Church of San Ginés

The Church of San Ginés is located on General Rade Street. It was built on the site of an old Muslim mosque and replaced another church that was consecrated in 1505, Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación, which could probably have been located on the hill of the Castle.

Its construction began around 1550 by architect Juan de Orea, and was not completed until immediately after the Moorish rebellion. It is Renaissance in style and has Granada Mudejar influences. It is made up of three naves separated by two arcades that are supported by stone columns with an oval section.

The Church of San Ginés has three 18th-century chapels, one dedicated to the Virgen del Carmen, another to Los Dolores and another to Rosario. Externally it is built of regular ashlars and has a square tower. The collar-beam roof has double beams decorated with eight-pointed stars and hexagons, which you can also find on both friezes and in the central part, thus creating octagons, where pineapples have also been added.

It has three coats of arms, the oldest being that of Fray Diego Fernández de Villalán, which is on the main façade, under whose episcopate the church was built. Above the door we find the coat of arms of Bishop Corrionero, who restored the church in 1569. The third coat of arms belongs to a family and is located over the entrance arch to the Chapel of Sorrows. It has a recently rebuilt main altarpiece, and the old 1792 tabernacle, which was lost during the Civil War, has been recovered.

In 1983 the Church of San Ginés was designated a Historical-Artistic Monument by the Regional Government of Andalusia, and published in the Spanish Official Gazette of 27 May. This promoted its restoration, which began in 1989 and ended in 1991. Some very important fresco paintings have been discovered and restored inside.