This parish church was built at the end of the 17th century and forms part of the heritage of the village of El Río. It was in the year 1674 that the people agreed that San Bartolomé Apóstol should be their patron saint, but the current image did not appear until the year 1691 (Author: D. Domingo de Campos).
The building was first built as a small chapel which underwent enlargements throughout the 18th century. In 1774, the date of 24th August was established as the feast day of Saint Bartholomew, whose image began to be, at the end of that decade, accompanied by a Christ and the adored Virgin of the O (whose feast day is celebrated on 18th December). Among other small items of property, around this time the holy water font made of stone was also included.
During the 19th century, the building continued to be reformed and enlarged. It was then that the belfry and the sardinel and altarpiece with a stone ledge of the main chapel were built. In 1836, the belfry of the main door already existed, with the old bell from the burnt down chapel of La Punta de Abona, donated by the bishop. In the 20th century, the new parts of the tower were built, the interior of the church was restored and the large bell was installed. In 1929 it was established as a branch of San Juan Bautista (Villa de Arico), and became a parish church in 1944.
The hamlet of El Río, inhabited long before by ancient settlements, was built around the church of San Bartolomé, conditioned fundamentally by the use of the abundant water that flowed and which allowed the cultivated land to be maintained, except in some episodes of drought that were also suffered in these parts.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, numerous infrastructures were also built to allow the storage and channelling of water. Some examples of these are the so-called atarjeas, made of wood or stone; and a place of great ethnographic interest such as the Lavaderos de El Río, carved in chasnera stone (original to the area) and located on the heights of the village (up the C/San Bartolomé, about 250 m), in the old place of “Las Canales del Río”, a place where the villagers used to meet when they went to fill the containers and take the water to the house. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
