Camarma de Esteruelas: a Romanesque-Mudejar apse near Alcala de Henares

On the flat plain of the middle Jarama, a short way north of the university city of Alcala de Henares, the growing town of Camarma de Esteruelas keeps at its heart a small medieval treasure. Around 7,400 people live here today, but the village is far older than its modern houses suggest.

The church of San Pedro

The parish church of San Pedro Apostol, declared a monument of cultural interest, grew in two distinct stages. From its original building of the 13th century it preserves a semicircular apse of brick, a fine example of the Romanesque-Mudejar manner common in the churches of central Castile, while the three naves were rebuilt in the 16th century and the masonry tower added by Juan de Ballesteros. Inside the apse survives part of a painted Christ in Majesty, the Pantocrator, from the late 14th century, blending Romanesque and Gothic styles. The town also keeps a small museum of scale-model replicas of notable Spanish monuments.

A town near Alcala

Of Roman and medieval roots, long dependent on Alcala, Camarma sits in the Cervantine countryside east of Madrid and celebrates its patroness, the Virgen del Rosario, at the start of September.

Getting there

Camarma de Esteruelas is about five kilometres north of Alcala de Henares and some thirty-five kilometres north-east of Madrid, with easy access by road.