The parish church of San Pedro Apóstol, one of the oldest in the south of the island, has its origins in the modest chapel that Pedro Soler and his wife, Juana de Padilla, ordered to be built in 1530. This chapel was elevated to the status of a parish church on condition that the Soler family extended it. For this reason, Pedro Soler’s grandchildren demolished the small chapel and built the majestic church that we can see today, finishing the work in the 17th century.
The church has a single nave and a Latin cross floor plan, with a Canarian style and Mudejar-inspired coffered ceiling; it lacks a tower, but even so it is crowned with a beautiful belfry. Above the main doorway there is an inscription stating that the church was finished in 1675, with Matías Ruíz Alfonso as its beneficiary.
Inside the church, the traces of the Soler family can be seen, such as the sun carved in stone that is in the keystone of the arch that separates the naves; the oval wooden shield that alludes to this family and their distinguished position in the society of the time. On the other hand, the oldest and most valuable sculpture in this church is the alabaster Saint Peter, sculpted by Pedro Villar in the 16th century and donated by Pedro Soler to the primitive chapel of Vilaflor, and which has a carved sun on its base that refers to the illustrious family that donated it. This image is located in the left niche of the main altar, while in the right niche of this altarpiece is the image of Saint Brother Pedro de Bethencourt, sculpted by Ezequiel de León in 1981.
In the central niche is a dressed carving of the Immaculate Conception, with crown and silver crescent, which has presided over this altar since the 18th century. On the upper part of the main altarpiece there is a painted papal tiara and crossed keys alluding to Saint Peter the Apostle, the patron saint of this parish. In addition to the main altar, the church has several altarpieces of great beauty and interest (some of them recently restored) which house beautiful images of virgins and saints of great beauty and devotion in the village. There is also an ancient altarpiece painted on one of the side walls, which was discovered during one of the church’s restorations.
This type of altar painted in the form of a mural is rare on the islands, and this one in Vilaflor is one of the most interesting examples.
At the foot of the church is the baptistery, where an old baptismal font from the 16th century is preserved, in which the Holy Brother Pedro received the waters of baptism, and which is still in use today. In the baptistery there are wooden stairs that lead to a high choir, which is located above the main door of the temple and which was built in 1767 by the orotavense carpenter Sebastián Martín. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
