Iglesia de Santa Ana

The Parish church of Santa Ana would be the first Christian church built in Archidona after Don Pedro Girón conquered it from the Moors in 1462.

Its location high above the small square, "La Plaza de la Iglesia”, gives it a presence and visual dominance which reinforces its spiritual strength. The church was built between the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th centuries, possibly over an old mosque which has become a hermitage.

Of the outside the building, supported on one side of the sanctuary, special mention should be given to the original triangular tower, covered by a spire of glazed tiles arranged like the scales of a fish.

The building started out in a flamboyant Gothic style, and had a single nave, with a polygonal apse covered by a cross vault. This is the only remaining part of the original church, which is raised on terraces. At the end of the 19th century, two side naves were added and the central nave was raised. It was possibly during this refurbishment that an old wooden ceiling from the end of the 17th century was replaced by the roof which you now see. With the choir at its feet and a barrel vault overhead, there is an 18th century organ, restored in the 20th century. The façade is from the last third of the 17th century.

The large main altarpiece, from the mid-18th century, is of carved wood. It is a display of fragile and rich architecture that evokes a theatrical stage design with its composition. The Saint Anne and the Virgin Child sculpture group, attributed to the 16th century, presides over this altarpiece, in response to whom the temple is devoted Special mention should go to the large collection of sculptures from the Santo Domingo Convent and the now disappeared Chapel of La Columna.

As an anecdote we should mention that one the side altarpieces includes the busts of San Zenón and Santa Palidata, mentioned in an 18th century document as primitive patrons of La Villa.