SaNTiaGo CHuRCH
Working, praying and giving the time of day
In 1140, Alfonso VII King of Leon granted Alba de Tormes its charter and in it, even then, the Santiago church was mentioned. The same document also mentions “Jews” and “Moors” as part of the population in Alba and its surrounding villages. One of them could have been the master that built this temple.
This builder was commissioned to build a Romanesque, single nave church, very narrow and high, with a semicircular apse. He carried out a simple decoration with a series of blind arches, although the top part includes a tri-lobe arch design, with can be seen on the north part, and which brings to mind some Cordovan models.
This master builder very obviously did not work on his own and there was a sculptor in charge of decorating the Romanesque capitals with animal and fantastic figures. The latter could have been Christian, or maybe he was also Muslim, since the Mudejars also knew how to work with stone.
Towards the end of the 15th century, other masters were involved in the construction, especially in the nave, which was covered with a simple Mudejar wooden structure. They also worked on the southern access, building an atrium and decorating the doorway with a ball pattern, typical of the Catholic Monarchs’ age, who were cousins of the first Dukes of Alba.
However, the Medieval bell tower was kept and reinforced. Since then it was known as the “clock tower”, which became an important feature in the social life of the inhabitants of Alba. For centuries, the parish managed a hospital next to it, under the protection of Sts. Santiago and Marcos.
The church was also a burial place of noteworthy persons, such as Don Gutierre, first lord of the village; the knight Antón de Ledesma and his wife; or the wife and one of the daughters of poet Lope de Vega.