Iglesia de San Juan Evangelista

Iglesia de San Juan Evangelista in Almería is a parish church that hides, beneath its Christian interior, remnants of one of Islamic Spain's most significant buildings — the city's former main mosque. Standing on Calle Almanzor in Almería's historic center, it is a rare place where layers of history sit almost literally on top of each other: a Gothic-Mudejar church wraps around a thousand-year-old Muslim mihrab.

How did a mosque become a church?

The mosque was built in the 10th century, as the caliphs of Córdoba strengthened Almería as a fortified port on the Mediterranean coast. Over the following century the building grew: the geographer al-Udri recorded successive enlargements carried out under local Taifa rulers, Jairán and Zuhair, who each added naves and extended the courtyard. In 1489, after the city fell to the Catholic Monarchs, the mosque was consecrated as a Christian church, and part of its original Islamic structure — including the valuable mihrab — was folded into the new building.

What survived from the old Great Mosque?

The earthquake and the wave that struck Almería on 22 September 1522 devastated much of the city, including the original mosque-turned-church. Almost nothing of the earlier structure remained standing except a stretch of the qibla wall and its mihrab, the niche marking the direction of prayer toward Mecca. That surviving fragment was only properly identified and studied in the 1930s by the architect and scholar Leopoldo Torres Balbás, whose work confirmed the scale and character of the vanished mosque. The mihrab carries elaborate plasterwork decoration attributed to the Almohad period, in the 12th century, and today it ranks among the few Islamic remains of its kind preserved inside an Andalusian parish church.

What does the church look like today?

The building seen today was raised in the second half of the 17th century, between 1674 and 1686, over the ruins left by the earlier destruction. Builders incorporated the surviving mihrab into the new structure as a separate chapel, so visitors can now view a Christian parish interior standing directly beside a centuries-old Islamic element — an unusual pairing anywhere in the region. The church still functions as an active parish in central Almería and remains one of the few tangible traces of the city's former main mosque, a building medieval Arab chroniclers described as having six rows of fourteen columns, most of them marble quarried nearby at Macael, along with a courtyard planted with citrus trees and a well used for ritual ablutions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can visitors see the old mihrab inside the church? Yes, the surviving section of the mihrab sits inside the church as a distinct chapel, and it is the main reason the building draws visitors interested in Almería's Islamic past.

Why did the original mosque disappear? The city suffered severe destruction from an earthquake and accompanying wave in September 1522. Only the qibla wall and its mihrab survived, and the current church was later built on that foundation.

When was the present church building constructed? The current structure dates to the second half of the 17th century, with construction placed between 1674 and 1686.

Is the church still used for religious services? Yes, Iglesia de San Juan Evangelista remains an active parish church in central Almería, combining ongoing religious life with its role as a historically significant monument.