Iglesia de Santa María de Gracia

Located high up in the town of Gelves, on what was once a small chapel or the private place of prayer for the Condes de Gelves, there now stands the beautiful Baroque church of Santa María de Gracia, whose origins date back to the 16th century.

The Church of Santa María de Gracia, which is both Baroque and Neoclassical in style (due to the important restoration undertaken in the 18th century), has a Latin-cross floor plan with a single rectangular nave, a transept and side chapels on the left side; the right side is taken up by niches. The nave is crowned with a semi-spherical dome set on pendentives, showing the ducal crest of arms. The frescos inside the church are an important feature.

There are two entrance doorways, the exterior of the church is in Baroque style and extremely austere, with a 17th century tower, with two sections crowned by a spire which is very small given the dimensions of the same. In the belfry there are three bells, called Santa María de Gracia (popularly known as “Tin”), Santa Beatriz, which is not used, and Nuestra Señora de la Salud (known as “Tan”). Later, in 1889, the clock in the bell-tower was acquired thanks to the financial contribution of the townsfolk.

It was in the 18th century when the church underwent major transformation, and it became a magnificent building with a single nave in the form of a Latin cross and oriented from north to south with an underground vault. It is exactly to this century that most of the building and decorative features of the church correspond. These feature the balcony and the grille, which give onto the Main Chapel, above the wall of the Epistle, a place reserved for the Counts so they were able to attend mass in very privileged circumstances.