Today 365 days in Madrid We are very far from the city center. We are going to Villa de Vallecas. Today it is a district of Madrid, but until 1950 when it was incorporated into Madrid, it was the town of Vallecas. We come here to know the parish church of San Pedro ad Víncula. The invocation refers to Saint Peter in chains and to the miraculous liberation of Saint Peter the apostle from prison by an angel, a scene narrated in Acts of the Apostles, chapter 12.

It is a large church that I have remembered for a long time. We came here more than twenty years ago to see if the storks raised in the church were raising their offspring. In the late 80s and early 90s, the populations of White stork They were at their worst and in Madrid city, only here and in Villaverde Alto there were two couples. Furthermore the mechinales (The opening located in the wall, when a building is erected, is used to introduce a horizontal wooden beam into it to form part of a scaffolding. Once the construction is finished, the remains of the scaffolding are removed, so only the holes remain. ) of the church that you can see in the photos are occupied for breeding by several couples of lesser kestrel. A small and beautiful falcon that is in danger of extinction and that in Vallecas has one of the few breeding colonies left in Madrid. It is a migratory bird that spends the winter in Africa and returns each spring to raise its chicks. In addition to cultural heritage, this church houses natural heritage.

The main façade of the church is located on the square Juan de Malasaña, dedicated to the hero of the War of independence born in Vallecas, a tombstone on the façade reminds us that he was baptized in this church on February 10, 1759. Father of the most famous Manuela Malasaña popular heroes who took up arms against the French, and who lived very close to the Monteleón Artillery Park where the Lieutenant Ruiz.

Built in the 16th century on a previous temple, which must have been Mudejar, due to the remains preserved in the lower body of the tower. The initial trace is attributed to Juan de Herrera. The tower, from 1775, is attributed to Ventura Rodríguez.

The brick and masonry base was increased with two more bodies. One for the bells and another in the shape of a slate spire topped with a ball and the weather vane that you can see in the photos.

A church that is the result of a mix of styles and eras: you can see elements of the Mudejar, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical.

Built of masonry with courses of brick, the temple has two entrances. The main one, the one in the Plaza de Juan Malasaña, which is accessed by a staircase. The façade is topped by a pediment that we now always see full of storks.

The other entrance is on Sierra Gorda Street, opened in the 18th century and is neoclassical, made of ashlar. On both covers, at the top, we see shields with the arms of Saint Peter.

In a restoration carried out in 2012, remains of vaults and paintings from the first half of the XNUMXth century were found in the chapel of Nuestra Señora del Rosario. A discovery that is given great importance because it is one of the first examples of a baroque dressing room in Spain, it was said to be one of the most interesting decorative ensembles in the Madrid region. But its interior offers us many more elements of interest.

You already know that a surprising visit awaits you here, very far from the usual tourist circuit of Madrid, in a very, very Madrid neighborhood.

A abrazo.