- Address: Calle de Toledo, 37 28005 Madrid, España
- Phone: +34 913 69 20 37
- Construction: 1622-1664 years.
- Architects: Pedro Sanchez, Francisco Bautista
There is a beautiful Spanish legend about a peasant farmer, who was born in 1080 and lived to 92 years in kindness and miracles. It is said how he prayed for the harvest for the whole village in the year of the drought - and the Lord gave him abundance, as the angels once helped him to plow the whole field, or how his son Julian fell into the well, but the water level in response to the prayers rose and the boy remained alive . This peasant was called Isidore.
About 450 years later, when the old cemetery was reburied, it was discovered that the body of Isidore the Sower was not touched by time. Then Pope Gregory XV in 1622 ranked him to the saints, and the relics were placed in the church of St. Andrew. Since then, Saint Isidore patronizes the peasants and farmers.
The future church of San Isidro began to be built in the same year on the order of the Jesuit order in Madrid and was originally named after Francis Javier. In total, the construction went more than forty years, to accelerate the process for 13 years before the completion of the project, the church in 1651 was even consecrated.
Time passed and, at the behest of the monarch, the Jesuits were expelled from the country, and the church moved to the city. The reigning then Charles III gave the order to change the interior design of the building, so that the gray ascetic interior did not remind of the former owners. The work was carried out by the then famous court architect Ventura Rodriguez. After the change of the interior, the church received a new name and moved the relics of the holy land husband.
Much later the Order of the Jesuits returned its rights to the property, incl. In the beginning of the XIX century, the Church of St. Isidro also returned to them. Then the Civil War began, in which the building of the church, like many houses in the city, was badly damaged, incl. and from a fire. Many religious values, stored inside, were destroyed. After the war, during the reconstruction, the building was restored and two towers were erected on the facade, which were listed only in the old project, but were not completed.
For a long time the Church of San Isidro was the main Christian structure in Madrid , until in 1993 the Almudena Cathedral was built. The main granite facade it faces on Toledo Street, in the center you will see four columns and sculptures of Saint Isidore and his wife Maria de la Cabeza, which is also ranked among the saints. Inside the church the relics of the spouses are still kept, they were placed at the main altar. Today the church is called the "Church of Good Councils", but the Madrid people refer to it in the old way, because Saint Isidro is their patron.
The Church of San Isidro, like many historical monuments, is in the center of old Madrid. You can reach it by public transport : by city buses No. 23, 50 and M1, you will need Colegiata-Toledo stop or by metro to La Latina station. Free admission.
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