Village
Municipality of the comarca of Mesa de Ocaña, in the province of Toledo, of Celtiberian origin and with a fuero conferred by Alfonso VIII in 1223, whose principal monument is the collegiate church of San Benito Abad, a late Gothic temple designed by Alonso de Covarrubias, raised between 1533 and 1570 and known as the cathedral of La Mancha for its three naves of equal height; to its two Renaissance doorways are added the vineyards of the La Mancha denomination of origin, the melindres of its confectionery and the gypsum and limestone quarries that reoriented its economy.
Monument
A great late Gothic church of white stone designed by Alonso de Covarrubias and built between 1533 and 1570. Its three naves of equal height with star vaults have earned it the nickname of the cathedral of La Mancha.
Monument
The collegiate church has two Renaissance doorways: the main or western one, with a high relief dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels, and the southern one, presided over by a free-standing figure of Saint Benedict the Abbot.
Monument
Yepes preserves remains of two walled enclosures with five gateways and two defensive towers, one semicircular in plan on Calle Santa María and another rectangular one on Calle Fray Diego.
Monument
Also called the San Cristóbal gate, it is one of the four 15th-century gateways preserved from the walled enclosure of Yepes.
Monument
Also known as the San Miguel gate, it is part of the group of 15th-century entrances that still punctuate the old town of Yepes.
Monument
The Puerta de Toledo of Yepes, also called the Puerta del Carmen for the altar dedicated to the Virgen del Carmen that it houses, is one of the four 16th-century gates preserved from the town's wall. It stands next to the convent of San José and San Ildefonso, and was part of the walled enclosure together with the gates of Ocaña, Madrid, Nueva and del Hondón.
Monument
The Puerta Nueva, popularly known as the Puerta de la Lechuguina, was part of the second walled enclosure of Yepes, built in the 14th century as the town's urban layout took shape, one of the five accesses of that enclosure. It faces the orchards of the valley and is preserved together with the gates of Ocaña, Madrid (or San Miguel) and Toledo; only the Puerta del Hondón has disappeared, which also faced the valley and of which there were still standing remains at the end of the 19th century.
Monument
The Picota de Yepes (Mesa de Ocaña, Toledo) is a 15th-century jurisdictional pillory in Isabelline Gothic style, adorned with pearls typical of that style, a symbol of the town's authority and its own jurisdiction. The Inquisition used it as an instrument of punishment: the condemned were raised up and tied to the top step to expose them to public shame. Its current location is not the original one, as it had to be moved because of land appropriations.
Monument
An arcaded square presided over by a distinctive three-storey neoclassical building known as the Casa de las Buhardillas, built under the supervision of Juan de Villanueva.
Monument
Convent of San José and San Ildefonso, of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, founded in 1606 by the local noblewoman Catalina del Castillo and built in Baroque style to the design of friar Alberto de la Madre de Dios. Of the four convents Yepes once had at the height of its splendour, it is the only one that survives intact. Its church holds paintings and works of notable artistic value, as well as a relic venerated as one of the heads of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.
Monument
A 17th-century charitable building which, together with the Hospital de la Concepción, bears witness to the economic and social power of Yepes in the early modern period.
Monument
The Ermita de San Sebastián is a 17th-century Baroque church that forms part of the group of minor churches surrounding the historic centre of Yepes (Toledo). Built in rubblework with ashlar at the corners, it has a rectangular plan with three naves of equal width separated by ten Doric stone columns on a tall plinth, a flat head with a round-arched triumphal arch, and a main chapel. When the precinct was enclosed as a cemetery, two small rooms were added, one on each side of the altar, and today it lies within the cemetery itself. It was probably presided over by a canvas by Luis Tristán depicting the martyrdom of San Sebastián, now kept in the convent of San José and San Ildefonso.
Monument
The old town preserves numerous manor houses with coats of arms on their façades, wrought-iron grilles, wide balconies and interiors arranged around the typical Toledan courtyard.
Curiosity
Yepes (Mesa de Ocaña, Toledo) earned the nickname Toledillo during the 16th and 17th centuries, its period of greatest socio-economic strength, in reference to the monumental wealth of the neighbouring capital. Its prosperity rested on the trade in white wine, olive oil and craft work such as wrought ironwork. Much of its heritage dates from that period: the Colegiata de San Benito Abad, designed by Alonso de Covarrubias between 1534 and 1570; the Baroque convent of San José and San Ildefonso, founded in 1603 by the local nobility; the Hospital de la Concepción, from 1600, for the poor and travellers; and several noble houses with heraldic facades and decorative ironwork.
Curiosity
The settlement goes back to a Celtiberian site. In Roman times the town was called Hippo, under Muslim rule Hepes, and from that the present name derives. Alfonso VIII granted it a charter in 1223.
Curiosity
This urban landmark recalls the autos-da-fé held by the Inquisition in the town, one of the most singular vestiges of its historical memory.
Curiosity
Calle de la Sinagoga marks the start of the old medieval Jewish quarter, a reminder of the coexistence of Christians, Muslims and Jews at this crossroads.
Curiosity
The painter Luis Tristán (Toledo, c. 1585-1624), regarded as El Greco's best pupil, worked in the master's workshop between 1603 and 1606 before spending a period in Italy, between 1606 and 1613, which shaped his mature style: a tone of grave harshness, with earthy tones against which touches of luminous colour flash, and figures sturdier than El Greco's stylised ones. His link with Yepes is embodied in the altarpiece he painted in 1616 for the town's collegiate church, with six scenes from the life of Jesus and eight half-length figures of saints. The town is also linked to other figures such as friar Diego de Yepes, royal confessor.
Historical milestone
When the commercial role that earned it the nickname Toledillo ran out, Yepes redirected its economy towards the subsoil: quarries of gypsum and of limestone and a cement industry that in the twentieth century became the municipality's main employer.
Food and drink
Sweet of almond and sugar dough bathed in white icing, proper to the convent baking of the town and tied to the patron saint festivities. It is the preparation with a name of its own that Yepes contributes to the sweet repertoire of the Mesa de Ocaña.
Food and drink
The wines of Yepes had a literary fame in the Golden Age, with verses by Góngora and the local saying that asks what a man came to Yepes for if he did not drink wine. The vineyard is still worked within the La Mancha designation of origin.