Church of Nuestra Señora de La Asunción y Ángeles

The highly-prized reddish-toned veined marble from the Cabra mountains reaches its full splendour in architectural and sculptural terms in this great Baroque church.

The red (and black) marble of Cabra was used extensively in this monumental church, reconstructed over a previous one between the 17th and 18th centuries, on the site of a former mosque. For example, it was used for the 44 columns that support the barrel vaults of its five naves. The great altarpiece, the work of Melchor de Aguirre (1674) using a project by the architect and altarpiece maker José Granados de la Barrera, who was in fact a native of the town of Cabra. Granados had worked on the Cathedral of Granada. He also designed the main chapel, the transept, the vaults and the reconstruction of the tower using bare brick. The main and lateral doorways are also Baroque, with appliqué, entablatures and Solomonic columns of red marble.