Have you ever
visited the Sistine Chapel? Could you imagine something similar in Spain? Well,
you have a superb church located in a village of Cuenca where it is possible to
admire perfect mural paintings and, likely, you didn´t know about it.
The place I
talk about is Alarcón, a small town based in Cuenca considering that only 151
inhabitants live there. However, they own one of the most significant churches
around the world, specially, in Spain.
It´s really curious as, when you are right at the
door, you´d never imagine such an incredible place with those extraordinary
paintings inside, you just think “it´s another sacred place” but you are so
wrong...
It´s almost impossible to depict
these sorts of masterpieces carried out on the entire church. The whole walls
are covered by completely different paintings and all of them represent
something different for each person. Whatever your beliefs are, you are watching
a group of wonders which remind you of a great number of events previous to our
age, such as the origin of Life, the origins of human beings, or, even, the dream
world.
On each wall, people can see the same
image, nevertheless, for each of us, these paintings have a different meaning, and
this is the power of Art. Shapes, colours and sizes vibrate and make you feel
in another world.
The author of these magical paintings
is Jesús Mateo, an artist born in Cuenca and a passionate of several artists,
who has been always interested in creating something special in this church,
and, in the end, he made it.
In 1997, UNESCO declared these mural
paintings as an Asset of Artistic Interest. Besides, if you are interested in
collaborating to preserve these original paintings, you can invest in them with
any amount of money.
Summarizing, I must say that it´s a must-see,
not only the church but also the whole village because it´s nice, interesting
and has lots of places to see. Enjoy!