Description
It is also called Santa Maria de Fenals de Baix as opposed to the old Romanesque church of Santa Maria de Fenals d'Amunt. It is protected as a cultural asset of local interest.
It is a simple building with a single nave that counts with semicircular apses and side chapels. The vaults are edges. The facade shows a low arch door, with no decoration, where there is the date: 1774 and an anagram of Virgin Mary. Above, there is an empty niche and a rose window. The bell tower, located on the north side, is quadrangular, and is unfinished yet.
The “parament” is made of irregular stone, with the exception of framing the openings and the corners of the building, which have carved ashlars.
The new church of Santa Maria was built during the 18th century (1764-1774), replacing the old parish church of Santa Maria. The rugged morphology of the area where the old church was located led to the expansion of the town’s settlement towards Fenals d'Aro, near the coast, offering better communication, from the 16th century, which made the construction of a new temple essential. It seems that since the end of the 16th century, a precedent church to the present one already existed.