Church of Santiago Apostle (Losar de la Vera)

Parish Church of Santiago Apóstol (Losar de la Vera).

The church of Santiago Apóstol in Losar de la Vera (Province of Caceres, Spain) presents masonry and ashlar masonry construction, the latter used mainly in the head, in the vault of the presbytery, in the arches and pillars of the interior and in reinforcements and corners. The body of the temple is rectangular and the apse, of pentagonal structure and with powerful buttresses in the angles unveils by the salient zone. Three portals allow access to the interior: the one of the Gospel, with an arc of half point simply molded; that of the Epistle, which is very simple, and the most significant, that of the feet, an exceptional example of Spanish-Flemish Gothic style that fits between two buttresses, with a slightly pointed arch and embellished with four Gothic archivolts, topped by a conopio all covered by a letter that encloses the coat of arms of the Catholic Monarchs dating from 1479-1491.

The interior is articulated in three naves divided into four sections by six pillars. The ships were covered with wooden roof. In the twentieth century, the central is covered with a canyon of cement and the sides with beams and vaults, recently renovated.

The choir sits at the feet, stands on three arches, carpanel the central and half-point the sides, covered with wooden structure. It is remarkable the ligneous cornice that rises on the arches; they surprise the modillones adorned with themes resurgent: fantastic heads, human and animalistic. Possibly it was realized in the middle of century XVI.

The tower is a modern construction, built in 1951, since the old one was collapsed by a storm in 1935. The bells could be recovered. Dating the oldest of the year 1880 and the most modern of 1950. Curious is also the clock tower, with a complicated mechanism of rope and weighs, marks the hours and the point.

The whole church was built in the last quarter of the fifteenth century (1480), as demonstrated by the coat of arms of the Catholic Monarchs, dilating the works until the middle of the sixteenth century. Continuous enlargements were made in the years 1689, 1797 and 1951, as they appear in inscriptions on the wall of the epistle.

In terms of movable property, we can highlight: an Organ of the year 1616; a Santiago del Caballo of the eighteenth century; a Santa Ana of the thirteenth century, a Christ lying with the articulated arms of the Castellana School of the seventeenth century; a painful dress of the eighteenth century; a Christ tied to the Column; a Nazarene of dress of century XVIII; a San Antonio Abad of the seventeenth century; remains of an eighteenth-century altarpiece; as well as an important altarpiece of the seventeenth century in the front of the chapel of the Christ of the Sepulcher, with two bodies and three streets, with two oils on canvas of the Virgin Mary and the Santa Fardel of the sixteenth century. Of extraordinary relevance is the treasure of silver: a processional cross and a chalice from 1540. On one side of the apse is a silver lamp from the year 1681.

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