ERMITA DE SAN AMBROSIO

Building with a basilica plan, with a single nave, with an E-W orientation, in which we can find four slightly pointed brick arches on which the wooden, planking and tile roof was located, with two slopes. These arches start from columns (with different diameters) attached to the walls, topped with nacelle cymas, except for the two closest to the narthex, whose capitals are of a composite order, possibly Roman.

It presents at its feet a space identified as the narthex through the intersection in the main construction of an interior wall, currently there is a continuous bench, without being able to specify if it is original or later. The head is topped with a rectangular apse, ssubdivided into a central space corresponding to the presbytery, and lateral spaces corresponding to a possible crypt and the start of a tower on its SE flank, much disfigured today. The wall that separates the presbytery from the nave, built with ashlars and rubble, represents a large central pointed arch, which, from what can be seen, seems to break a previous structure, perhaps associated with the reforms of the XV century, of which preserves two separate half lateral arches. The perimeter walls of the temple still preserve the original ashlar from the Visigothic period, to which are added in the 15th century the transverse arches and the mud walls that finish off said walls. The side chapel, attached to the reform carried out by Pedro Fernández de Solís, housed the image of San Ambrosio.

On the outside, next to the apse, are the remains of a pool, identified as possible remains of a baptistery. According to some authors, corresponding to an earlier Roman villa.

The access from the narthex, covered by a single skirt that falls to the west, is through a wall in which a pointed horseshoe hole opens, framed by an alfiz and topped by a shield made in ashlar factory. sandstone. Above the roof skirt, the wall was finished off with a triangular pediment with a splayed central oculus and a sundial on the upper vertex. The perimeter walls of this unique nave, which present two juxtaposed sheets, comprise the original factory of Visigothic ashlars, up to the height of the cymas, and from these the mud walls and the bows fajones. The current pavement presents a much higher level than the original base of the columns, as the apparent proportions of the shafts and some holes seem to reveal.

Attached to its northern façade, we have a side chapel with a square floor plan, with current access from the outside, located on its western closing wall. The chapel, which housed an image of San Ambrosio until a few years ago, is built on the basis of masonry, topped with an octagonal vault on simple brick tubes. Both buildings, the main nave and the side chapel, define to the east the limits of an atrium currently delimited by the remains of the walls, including on its west front two rooms possibly corresponding to the hermit’s home, as well as a circular oven. arranged in the free space of the atrium (text taken from Hispania Nostra Red List: https://cutt.ly/kNy9781).

The archaeological excavations that were carried out revealed that the settlement of the area dates back to recent prehistory, with findings from the Late Bronze Age and Iron I (Turdetanos). Regarding the Roman remains, different foundations were located, some corresponding to the private pars and others to the rustic pars. “The first consists of rooms, dining room, kitchen, baths, garden, etc.; and the second part of the house was made up of the tool store, slave quarters, cellars and presses, alamzara, barn, etc.” ( Well, 2021, 12). In the 4th century, the Roman villa underwent some transformations, expanding towards the N.