The tower is very tall, measuring more than 20 meters, but one can already go around and around looking at the horizon through the Carabanchel district that, from the exit of the Eugenia de Montijo metro, cannot be seen. There is also no trace of any sign indicating that, less than five minutes walk from there, is the oldest Mudejar hermitage in Madrid. It is behind a fence and in the middle of an open field as if it were a piece of rubble that someone has abandoned without taking into account its value. It is Tuesday and several neighbors make a pilgrimage to the cemetery next to them and there are also those who take advantage of the lot that serves as a parking lot to fix their motorcycle outdoors, at the doors of a 13th century building declared a Site of Cultural Interest.
“It is in a non-place, as architects and urban planners say,” says Juan García Vicente, member of the Carabanchel, History and Heritage platform. “In front of it is a razed esplanade where the . But there now. A jewel of the Mudejar Romanesque there, far from any means of communication, because it detracts from every point. If it were in another part of Madrid, more in the center, it would surely be more revalued,” he adds.
The neighborhood struggle has been demanding facilities for the neighborhood on these lands for years, which was also previously occupied by the Franco regime’s penal center, which was demolished in 2008. It is planned that a hospital and green areas will be built in that place, but the neighbors believe that the proposed urban project can be improved.
“We don’t want it to be just another urban plan, but rather for it to be more personalized and for the hermitage to occupy an important place within this environment. It has to be a place of reference,” explains García. One of the fears of the neighborhood associations is that large housing blocks will be built very close to the temple and that it will be sandwiched between large buildings.
Neighborhood pressure has achieved progress, such as: replacing a car road with a pedestrian corridor, the protection of a Roman aqueduct and the commitment to create a museum about. “Success is that it is recognized as such that we are interlocutors, that the hermitage exists. We have managed to make it known that we are there,” García celebrates.
However, the hermitage remains largely unknown in the neighborhood. “There are many people who live very close to there and do not know it. There is not the slightest indication in the area with the most traffic or where the subway is. And it is the minimum, because it deserves it, it deserves attention,” says the member of the Carabanchel platform.
At least, its doors no longer have graffiti and other structural damage, but the open field around it is still used as a waste dump.
“A few weeks ago, some huge bags of rubble appeared there that can only be moved with a crane. Also hundreds of wheels… The abandonment is notable. The cleaning services do not go beyond the limits of the hermitage and the garbage that may be there is not anyone’s responsibility. If some measures were put in place, a deterrent barrier and that the city council services had access, these things could be avoided until this is organized in a definitive way,” says García.
A few days after the interview with García, he writes a WhatsApp: “Vereda de Aluche. Good news. There will be a barrier. Let’s go for it!!! The proposal has been approved by the Plenary Session of the Carabanchel Board.”
