Church of the Assumption of Our Lady (Navarrés)

The 18th-century parish church of the Assumption of Our Lady of Navarrés sits on the side of the mountain in the upper part of the town centre overlooking the square that bears its name. In medieval times, there was a mosque on this site that was consecrated as a church in 1535 and elevated in 1535 to the status of Morisco rectory. Following his pastoral visit in 1606, the Archbishop-Patriarch San Juan de Ribera, ordered it be replaced with a modest church, which became too small for the congregation in the 18th century. Consequently, it was replaced with the current parish building, created in the baroque style between 1746 and 1756, and decorated with rococo motifs.

It is a single-nave church with a Latin cross floor plan and non-emergent transept that is crowned by a dome over pendentives. The side chapels, both covered by pendentive domes, sit between the buttresses of the longitudinal nave. The chromatic harmony of the interior, with cornices, mouldings and pilasters with Corinthian capitals in grey that stand out against a white background, highlights the Valencian baroque classicism of this sacred, simple and austere building. Smooth pilasters form the chapels and extend into the half barrel vault to divide it into sections. The vault is lit by open lunette side windows. The only concessions to rococo décor, fashionable in 1750, are the rocailles on the tops of the lunettes, the tops of the doors and windows, the carpentry on the doors of the sacristy and the entrance gate. The presbytery housed a wooden baroque altarpiece which was destroyed in 1936, an attempt was made to imitate or replicate it in 1940.

The main façade, with a staircase up to the door, is flanked by two Tuscan pilasters crowned by pinnacles. In its centre, it has a portico in the form of a rococo altarpiece decorated with rocailles on reliefs, thin pilasters, a console with the completion date of the work and a scalloped niche that houses a statuette of the Virgin of the Assumption. Above it, a large window with rocailles around the edge lights the interior. On the right-hand side of the main façade stands the modern bell tower (from the 1930s), that is crowned by a clock face and a roof lantern with multicolour ceramic trencadís (mosaic). The church also has an entrance with a side façade onto the square that forms Calle de San Antonio, known as “Plaza de los Regantes” (square of the irrigators) as this is where the local farmers established the irrigation schedules for their vegetable plots. It is decorated by a baroque door with a curved pediment truncated by a cartouche with the Five Holy Wounds and plant motifs and, on both sides, Herrerian-style crowning spheres in relief.

The presbytery houses an eye-catching organ and fresco paintings from the 18th century. It is flanked by the Chapel of the Communion, with a Purísima (Immaculate Conception) by Ponsoda, and the sacristy. Presiding over the main altar are the Virgin of the Assumption, a work by the sculptor Josep-Maria Bayarri, with San Francisco on the right and San Gregorio Magno (patron saint of the town, a work by P. Sales) on the left. The ceiling is decorated by an 18th-century oval-shaped oil painting of the Holy Trinity crowning the Virgin. The pendentives of the dome contain frescoes from the same period representing the four evangelists. Likewise, of unique interest is the baroque room behind the sacristy with a small dome over pendentives, which houses, along with the room above the sacristy, the Museum of Sacred Art. It contains works of art (polychrome carvings, oils on canvas, furniture, clothing and liturgical metalwork, etc.) from the 17th-19th centuries; a Russian icon from the 18th century and a collection of old photos of artistic interest. It is also worth highlighting the paintings of the Coronation of the Virgin (1955) by the painter Tarrasó.