WEBVTT

00:00:01.800 --> 00:00:05.333
On the hill of San Antonio Abad, within the walled enclosure

00:00:05.333 --> 00:00:09.000
and next to the Alcázar, or Alcazarejo of Don Juan Manuel,

00:00:09.566 --> 00:00:12.533
stands the majestic Collegiate Church of San Bartolomé.

00:00:13.866 --> 00:00:15.000
It was built

00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.833
on the remains of the old Visigothic parish church

00:00:18.433 --> 00:00:22.966
and, after Arab rule, was adapted to the Romanesque style of the time.

00:00:23.500 --> 00:00:25.600
In 1456,

00:00:25.966 --> 00:00:28.266
work began on its great transformation,

00:00:28.733 --> 00:00:32.033
which turned it into a flamboyant Gothic temple

00:00:32.300 --> 00:00:35.800
under the direction of the brothers Hannequin de Bruxelles

00:00:35.966 --> 00:00:39.700
and Egas Cueman, a Flemish master architect and sculptor.

00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:41.633
The work

00:00:41.633 --> 00:00:45.366
was completed in 1459, the year

00:00:45.366 --> 00:00:49.266
in which Pope Pius II, by papal bull,

00:00:49.766 --> 00:00:52.500
granted it the title and dignity of Collegiate Church.

00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:57.833
The Collegiate Church consists of three naves arranged in a Latin cross,

00:00:58.433 --> 00:01:03.400
with pointed arches and ribbed vaults, and is enhanced

00:01:03.633 --> 00:01:06.666
by a total of thirteen adjoining chapels.

00:01:06.700 --> 00:01:08.200
The high altar

00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:11.433
houses the tombs of the parents and grandparents of the Marquis of Villena,

00:01:11.866 --> 00:01:16.533
sculpted in alabaster in 1547 by the French master

00:01:16.800 --> 00:01:21.700
Gregorio Pardo Bigurny. They are depicted in a prayerful pose,

00:01:21.700 --> 00:01:24.666
their memory immortalised in stone.

00:01:25.733 --> 00:01:28.533
It is worth noting that the Collegiate Church of San Bartolomé

00:01:28.933 --> 00:01:32.800
preserves the oldest historical choir in Spain,

00:01:33.300 --> 00:01:38.266
carved in walnut wood by Egas Cueman in 1454,

00:01:38.800 --> 00:01:41.333
at the request of Don Lope de Barrientos,

00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:44.333
then Bishop of Cuenca.

00:01:45.300 --> 00:01:46.666
The baptismal font

00:01:46.666 --> 00:01:50.733
from the 15th century, in which I myself was baptised in 1527,

00:01:51.333 --> 00:01:55.000
was one of the reasons the Collegiate Church was granted

00:01:55.466 --> 00:01:58.100
the title of National Monument

00:01:58.100 --> 00:02:02.100
on 27 July 1947.