The Hermitage of Cristo de la Misericordia is also known as the “the old parish church.” It served as the parish church up until the 16th Century when the actual parish church of San Pedro was built in the center of the village.
Actually, the building can be seen from a distance as it overlooks the village. It has a solid construction of granite ashlars, a small quadrangular East End and a wide nave separated into five sections, a bell cote, and three doorways. The main doorway is found on the northern side, another one on the west, (it is now blinded) and one on the south side. Elements from the Gothic style can be seen on the doorways. Since the church has suffered diverse reformations in a short time, it is difficult to interpret the different constructive phases that started during the Romanesque period. Probably, construction of the church began at the East end and its first expansion was the elevation of the cornice. Later the rest o f the church would be elevated to the same height, giving it some defensive characteristics.
In the chapel of Cristo de la Misericordia, in Hinojosa, the Plan has renovated the interior lighting and the sorroundings of the temple by improving the access road and installing street furniture that allow the creation of different spaces, including a lookout area.
One of the objectives of the Atlantic Romanesque Plan is to achieve an optimal level of protection and maintenance of heritage assets, using the latest technologies and the most innovative solutions. In this regard, the chapel of Hinojosa de Duero has been integrated in the Monitoring Heritage System (MHS). MHS is a system that controls, in real time, various parameters that can affect the conservation of the temples, such as moisture or temperature. These are difficult to monitor visually and in some cases may pose a risk to the conservation of buildings and works of art. To avoid this and to improve the protection of the monument, the system has a number of sensors installed in the church, which emit data to the control center on a regular basis and wirelessly, where they are processed and interpreted. In the occurrence of a potentially dangerous situation, a team of experts can act rapidly. We call this 'preventive conservation'.
