Church of San Bartolomé
Details
Built in 1744
Latin cross plan
The parish church of San Bartolomé.
The increase in population made it necessary to enlarge the parish church. Built partly over the old church, a new church was built in 1744 with a Latin cross plan, with six side chapels between the buttresses.
The nave has a semi-circular vault divided into four sections. The chapels, as indicated by the Council of Trent, are interconnected to facilitate the access of the faithful to the communion chapel, located next to the high altar.
Above the transept is a dome with shells on an octagonal drum. The interior decoration is neoclassical with some rococo details. The communion chapel was built afterwards.
The façade is simple and probably built of local stone. The façade is made of cut stone with a flat lintel topped with a frieze and cornice. Above it is the image of the saint, framed in a niche, which is surrounded by roundels and rosettes. The headboard is multilinear and crowned with rosettes.
The bell tower is square in shape and crosses the market. It is made entirely of tiles. As in many other examples in Valencia, the bell tower opens on four sides thanks to the semi-circular arches, and on these sides there are four paired pilasters. The terrace has a second body of bells with a semi-circular arch.
During the war, the altarpiece of the main altar, the presbytery and part of the decoration of the chapels disappeared.
The imagery, restored in the 1940s and 1950s, includes works by Pinazo. Behind the communion chapel is the only surviving part of the old church, rectangular in plan, with two pointed ashlar arches supporting the structure. It is in the style of transition from Romanesque to Gothic: it is the Chapel of Christ.
The tilling is decorated in white, red and yellow; there are heraldic motifs related to the lordship of Godella. The ornamentation is known to be “a la molinera”. Asunción Alejos Morán has pointed out the Muslim influence by looking at the ceramics from Manises and Paterna. It was restored in 1954.