Ermita de San Sebastián

The Ermita de San Sebastián is a small hermitage in Colmenar de Oreja, a town in the south-east of the Community of Madrid, roughly fifty kilometres from the capital and set in the Castilian farming country above the Tajuña valley. This description concentrates on what kind of place it is and the setting it belongs to rather than on specific dates or features.

An ermita in Spain is a small chapel, usually on the edge of a town or out in the countryside, built and maintained by the local community and often tied to a patron saint and an annual festival. Many were put up in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, frequently in simple masonry with a modest porch or bell gable. San Sebastián, or Saint Sebastian, was a Roman soldier and martyr, usually shown tied to a tree and pierced by arrows. His feast falls on 20 January, and he was widely invoked in the Middle Ages against plague, which explains why so many small shrines in Spain carry his name. In town and village life, the saint’s day is often marked with a procession, a mass and shared food, and the chapel is opened for it.

Colmenar de Oreja has an interesting historic centre that gives the hermitage its context. The Plaza Mayor, an irregular, arcaded square with wooden balconies, is the centre of the town, and the Church of Santa María la Mayor is one of its main religious buildings. The painter Ulpiano Checa was born in the town, and a museum in his name keeps his work. The town is also known for its tinajas, the large clay jars once used to store wine and oil, and for its wine-growing tradition, which belongs to the wider Madrid wine region. The Convent of La Encarnación and other religious buildings add to the town’s heritage.

A visit to the hermitage works best as part of a wander through the town, taking in the Plaza Mayor and the narrow streets, rather than as a destination in its own right. Because the building is small and may be closed outside festivals, treat it as a place to see from outside, in the manner of many small Spanish hermitages, check locally before going, and keep expectations modest. The surrounding area is quiet and agricultural, with open views and good walking weather in spring and autumn.