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Santa María de Melque is a church in the border municipality of San Martín de Montalbán in the province of Toledo (in Spain), 30 km south of the capital, and equidistant from the towns of La Puebla de Montalbán and Gálvez, between the brook Ripas and the river Torcón, a tributary of the river Tagus. Of the entire complex, recently restored, the church stands out, exemplary Mozarabic-Visigothic, as the most important religious monument of the Early Middle Ages in Spain. Currently, the church, which occupies the center of the complex, and the center of interpretation which has been installed in the adjoining rooms, also restored, can be visited. The scenery that is observed from Santa María is also characteristic of the area. ==History== Santa María de Melque came into being as a monastic collection in the 7th and 8th centuries inside of what was the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom, Toledo. Construction commenced in the 7th century, coinciding with the end of the Visigothic kingdom, and probably came to a halt with the arrival of the Arabs, to be continued later. There was originally a Roman settlement on that location, with five dams across the two brooks that surround the small, rocky hill. Next the monastery was built with the buildings organized around the church. The Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula did not immediately end with this monastic nucleus, because there are testimonies of the survival of a Mozarabic community that later disappeared. Its constructions were used as urban nucleus and its church was fortified with the construction of a tower on the dome of the church, tower that is still preserved. Water from rain and from the gullys was detained by means of dams placed both sides of the complex. With the conquest of Toledo by King Alfonso VI of León and Castile in 1085, the temple recovered its liturgical function without losing its military function. The anthropomorphic tombs located to the east and the remains of barbicans that remain are testimonies of this historic period. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Santa María de Melque」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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