, and the main chapel, with the altarpiece of the Assumption and the remains of Bishop Pedro Cerbuna.
• The dome over the crossing, in brick, with the four evangelists and eight gilded wooden saints.

The cloister houses the Collegiate Church Museum.

Opening hours

It is open to visitors on Thursdays and Fridays from 16:00 to 19:00, on Saturdays from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 16:00 to 19:00, and on Sundays from 10:00 to 13:00. There are no tourist visits during Mass: on Sundays Mass is at 12:00, and from Monday to Saturday at 9:00, with another at 19:00 from Monday to Thursday. It stands at Plaza de Santa María, 1. Calatayud Tourist Office: 976 886 322.

How to fit it in

If you are coming from Madrid on a Sunday, stop at Calatayud on the way out, before the park, and arrive before 12:00. From Zaragoza, leave it for a Saturday afternoon. If you are travelling by train, get off at Calatayud station, where the AVE and the Alvia stop.