Colegiatte of Alquézar, Gothic parish church in Alquézar, Spain
The Collegiate of Alquézar is a Gothic parish church built on a rocky promontory above the medieval village of Alquézar, in Aragon. It is surrounded by old town walls and features an irregular cloister with arcaded walkways on all sides.
The site was originally built in the 9th century as a Muslim fortress by Jalaf ibn Rasid. After the Christian reconquest in 1067, it was gradually transformed into a religious and monastic complex over the following centuries.
The cloister walls are covered with frescoes painted between the 15th and 18th centuries, showing scenes from the New Testament. Looking closely, you can see how the painting style shifted from one century to the next.
The church is open to visitors throughout the year and is best reached on foot through the narrow streets of the historic village. A guided tour is the easiest way to access the church interior, the cloister, and the small museum inside.
The cloister has a trapezoidal floor plan, which follows the outline of the original Muslim fortress on which it was built. This shape is very rare in Christian monastic complexes and is almost never seen elsewhere.
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