MONUMENTS
IN CARAVACA DE LA CRUZ

Originally, the project was commissioned by Jaime Bort. However, it was later modified by the architects Fray Juan de Sta. Teresa and Juan García Galán. The building was finally carried out by Antonio del Campo, the master builder from Caravaca. The main works ended in 1762 and the first mass was held on January 3th, 1763.

The building has three floors. Generally, all the parts are characterised by an ornamental simplicity and sobriety, except for the façade.

Inside the plenary chamber, an enormous oil on canvas can be seen. The painting is a copy from an original work of Rosales that is currently exhibited in the Museo del Prado. The theme of the painting is the testament of Isabella I of Castille. 

The monument consists of two clearly differentiated parts: the walls and the sanctuary.

Despite its Islamic origins, the monument has undergone many changes. Nowadays, fourteen different shaped-and-sized fortified towers are spread along the wall. The fortress belonged first to the Order of the Temple, and later to the Order of Santiago ¿a Spanish Christian military order. Moreover, the castle was used for military purposes during the Spanish Succession War and the Peninsular War.

The Santuario de la Stma. y Vera Cruz (the Holy True Cross Sanctuary) was built in the heart of the old fortress in the 17th century. Then, in the 18th century, its magnificent baroque façade was annexed to the sanctuary. The monument as a whole, whose guidelines resemble those of the Monasterio del Escorial (El Escorial Monastery, Madrid) was declared a national Artistic-Historical Monument in 1944. No doubt the presence of the Vera Cruz (the Holy True Cross) has contributed to the sanctuary preservation.

The church has a Latin-Cross plan, a continuous gallery over the lateral naves, and also a dome over the transept. Recently, the Museo de la Santa Vera Cruz (the Holy True Cross Museum) has been reopened in the sanctuary rooms.

Ventajas para peregrinos del Camino de Caravaca
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Los orígenes del castillo de Celda se han de remontar a época islámica, al igual que un relevante poblamiento asociado a la fortificación, que se sitúa en la fachada oeste del cerro.Incluso algunos autores han identificado estos restos monumentales con el castillo de Yayttilla, mencionado por el geógrafo musulmán al-Udri a mediados del siglo XI.
No obstante, es ya en época cristiana, a partir de la segunda mitad del siglo XIII, cuando las noticias referentes al castillo comienzan a ser más reveladoras. Gracias a ellas sabemos su final dependencia de la Orden de Santiago y su probable abandono y destrucción hacia el siglo XVI.
En la actualidad, podemos contemplar las ruinas de una fortificación adaptada a la cumbre del cerro, con planta casi rectangular y torreada, en cuyo interior se conservan aún varios aljibes. Hacia la ladera oriental se situó el poblamiento, cuyos restos son apenas perceptibles. Todas estas estructuras constructivas se encuentran declaradas Bien de Interés Cultural por la Disposición Adicional Segunda de la Ley 16/1985, de 25 de junio del Patrimonio Histórico Español.

The convent, along with the church, stands out due to its large dimensions. It takes up almost a block within one of the most central places of the villa.

The convent follows the Jesuitical architecture, with a single nave and side chapels connected to one another. Nowadays, the church is used for temporary expositions as well as cultural acts, depending on the schedule of Caravaca’s town hall. 

The oldest neighbourhood of Caravaca is found around the hill of the castle.

A concentrated and fortified population centre begins to form in the 16th and 17th century. This neighbourhood has the typical irregular and disorganised structure in which alleys are intertwined, little squares can be found and dead-end streets appear.

It was surrounded by a wall, whose remains can still be seen in several streets. 

The tower has a square floor and appreciable proportions. It was totally built with a garden wall of excellent execution. Over the centuries, the tower became a part of the buildings from a farming exploitation that nowadays has also disappeared. The origins of Alonso Navarro go back to the 12th century; however, a date of later construction cannot be rejected. The tower, considered already from the Christian time, is probably related to the defence policy and the territory control practised by the Order of Santiago.

The fortification is declared a heritage of Cultural Interest (BIC) by the Second Additional Provision of Law 16/1985, from June 25th of the Spanish Historical Heritage. Recently, a superior section, provided with openings divided and topped by attachments that seem to imitate battlements, has being joined firmly. 

The archaeological ensemble is composed by several deposits that cover a wide chronological arch, from the Palaeolithic until nowadays.

The Iberian-Romans villages of Villares and Villaricos, the village of the Placica in the Algar, the Palaeolithic village of Cueva Negra and specially the sanctuary from late republican period (I century B.C) stand out.

The hermitage, built over a former Iberian temple; and a wide stone quarry, is one of the most important in the Region of Murcia. Along with other deposits from the Roman times of Caravaca, they supply documentary evidence of the Roman villages in this area from the Region of Murcia.  

In the archaeological complex of Encarnación, several archaeological deposits from different periods can be found: Middle Palaeolithic, Middle Bronze Age, Iberian, Roman, Muslim village with the cave of the King Moro, until the Hermitage of the Encarnación from the 16th century. 

