The beauty of forgotten Jerez: the Barrio de San Mateo

In the bowels of the city, the San Mateo neighborhood rises, the eternal unknown, and perhaps forgotten, corner of Jerez de la Frontera, one of those spaces where the passage of time has hardly been noticed. In one of the most charming places in the city, we will visit one of the most unique urban structures in Jerez, where labyrinths and narrow alleys of Muslim tradition, palaces and stately homes of stale ancestry and winery helmets from the 18th and 19th centuries, are They mix with the daily life of a neighborhood that boasts of being one of the oldest in the city. We start the visit in the outskirts of our beautiful Cathedral of San Salvador to go to the heart of the neighborhood, the Market Square, going up the Cuesta del Espíritu Santo, where we will enjoy one of the most spectacular views of the cathedral building from the Convento del Espíritu Santo, the oldest of the female convents in Jerez. Once inside "the city of Bacchus", we will pass by the Founder winery, linked to the Domecq surname, the oldest in our city, and then head to visit the amalgam of palaces in the area, including the Ponce de León, the Riquelme Palace and the Camporreal Palace. Already in the Market Square, we will refer to the Municipal Archaeological Museum, one of the most important in the province, which we always recommend visiting, with an excellent collection of pieces that go from the Paleolithic period to the Modern Age, and whose central core is a mansion from the late eighteenth century that responds to the typology of patio house. The Church of San Mateo, the Chapel of Santa Marta and the Church of San Lucas are mandatory stops on our route, which will also be shrouded in a halo of mystery, as the Barrio de San Mateo is a place full of secrets, curiosities, stories implausible and legends like that of the Rincón Malíllo, stories that are transmitted from generation to generation and that even today do not leave those who listen to them indifferent. A route that combines heritage and mystery, very attractive, with which we put our grain of sand to relaunch the Barrio de San Mateo. Get to know Jerez, Live Jerez, Feel Jerez!