Parish Church of the Assumption of Our Lady of Robledo de Chavela

At the foot of the nave there is a high wooden choir, supported by four Tuscan columns, two full and two half attached to the side walls, which can be dated to the XNUMXth century. The front is formed by wooden balusters. 

Attached to the first section of the nave on its north wall is the Chapel of Solitude. It has a quadrangular plan and is covered with a star-shaped rib vault with the same design as the church; the central clef is smooth while the tercelet clefs are decorated with five-petal flowers with a central button. The ribs rest on corbels with rough plant decoration, located at the corners of the chapel. 

It communicates with the nave by means of a pointed arch decorated with a succession of concave moldings and an external outline and protected by a chambrane. It rests on half columns attached to the jambs by running capitals with short baskets and decorated with vegetal motifs and Attic bases. Externally, it is built with ashlar masonry with thick grouting and zipped ashlars in the corners. It is finished off with a simple cornice with a nacela profile. 

The sacristy is located on the southern wall of the section that precedes the apse. It has a quadrangular plan and is covered with a lowered vault that could date back to the XNUMXth century. 

Taking into account the stratigraphic reading of the walls, where different factories are reflected, as well as the analysis of the different constructive and decorative elements that make up the church, it is possible to determine three main construction stages. The first corresponds to a late-Romanesque construction that could be dated to the first quarter of the XNUMXth century and of which remains are kept on the north and south walls of the nave with the two façades and possibly the lower body of the tower. The second stage of construction would belong to the head formed by the apse and the previous straight section, which would date from the last third of the XNUMXth century. And on the third the extension of the nave in height, taking advantage of the lower part of the walls and portals of the first phase, with its vaulted roofs and exterior buttresses, but continuing the same layout that began at the head, as well as another body in the tower. ; this phase would develop after the second, which can be dated to the beginning of the XNUMXth century. Later, throughout the sixteenth century, one more body of the tower was raised and the two rooms were built next to its base, as well as the Soledad chapel and the sacristy. 

Towards the last quarter of the XNUMXth century, the need to renovate the medieval temple must have arisen as it was insufficient to house a growing population, motivated by the good economic situation of the region. In addition, socially there was a general desire to build new and sumptuous factories to replace the old medieval temples. On the other hand, from the second third of the XNUMXth century the presence of stonemasons from Trasmiera began to be detected, occupying relevant positions in Castile; Squads of stonemasons, related by family ties or place of origin, that are installing and forming workshops with enough entity to be in charge of drawing and executing the new constructions. In them they show a greater concern for structural and spatial aspects than for decorative ones, enhancing monumentality. 

In this environment, it was decided to build a new church starting with the head and keeping the body of naves of the original construction. Once the head was finished, it seems that there was an interruption of the works, possibly due to lack of resources due to the size of the factory, although not long afterwards the body of ships continued to be reformed. 

Although the new construction arises with some previous conditions and despite this interruption, typologically it shows a clear unity of the whole in its interior, despite certain rather decorative differences, due to changes of hands or crews in the execution of the works, but following the same trace. The differences are more evident abroad, where you can see the different construction campaigns in their factories. 

The church constitutes a good expression of the characteristics of the Castilian late Gothic architecture, especially related to the Avila workshops. The continuous and uniform space with a character of monumentality and amplitude that is evident in the firmness of its massive construction, together with the structural and decorative simplicity, constitute some of the most outstanding notes of this temple that put it in relation to the late Gothic architecture of the Ávila region. Likewise, the use of tercelete vaults with ligatures is very frequent in this workshop, which according to Professor Martínez Frías would be justified either because they could facilitate the unification of the molds and carving of their voussoirs, or because of a taste for sobriety and simplicity both structural as well as decorative (churches of Cuevas del Valle, Vallejo del Valle, San Esteban del Valle, Santiago del Valle; in Ávila the churches of Santiago and Nuestra Señora del Espino, especially the church of Mombeltrán). Another common characteristic is the absence of ornamental motifs, which are reduced to the capitals, cornices, gargoyles and doorways. 