It is located around a narrow pass deepened by the Quipar River. This constitutes a mandatory visit of the important natural route that from the Prehistory has communicated the Levante and the Alta Andalucía. There, different deposits can be found. 

Its construction started in 1532 on the former church Cofradía Hospitalitaria San Juán de Letrán. It is a Renaissance building of unique beauty. Its semi-circular arches and pillars, which lead to the chapels which make the transept, account for the artistic innovations carried out. All of this due to the influence of El Salvador's work created in the same years.

In its interior stands out the magnificent Mudejar coffered ceiling made of polychromatic wood from the 16th century. It has joined rafters that hold the semi-circular transverse arches. The main chapel, or "Capilla Mayor" made of masonry, is covered with a ribbed vault. And finally the Baroque altar from the 18th century with a statue of the Purísima Concepción by Francisco Fernández Caro, Salzillo's disciple. Likewise it is important to mention the so-called "Torre de los Pastores". This tower has four modules: three of them made of masonry and one of them made of solid bricks. The tower had a double mission; to inform a possible risk of incursion from its watchtower to the new castle nearby, and to work as a reference point for the shepherds of the area, therefore its name.

It was the first church in Caravaca, built inside the former walled enclosure and restored later in the 16th century. Nowadays the church is a local archaeological museum. In its interior, several archaeological materials from the Palaeolithic Period until the Middle Ages are exhibited, standing out those from la Encarnación complex.

Founded by Saint Teresa of Jesus in 1576. The building has two different parts: the church and the monastery of Carmelite nuns. The church, a one nave building, was rebuilt in the 18th century with a baroque decoration.

This beautiful sample of religious architecture, treasure of the Renaissance in Caravaca and Murcia, was built between 1534 and 1600. The tower was finished later.

It is a hall church, unfortunately incomplete, and it has three naves which rest on wide walls and four columns in Ionic order (of almost two meters in diameter each one), that support the ribbed groin vault at a great height. Around the three naves are distributed seven chapels which construction has been funded by several local noble families. In some of these chapels can be observed wonderful grilles, a piece of work by the artisan Ginés García.

In this church is also noteworthy the retable (altarpiece) of the high altar, which was made by José Sáez, from the disentailed church of the Jesuit order. In such a way, the expression of refined painting, goldsmithing and sculpture it offers are worth mentioning. The Iglesia del Salvador (Church of the Saviour) was declared Monumento Histórico-Artístico Nacional (Historic-Artistic Monument of National Interest) in 1983.

The monastery of Discalced Carmelite Friars of Caravaca was founded in 1586, with the direct intervention of San Juan de la Cruz himself. The monastery had a hazardous existence, because in the 19th century it was disentitled and in the 20th century it was used as a school and as an inn.

Alfonso XI gave to the Order of Santiago and his Infante Don Fadrique the administration of his villa castles from Caravaca, Cehegín and Bullas. He gave to Pedro López de Ayala the encomienda of Caravaca.

In 1450 the Encomienda stops belonging to the Order of Santiago to become a secular manor of Alfonso Fajardo the brave. In 1461 the Order recovers the encomienda and since then significant changes start happening regarding the True Cross.

From the beginning of 1470 until 1525 the vicar Diego Chacón and his brother, the governor of the Kingdom of Murcia and the Knight Commander of Caravaca, Juan Chacón, had to make important interventions in the chapel. They placed their weapons next to those of the relic. It is the beginning of a relationship that is no longer with the Order to become part of the family. The veneration of the Fajardos for the True Cross and that will last until well into the 18th century. Only during the Fajardos‘duty the encomienda of Caravaca will keep fiction of an Order of Santiago owner and lady of those territories.

After the expropriation of the Order of Santiago, it fell into private hands.

This baroque building, which rests upon a hexagonal layout inscribed in a circumference, consists of four different bodies: the podium, on which the building stands and from which two pillars rise; the main body closing the space and shaping the monument; the dome which rests upon a four-column structure, which is covered by Arabic tiles and, lastly, a lantern with six openings.

The fortified tower of the Templars, which now houses the Centro de Interpretación de la naturaleza, is located on the site of Fuentes del Marqués, 2 km away from the centre of Carvaca. This estate is named after its former owners, the Marquis of San Mamés, and after the natural springs. It is precisely these crystal clear waters and the surrounding nature which attract tourists to this environment.

The origins of the fortified tower are very confusing. The current fortified tower is supposed to have been built on the foundations of an earlier tower. The first known dates of building on this site are by the Arab geographer Al-Himyari (13th to 14th century).

This is an area of great scenic, cultural and ecological interest, which has retained a high level of environmental quality as a result of the favourable physical conditions of the environment and a good relationship between the human life and biotic life that sustains it.

In the area there is the council facility of the hostel Fuentes del Marques in the area.

It can be accessed from the asphalt road (Las Fuentes) that draws from Caravaca itself, approximately 2 km from there. There is also pedestrian access using El Camino de Huerto (a famous walking path in Caravaca).