The parish church of Santa María in Alicante is the best example of mediaeval architecture still standing in this city and major Mediterranean port. In 1640, the chronicler Vicente Bendicho described the building as follows:

 

“One of the loveliest and most magnificent temples found in the bishopric because it fits many people; all floors, walls and ceilings of white stone quarried from the San Julían mountains… with just a single nave yet with lovely proportions. The main door faces west and the main altar towards the east, so that the person saying the mass faces eastward… the door is very finely carved of brick and harks back to antiquity, and above it is a stone image of the Assumption of the Virgin with its stone canopy…”

 

“… this church’s main chapel with side chapels adjoining it serves as a choir loft with the window facing the sea… and the other belongs to the Martínez de Vera noblemen, Lords of Busot, and in the main part of the church there are six chapels on each side, one occupies the bell tower which is in the corner that enters southward and westward, made with singular bearing, as the tower is five-cornered and is elevated and striking, and in the other corner facing eastward and northward is the baptismal chapel…”¹

 

The late Gothic Santa María church would be built in several different stages, ending between the late 15^th and early 16^th centuries. Despite this, the homogeneity of the building calls our attention, as does its spatial and structural clarity, which was even maintained after a significant Baroque remodelling that left the essential features of the mediaeval structure intact. The recent conscientious restoration and the rigorous archaeological study focusing on the filler used in the vaults have also enabled us to broaden our knowledge of the building.

 

The building gains added interest because of its location right on the coast. This would have enabled the building materials to be transported by sea from the quarry to the construction site. This seafront placement, frequent in the Mediterranean, is well known from the famed Castelnuovo in Naples.

 

The church is open for worship. To visit it, please contact the parish for its timetable.