Church · Santa María de Melque
Iglesia de Santa María de Melque
Today: Iglesia de Santa María de Melque, San Martín de Montalbán
- Place
- Santa María de Melque (San Martín de Montalbán)
- Kind
- Church
- Built
- c. 668 to 729
- What remains
- Standing
A cross-plan church with vaults and horseshoe arches, built with a technique inherited from late Roman architecture, in which a large arcosolium in the south arm suggests it began as a mausoleum. Its date is disputed: radiocarbon on the original plaster gives 668 to 729, and those who date it to the first half of the 8th century read it as proto-Mozarabic rather than Visigothic. A tower was later raised over its dome, and still stands.