Church of San Matías, Madrid, Neo-Mudéjar church in Pinar del Rey, Madrid, Spain.
The Church of San Matías is a brick parish church in the Hortaleza district of Madrid, built to the final project presented in 1877 by the architect Enrique María Repullés y Vargas. It is counted among the first examples of Neo-Mudéjar architecture, a style that takes the brickwork of Islamic and Mudéjar building in Spain as its model.
The building was designed by Enrique María Repullés, an architect who also served as diocesan architect in Toledo. The project belongs to a period when this style was spreading across Spain.
The parish serves the Hortaleza district of Madrid, and its name honours Saint Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace Judas. The brickwork itself is the main thing to look at: the Neo-Mudéjar movement took the Moorish brick and horseshoe-arch vocabulary of Spain's Islamic past and applied it to Catholic churches in the late 19th century.
The church stands in the Pinar del Rey area of the Hortaleza district, in northern Madrid, near the old village core of Hortaleza. It is an active parish, so visits are best timed outside Mass; check the parish notice board at the entrance for current times. The building was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural in 2021.
In 2021 the church was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural, Spain's heritage protection status. The brickwork that earned it that listing is the same Neo-Mudéjar fabric designed by Enrique María Repullés y Vargas in 1877, so the protected elements are the walls themselves rather than later furnishings.
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