In turn, taking into account its geographical distribution and construction characteristics, the Robledo temple would be framed within a group of churches located in the western part of the Madrid region that borders the province of Ávila, specifically in the southern part of the Sierra from Guadarrama on the banks of the Alberche River, which Dr. de la Morena called “type serrano” (De la Morena, 1986, pp.123-125). An architecture that uses granite stone, sober but monumental, influenced by the Gothic of Avila. In this group can be located the churches of Cerceda, Navalagamella, Valdemorillo, Cadalso de los Vidrios, Villa del Prado and Cenicientos; They are single-nave constructions covered with star-shaped ribbed vaults of varied design and polygonal heads, dating from the end of the XNUMXth century to the beginning of the XNUMXth century. 

One of the most outstanding aspects in the church of Robledo is the spatial conception of unity and interior spaciousness, to which the roof system with starry vaults contributes, all with the same design on a large nave, compared to the more frequent typology in the Madrid region made up of modest temples with three naves, the lateral ones being lower, separated by arches resting on Renaissance columns, covered with wooden roofs in the Mudejar tradition, and a polygonal or square presbytery covered with a ribbed vault (churches of El Molar or Villalbilla , Lozoya, Rascafría, Las Rozas, Carabaña, Pozuelo del Rey, Manzanares el Real). 

It is important to insist on the design and construction technique of your vaults. It is a simple design that, at the end of the XNUMXth century, is somewhat archaic, although in this case it seems to respond rather to that sense of sobriety that prevails in the temple. As already mentioned, the ribs are made of granite, but the plementery is made of brick arranged on the edge (brick screw vault), plastered and painted simulating ashlars. This solution was used by the most outstanding master stonemasons of the time (such as Juan Guas or Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón, somewhat later) due to its advantageous qualities, such as the cheaper material, the greater ease of treatment and work, and fewer pushes, reason why they are going to become frequent during the Modern Age. 

On the other hand, it is necessary to emphasize the appearance of strength that the head of the church presents externally, due to its dimensions, to the granite factory itself, but especially to the finishing system of the buttresses in the form of garitones joined by arches with machicolations and traveled all by a walk around, currently modified. For some authors the walkway had, on the one hand, a structural function to favor the stability of the large span vault, and on the other a practical function, to collect the water from the roofs and evacuate it without affecting the facades through of the gargoyles of the garitones and embrasures of the connecting arches. For others, this head would respond to a defensive need, since at the moment the area was in continuous noble struggles. However, it should be noted that a similar structure is located in the funerary chapel of Don Álvaro de Luna, in the Toledo Cathedral, begun in 1430, probably by the main master of the cathedral Alvar Martínez, and concluded in 1449. In it, Garitones are incorporated topping the buttresses, machicolations and battlements with a decorative character, where the author of Robledo could be inspired. 

Another element of great importance and interest in the temple is the decoration with mural painting that covers the two vaults of the head, made with the dry technique on a layer of plaster, using lime water as a binder. Mock ashlars are reproduced in the vaults of the vaults, marked with a sore painted in black on the plaster background, and the ribs are decorated with pairs of dragon heads starting from the keys towards the exterior of the vault, constituting a series of almost eighty dragons, which has been described as "absolutely exceptional for its number and dimensions." They are dragon heads and spines located on both sides of the axis of each nerve, painted in reddish, ocher, green and black tones; they are depicted with open jaws, teeth with large fangs, prominent round eyes, and large pointed ears. Taking into account the moment of realization of the vaults of the head, the paintings could be dated around 1500. In the Community of Madrid, so far this type of representations have been located in the vaults of the church of the Asunción de Nuestra Señora in Villalbilla, where the nerves are decorated with dragon tails, and in the church of Santiago Apóstol in Villa del Prado, whose paintings are contemporary and stylistically similar to those of Robledo.