Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción

The coats of arms of Bishop Francisco Delgado tell us that the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción in Rus, Jaen, must have been built between 1565 and 1576.

Its layout follows the Vandelvira school: centralised floor plan, pendentive domes and a flat front that is accessed through a large central arch. It must have been designed by Alonso Barba, who introduced Mannerist compositional elements, especially on façades, on top of an originally Renaissance design.

The interior space is quadrangular, the central nave is wider than the two side ones and the main chapel does not appear in the exterior shape. Cylindrical pillars that support lowered semi-circular arches divide the space into two sections: in the first one, the dome's intrados is decorated with radii, and the four Evangelists appear on the pendentives; the pendentive dome in the centre is decorated with geometric patterns, mixtilinear arches, and leaf and egg-and-dart mouldings; the side naves also have pendentive domes, resting on abacuses with plasterwork squares. The choir is located at the foot and its structure is a wooden tribune.

The Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción has a gabled roof, supported by buttresses, with two façades. The one in the Gospel side is in the Doric style, it starts with a semi-circular arch, and Tuscan columns on plinths support an entablature and a smooth pediment. It is rounded off by a niche to house the image of the Virgin, with small vases at either side. The other façade follows the same style, although it is more severe. The tower, which is square, is at the foot, and displays the coat of arms of Bishop Sancho Dávila (1600-1615). It underwent an unfortunate restoration in 1950. Since 1983 it a case open to be listed as a Property of Cultural Interest.