Walking down Madrid’s narrow Calle de la Puebla, you might not notice the tall wooden doors set into the front of a modest brick building. Step inside, though, and everything changes. While I haven’t been to every church in the city, I would place my money on the very best church being Iglesia de San Antonio de los Alemanes in Madrid.

What makes this Baroque church so amazing? The floor-to-ceiling frescoes, painted in the mid-1600s by the Italian and Spanish duo of Luca Giordano and Francisco Ricci. Both artists were famous in Spain at the time: Giordano served as court painter to Charles II, and Ricci was appointed a “Painter to the King” under Philip IV. Their work comes together seamlessly, earning this church the nickname “the Sistine Chapel of Madrid.”

St. Anthony of the Germans

Start by looking up at the central ceiling panel, which depicts the church’s namesake — St. Anthony — receiving the baby Jesus into his arms.

To be clear, this is St. Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of the poor (and of sailors, fishermen, and travelers, among other things). The church took on the name “Church of St. Anthony of the Germans” when Queen Mariana of Austria designated it a refuge for German immigrants in 1668. (Side note: the church opened in the early 1600s as a spot for Portuguese pilgrims — but Queen Mariana was not a fan of recently-independent Portugal, so she gave the church to the Germans instead.)

Looking beyond the central panel, you’ll find yourself lost in a wonder of Baroque trompe l’oeil. You feel like you’re standing in a building that stretches up to the heavens.

The Miracles of St. Anthony

Large panels celebrating St. Anthony’s many miracles ring the church walls. You’ll find famous stories including that of St. Anthony preaching to the fish (they listened!) …

… and St. Anthony preaching in a thunderstorm (everyone stayed dry!).

New to me were the miracles of the mule (it bowed down to the saint!) and the miracle of the severed foot (he reattached it!). That last story is a little gruesome — the young man in question chopped off his own foot with a hatchet because he felt bad about having kicked his mother — but all’s well that ends well.

The mid-1700s altar, installed after the original burned down, features a statue of St. Anthony holding the Christ child.

You might not notice the altar, however, because it gets lost in the riot of spectacular decoration.

A small early-20th-century organ sits over the church entrance, and just below it hangs a relatively tiny medallion of Queen Mariana herself.

Visiting San Antonio de los Alemanes in Madrid

A visit to this church is absolutely worth the several-Euro entrance fee. To help you understand what’s going on, they’ll give you a loaner document (available in several languages), though there’s so much artwork that it still took me a while to make sense of it all. But you can absolutely enjoy this place without delving into the iconography; it’s lovely just to sit in wonder at the beauty of it all.

Looking for more to do in Madrid? Here’s a fun, walkable two-day plan for exploring Spain’s capital.