With its imposing size and location, the ancient church of La Asunción, or “El Piquete”, dominates the town of Quinto. This Mudejar structure was originally used for military defense purposes, with construction estimated to have begun in the early 15th century, attributed to Mahoma Rami, master bricklayer for Benedict XIII, or Papa Luna.

The building is now owned by the municipality and after more than three decades of restoration work, was reopened in 2017 as a social and cultural venue.

The history of its construction is rather complex. It was originally a Mudejar-style church with a single nave divided into three bays, featuring side chapels and a pentagonal apse plus two towers at the corners of the west end (there are references to a second tower, in addition to the one still standing, which may have stood on the Gospel side, although there are no architectural traces of its existence).

The original nave volume was increased in height and finished with a passageway of small round arches, typical of the Renaissance style in Aragon, in the 16th century, at which time some of the interior chapels were also remodeled.

The last two bays of the nave were added in the 17th century and the large chapel in the first bay, which opens to the Gospel side, is even later. The complex history of the building’s construction has led to hybrid forms and somewhat imbalanced exterior volumes that nonetheless render it highly interesting in terms of its uniqueness and the shapes of the decorative motifs and architectural features.

The entire exterior is made of exposed brick, and the original volume, spanning from the east end to the bell tower, can be clearly distinguished from the Baroque addition located at the west end. This latter is slightly higher and decorated in an austere fashion, its most striking feature being the enormous triangular pediment decorated with mutules crowning the gable of the west end. Running along the upper section of the original 15th century building is the Renaissance-era arched passageway resting on the former eaves over step pyramid-shaped corbels. The passageway arches running along the nave volume are double and rounded whereas those over the east end are slightly pointed.

The most striking features of the original structure are the openings, the door and the tower.

A complex window, composed of three small pointed arches separated by octagonal mullions and framed in a large molded arch of the same shape, opens up on each of the façades.

The portal consists of a straight recessed arch over which there is a pointed arch framed by a surround. Both display a series of concave and convex moldings forming archivolts that rest on engaged colonettes topped by small capitals with plant motifs in very poor condition. In the tympanum there are three canopies that must have once held now-lost sculptures and heraldic coats of arms with a diamond pattern and two four-legged animals. There are also draped coats of arms in the spandrels with two crosses and plant elements in the center.

The tower is located in the center of the south wall, where the west end of the church originally stood. It has a square footprint with four sections separated by friezes of sawtooth decorative motifs and cornices resting on step pyramid- shaped corbels. The brick decoration, with four- and eight-sided interlacing motifs, is striking, covering the entire panel of the second section and framing coupled pointed-arch windows surrounded by a larger pointed arch decorated with a brick surround in the third section (originally the belfry).

The final section was created when the tower was raised in height in the 16th century, and is also decorated with somewhat simpler Mudejar-style interlacing designs. Above this section stands a crenelated top followed by a cone-shaped spire. The interior structure consists of a cylindrical central buttress with a spiral staircase.

The church interior contains a single nave divided into four bays, of which the two at the west end, dating from the Baroque expansion, are shorter. Side chapels are built into all the bays, and display a wide variety of characteristics depending on their intended purpose and construction period.

The five-sided polygonal apse is covered by a ribbed vault with triple torus molding on the ribs, which join at a central boss. Pointed arch arcosolia are built into the central walls, located under the aforementioned windows, the central one of which has been filled in and features trilobed arches crowned by Gothic tracery and a small rose window. Shallow chapels are built into the straight sides, each of which is covered by differently designed rib vaults. During the 16th century remodeling, elegant portals were added, featuring surbased arches flanked by pilasters and crowned with friezes overflowing with decorative reliefs showing mythological figures and beasts and medallions containing portraits.

The four bays of the nave are covered by quadripartite rib vaults, the ribs of which are resting on pilasters joined by a molded entablature decorated with mutules, both resulting from the remodeling done in the 18th century. They all have side chapels.