"This temple, like the other churches that were built at that time, had a very simple structure; In this case it had a wide nave, with chapels between the buttresses - according to the Levantine tradition -, it was covered with wooden armor and a square tower rose at the foot.
In the 16th century , the neighborhood of El Salvador continued to grow and, in that sense, the fact that, in 1534, when water was brought to the city, a fountain was placed at the door of the church of El Salvador is very significant. Salvador, in order to supply this neighborhood, in which families as notable as the Valdés had their home.
Throughout the 16th century, various works were carried out in the Gothic factory , the most important being those carried out, in recent years, in the main chapel and the sacristy, in which the stonemason masters actively worked. Pedro de la Vaca , Pedro de la Viña , Martín de Mendizábal the Elder and Toribio de la Haza . We must highlight the work of the stonemasonry master Diego Gil , who covered the church with a new wooden framework, as well as the sacristy and two chapels. Also in the 16th century , the building was expanded with the construction of chapels on both sides of the nave and we know that Isabel de Moya , Juan del Collado , the councilor Alonso de Luna and the Justiniano family had their chapel here, and that the first two They were dominated by altarpieces painted by Juan Gómez de Mora, nephew of Francisco de Mora .
However, the largest work that was going to affect the structure of the building the most, since its roof was modified, was carried out in the 17th century , specifically in the year [1656. In fact, the nave, which has great width and height, was then closed with a half-barrel vault, pierced by lunettes and reinforced with transverse arches that start from pilasters. In its construction, as stipulated in the conditions, tuff stone was used. It was designed by Juan del Pontón, who was the bishop's master builder, and the drawing is preserved in the Provincial Historical Archive of Cuenca . This work was carried out at the initiative of councilors Mateo Carnerero and Pedro González de Aragandoña, who were the provosts of the Virgen de la Soledad chapter. This chapter also had its chapel in this church; and we know that in 1669 they closed it with a fence designed by the architect José de Arroyo .
Likewise, in the 17th century , the temple's façade was made. The semicircular arch of the door is not well fitted between the pilasters, which makes it excessively flat. The finish is reduced to a triangular pediment, broken and broken by a niche, which houses the sculpture of the owner of the church. Its decoration is based on dice and balls. At the beginning of the 18th century , the chapel of the Holy Sepulcher was completely remodeled. It is covered with a dome, ending in a lantern, and its ornamentation combines very flat geometric motifs with fleshier and more prominent plant themes. This chapel belongs to the Chapter of Knights and Squires of Cuenca (and, until very recent times, knights were armed in it).
In the 19th century , the church of El Salvador gained special relevance by absorbing parishioners from other parishes; which is why it was decided to reform it in 1863. Juan José Trigueros , diocesan architect, was in charge of it, who, in some very careful drawings, shows us the actions he planned to undertake, and which mainly affected the exterior of the building. The greatest novelty of the Trigueros project consisted of moving the tower to the head of the temple, and placing the main façade on the west side. The somewhat classicist cover covered it with a monumentality that it had previously lacked.
This idea, however, did not materialize until 1903; and this according to a plan, but much more simplified, since it was only carried out at the foot of the church, specifically in the choir and the tower. The work was carried out very quickly, since in August 1903 Luis López de Arce presented the final project of the work to be carried out and two years later, in 1905, the tower was already standing. It is a very eclectic, neo-Gothic tower , made of stone and brick, with strange Mudejar resonances , in which very diverse sources can be traced, both in time and space. Its nineteenth-century ambiguity weighs palpably on the exterior complex of the temple."
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