Valquemada Church
Spain CCC ES
José Ignacio Linazasoro
2000
Type
Religious
Tags
spiritual atmospheres, Spain ccc
Visitability
Allowed
Description
Valdemaqueda is a small and scattered hamlet. Situated in an elevated part of the village, a great prismatic apse marks the site of the late Gothic church that dominated the village until the destruction of its nave in the 1940s. The only surviving remains – a Renaissance doorway and the apse – have been integrated in the construction of the new church, which features bare walls in the manner of austere pre-Romanesque and Cistercian buildings. A cubic volume houses the new nave, which is extended on the roof by skylights that reflect the different interior areas.As if it were an objet trouvé, the door of the old church is superimposed on the double leaf brick walls of the enclosure, finishing off a construction approach in which texture replaces ornament. The entrance, outside the axis of symmetry of the church, serves as a starting point for a processional route towards the altar, guided by the elements associated with each moment of the liturgy. Both the slope of the ground and the structure contribute to the asymmetry of the route. A holy water font carved on a granite block incorporates the only window with an exterior view in the west section, in front of the baptismal font facing the entrance. The latter is located under the skylight that runs along the north side of the nave, illuminating the wall where the confessional is located with raking light. Another skylight, higher than the first, occupies the entire width of the church, protruding from the roof where the apse meets the nave. Its large lintel is perceived as an internal visual diagram that plays the same role as the iconostasis in Eastern churches. Its transverse band of light precedes the gloomy area of the existing apse, where the faint glow of the Renaissance altarpiece can be seen.(Description provided by the architects)