SaN JuaN CHuRCH
The best of Romanesque before our eyes
The passing centuries have not managed to hide the Romanesque-Mudejar jewels that, with Alba at the forefront, are scattered around the villages of this land. Their quality places them at the centre of one of the most important areas in terms of Spanish Mudejar architecture, along with Toro, Cuéllar and La Moraña. Alba shares with them the fact that it was one of the first places where this particular synthesis of Romanesque shapes with Mudejar techniques took place. In addition to this, San Juan was the inspiration for the other five Romanesque-Mudejar parishes in Alba.
This temple was an ambitious project, with three naves and a triple apse, nowadays partly hidden. From the outside we can only see the central nave, possibly rebuilt, and the southern, entirely original nave. On the latter we can see a beautiful array of blind, semi-circular arches, embellished with brick columns, whose Romanesque bases and capitals are carved in sandstone. Two similar capitals were reused for the atrium, probably taken from one of the (now disappeared) Romanesque doorways.
The main jewel of this church probably belonged to one of those doorways: the Apostolado. This is a group of polychrome stone sculptures representing Christ and the Apostles, which now can be found in the main chapel. Their beauty and state of conservation are impressive; their position, at the height of our eyes, makes it impossible to overlook them.
The rest of the church tells us a story of the different works that were carried out along the centuries, like the remains of a Mudejar coffered ceiling from the 15th century, the dome, or the bell tower. The graves at the entrance remind us that the old medieval churches were also burial places.