Ayuntamiento de Alanís

IGLESIA OF NUESTRA SEÑORA OF THE NIEVES

Description

A 14th century building in the Mudejar Gothic style with a rectangular floor plan, dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows, it consists of three naves, the central nave being wider than the side naves, separated by semicircular arches supported by Tuscan brick pilasters.

At the end of the 15th century, a small chapel was added on the Gospel side for the Eucharist. Through it, access is gained to the back of the altarpiece that communicates with the presbytery through a Mudejar-style door, which has a polygonal structure with two sections, the first of which is rectangular and the second pentagonal, closed with ribbed vaults decorated with mural paintings from the end of the 17th century. On the sides there are two Mudejar-style windows with decorated glass panes. Next to this there is an interesting carved wooden door in Plateresque style from around 1550, which leads to the primitive and small sacristy and is also another access route to the back of the Baroque style High Altarpiece that adorns the entire front of the main altar, dating from the 16th century.

On the sides of the antepresbytery there are two chapels closed with a dome on pendentives, one currently dedicated to the tabernacle and the other to the cult of the Virgen de los Dolores, which in times gone by were created for the burial of nobles.

At the foot of the church is a brick façade-tower with a sundial on the east side under an ogee arch.

The west side also has another Mudejar window and is crowned by a bell tower crowned by an 18th century spire decorated with tiles, which underwent an initial restoration at the beginning of the 21st century that has not been completed. The bell tower is accessed via a staircase that ends in a bulbous dome also decorated with tiles. Inside, there is an access door to the choir and the tower, and on the left side is the baptismal chapel, with an interesting Mudejar font carved in stone, from the 15th century.  We must highlight its two doorways, north and south, formed by ashlar arches, both of which are backed by another formed by nailheads. They were later lintelled with ashlar voussoirs. Both are flanked by mouldings. The later or south one has three Cordovan type modillions that would have supported an eave in times gone by.

By R. D. 554/1982, it was declared a national historic-artistic monument.

 

ALTARPIECE OF THE CHURCH

This is the most significant example of Sevillian art from around 1500.  It is a mixed altarpiece, as it was made up of paintings and around thirty figurines, of which only two remain today, flanking the central sculpture of the Virgin of the Snows. Its plan is straight and its elevation is smooth, with the wooden statuettes’ pedestals and beautiful canopies with Decadent Gothic motifs dotted with Mudejar elements standing out.

The altarpiece was put in place in 1508 and consists of a bench and two sections, divided into five sections, giving thirteen pictorial panels in the Hispano-Flemish style inspired by engravings by Schöngauer, dedicated to narrating the life of Christ and his passion and that of the Virgin, completed with some ‘protection’ saints.

  • Attic: Apostles and Calvary: (S. Peter; S. John the Baptist; Calvary, S. John the Evangelist; S. Paul).
  • Central floor: Life of the Virgin:

(Annunciation; Nativity; Adoration of the Magi; Circumcision). In the central niche, a carving of the Virgin of the Snows and a tabernacle placed at the back.

  • Bench: Life of Jesus: (Sacramental Supper; Crowning of Thorns; Fifth Anguish of Mary; Resurrection).

Its authorship is undetermined, it was restored in 1623, in 1730, and the last one in Madrid between 1966-1971 by the General Directorate of Fine Arts.