¿What is that man looking at?? This question may arise during your walk through the main Street de Madrid, almost corner with the Bailen Street.
But when you get closer you discover that it is not a Sir, but a life-size sculptural figure that looks out into a glass space where you can see some archaeological remains.
This is the apse of what, until it was demolished in 1868, was the oldest church in Madrid.
I mean the church of Santa María de la Almudena, which was the antecedent of the current Cathedral of the Almudena.
This church was located in the space that, when it arrived Alfonso VI to the hitherto Muslim city of Mayrit, in the year 1082, was occupied by the Major Mosque de la ciudad.
According to the references available, Santa María de la Almudena It was a small church with three naves Mudejar architecture.
At Municipal Museum of Madrid, which I have not yet visited, it seems that there is a model made in 1945 that shows what the temple looked like before it was demolished.
Throughout its history, since it was a Muslim mosque, various reforms and expansions were carried out, highlighting the one carried out by Ventura Rodríguez in 1777.
Also since then there were different attempts to convert it into a cathedral, which was always missed in a large city, capital of the Kingdom, which was Madrid.
Finally, in October 1868, as a result of the works that were going to begin to expand the main Street, the demolition of the church was carried out where at that time the image of the Virgin of Almudena.
Fifteen years later, finally, in front of the place occupied by the church of Santa María de la Almudena, the construction of the Madrid cathedral, the current one, began Cathedral of the Almudena.
In memory of this church that was so important in the history of Madrid, now you only have the sculptural figure that is looking at the archaeological remains of its apse, as well as a monolith with a metal model of it.
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