"The Church of San Pedro is a Catholic temple located in the old neighborhood of El Perchel in Malaga, being one of the few remaining buildings in what is now the Alameda.
The origin of the building dates back to an ambitious unfinished project by Pedro Díaz de Palacios, then master master of Malaga Cathedral, who was entrusted in 1629 with the construction of the Church of San Pedro in the Perchel neighborhood, as a support to the old parish of San Juan. For this purpose, a church with three naves, chancel, sacristy and tower is projected, in which classical ornamental elements are combined, inherited from the Renaissance, together with the Mudejarism of the magnificent pair and knuckle armor that covers the nave. For various reasons, this project was not completed, carrying out only the construction of a nave, as well as the simplification of other elements, in the apse, and leaving the projected tower in a belfry, later eliminated by the existing bell tower. In the first quarter of the 18th century, the monumental Sagrario chapel was built, clearly Baroque in style, attributed to the master Unzurrunzaga. Its rich ornamentation stands out, composed of exuberant plasterwork and paintings, close to the Malaga painter Diego de la Cerda.
At the beginning of the 20th century and after the events that occurred in 1931 and 1936, when the property was found in a dilapidated state, it was decided to rebuild it, according to the projects presented in 1942 and 1943 by the architect Enrique Atencia. In memory of the restoration, the structure of the church was respected but adding two chapels to house the images of the brotherhood of Cristo de la Expiración. At present, the building stands out for the sobriety and monumentality of its forms, together with the simplicity of its magnificent doorway, made of reddish stone that stands out on the whitewashed wall. We can also point out the identity values, increased in the last fifty years by the presence of the brotherhood of the Christ of the Expiration,
The temple presents a very simple construction, with a single nave, covered with pair and knuckle armor, reinforced with tie straps that rest on pairs of cannons embedded in the side walls.
The pinion wall of the head is covered with wood while the feet appear naked, in front of which three oculi open. Large semicircular arches are attached to the perimeter walls, bent, for the most part blind, supported by Doric order pilasters. In the upper part of them there are flared openings covered with stained glass windows.
The main chapel has a head with a flat front end, made up of a semi-detached blind arch, with similar characteristics to the perimeter walls of the nave.
On the left side of the presbytery is the baptismal font. It is made between 1600 and 1699, in limestone, carved and polished. It consists of a cylindrical base on an octagonal section base and a circular basin with a venerated interior and exterior.
At the foot of the nave is the choir, made of wood, raised on four beams, of which the first rests on two cannons and supports a parapet of balusters.
The side chapels:
Three chapels open on the left side wall of the nave.
The first, counting from the foot of the temple, is that of the Christ of the Expiration. It has a quadrangular plan covered with a false vault with eight panels, oculi on its outer sides and an upper lantern. Access to the chapel from the nave is through a semicircular opening covered with a cast iron and wrought iron grille, made up of balusters and a frieze decorated with candilieri and scrollwork motifs.
It is followed by the chapel of the Virgen de los Dolores, with a rectangular floor plan covered with a flat ceiling decorated with golden paintings.
These two chapels were made by the architect Enrique Atencia Molina in 1943, and are decorated with tempera paintings in trapezoidal compositions, representing themes from the Passion of Christ, executed in 1951 by Wenceslao Chamorro.
The third, called the Tabernacle chapel, opens onto the nave through a semicircular opening crowned by its keystone with an oval cartouche surrounded by fallen leaves and intrados boxed with fleshy acanthus arranged in a garland. It is covered with a cast-iron and wrought-iron grate composed of golden and black balusters, upper crest decorated with scrolls, Candilieri, rosettes and iconography with Eucharistic themes and those referring to Saint Peter, head of the church. The chapel has a hexagonal floor plan covered with a hemispherical vault on a drum. Its elevation presents Corinthian pilasters, cajeadas, between carpanel arches and an upper entablature, flown, decorated with corbels of fallen leaves.
The drum:
The drum shows rectangular windows between pilasters and exuberant plasterwork decoration, on it rests the hemispherical vault, reinforced with pilasters that frame trapezoidal spaces in which remarkable fresco paintings appear with the iconographic theme of the life of the Virgin: Betrothal, Annunciation, Visitation, Adoration of the Shepherds, Adoration of the Kings and Presentation of Jesus in the temple.
On the right side of the nave are located: the sacristy, with access to the presbytery, meeting rooms, office and tower.
The outside:
The exterior of the temple presents a series of architectural additions that hinder its primitive structure, the result of the reform carried out in the decade of the forties. Only noteworthy on the main façade or at the foot of the temple is the primitive doorway, made of reddish stone.
It is structured as an altarpiece, with two bodies, the first composed of a semicircular opening with a corbel on the keystone and diamond points on the spandrels, flanked by Tuscan pilasters and an upper entablature finished on both sides with ball pinnacles. The second body or attic presents a venerated niche flanked with pilasters on the entablature, lateral development of scrolls and a split upper pediment that houses the episcopal coat of arms. In the upper area of ??this composition three oculi open.
The opening that gives access to the interior of the nave is covered with a double-leaf wooden door with a shutter and iron rivets. It is made between 1750 and 1799 and measures 4.65 x 3.47 x 0.15 m.
On the left side of the façade there is a large neoclassical doorway, which gives access to the chapel of the Cofradía del Cristo de la Expiración. It is composed of a semicircular opening, covered with a two-leaf wooden door, with iron rivets, flanked by pilasters on the sides and an upper entablature crowned by a triangular pediment. Likewise, on the right side of the façade, there is a mosaic with the representation of the two images of the brotherhood, garnished by a tiled roof.
The rest of the façade on its right side corresponds to the body of the tower, in whose front there are rectangular, superimposed openings, ending the upper zone with two semicircular arches on its four sides."
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Schedule
Opening of the Church TOURIST VISIT From 18:00 to 19:00
Mass hours Monday to Friday: 19:00. Saturdays: 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Sundays and holidays: 10, 11, 12 and 19 h.
Office Monday to Friday: 18 to 19 h.
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