Saint George's church

    Saint George's church
The chronicle explains that the christian people of Alcoi ellected Saint George as its saint patron and decided to build in his honour a church in the same place were the battle took place in 1276, and would remember this victory annually, each 23rd of April against the Moors and their leader, the brave Al-Azraq.
   

The cult to the saint begins in the following years to this date, being the origin of our festivities. The specific date when the first church was bulit can't be precised, but there are documents that talk about its existence in 1317. Through the centuries, it has suffered different restorations and modifications, but its location has always been the same, the one called "Portal de San Marcos".

Between 1901 and 1904 is created the Saint George's vicarage, and Leonardo Pérez Ferrándiz was the first vicar. In this years, the temple was almost in ruins and it's considered to build an new one in the same place. The 20th of July of 1913, the archbishop of Valencia gives his permission, and the temple is demolished, creating a new comission to build the new one. This comission was formed by outstanding men from the artistic and cultural life in town, among them, the painter Fernando Cabrera Cantó, in those days he was the Saint George's assotiation artistic adviser, and the architects Timoteo Briet Montagud and Vicente Pascual Pastor. In 1921, when Cabrera's painting in the altar wall was finished, the new church was finally blessed.
   

THE BUILDING

The neo-romanic main façade with two towers, one each side of the entrance symbolising the door to the Celestial Jerusalem, is in Santo Tomás Street.

The façade's main part is divided in two horizontal sections. The lowest one has an entry with a kind of canopy that stands out of the wall, and the second has one three large stained windows joined by little columns.

The first large window is a half pointed arch that reproduces the equestrian picture of Saint George. There are two large windows both sides, also half pointed, which reproduce the Senyera and the shield of Alcoi's city. The other two windows that form the five bays of the main façade reproduce, the one on the left, a large cup with a few canes of wood referring to the "Jesuset del Miracle", and the one in the right shows a symbolic allusion of the Saint, the cross, the sword and the palm of the martyrdom.

The most important features of the side aisle in San Blas Street are the stained windows that reproduce in its first floor's the shield of the Association of San Jorge and Mossén Torregrosa's figure, both of them Rafael Guarinos's sketches. Mossén Torregrosa was the priest who encouraged the villagers to fight against the Arabic leader. We can also observe the commemorative plaque that remembers the location of the former Portal de San Marcos, place where, according to the tradition, the local people saw Saint George on April 23rd 1276 and helped them to defeat Al-Azraq.

 

 

  

THE TEMPLE ( interior)

The nave of the church, as well as its interior, have Byzantine reminiscences, that's why its style is neo-Byzantine. The main door functions as a hall, and it consists of a rectangular narthexopening its way to the main square plan where we can find a Greek cross ending in three apses. Right from the socle there are embedded columns decorating and supporting the dome.

At the entrance, we observe a flat roof which is the base of the choir, where the organ is sheltered. This organis very special in itself. It was made by Gabriel Blancafort, and consists of three parts: cadereta, major organ and pedal, as well as two manual keyboards of 58 notes and several extensions with its pedals, records and couplings. It was inaugurated on April 20th 1984 to commemorate the first Centenary of Alcoi Festivities Music.


In the left wing there is an enthroned image of the Virgin Mary with the Child, and in the right, a stained window with the image of Donatello's San Jorge, sketch of Rigoberto Soler Pérez. The dome is supported by horns with geometric decoration. It is preceded by a drum with eight large stained windows that represent the saints who were related to the to the History of Alcoi: The Immaculate Conception, San Jorge Infante, San Mauro, San Roque, San Miguel, Jesuset del Miracle, Virgen de los Lirios and San Gregorio de Ostia.

In the body of the church and both wings, remain two half pointed moons with Byzantine style ornamental borders that represent the shields of Alcoi and Aragon, designed by a local architect, Roque Monllor Boronat. In the center, the four Evangelists and Jesus who stands in the middle giving His blessing (Pantocrator) are represented (Fernando Cabrera Gisbert's paintings).

On the left wing we find the equestrian image of San Jorge, an sculptural polychrome set of more than 700 Kg weight. The work belongs to the Valencian sculptor Enrique Galarza, and dates from 1940. On the corner is placed theNeo-gothic reliquary, a jewel that contains the Relic of San Jorge, two finger phalanxes from one of his hand.

The central apse is the most important part of the church and stands out from the rest. Three steps that symbolize the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, separate it from the devotes. At its foot, there is the tomb of the Piamonte's penitent Casimiro Barello Morello, who died in Alcoi in 1884.

In the front, we have the sensational linen that represents the battle that took place in 1276 as it was interpreted by the brilliant painter Fernando Cabrera Cantó. In front of it and in the central part stand out two plaster cast angels made, as the marble ones were destroyed in 1936, work of the local sculptor Lorenzo Ridaura. They support the pedestal where is the image of San Jorge infante, known by the Alcoianos as "El Xicotet", a polychrome sculpture of the Valencian school. The apse is completed by an arch with symbols referring to the Festivities of Moors and Christians that take place in our city every 22nd,23rd and 24th of April.

On the right corner there is a door that leads to the sacristy where we can find a little stained window on top that reminds us of the nobility of Mossén Torregrossa, sketch of the local artist Rafael Guarinos.

The third apse is an exit door to San Blas's street, and is only used to devote entry and exit to the equestrian image of San Jorge every 23rd of April in the General Procession that Alcoi's people dedicate to its saint patron.

Jorge Linares Abad
 Librarian of Saint George's Assotiation