Church of Our Lady and the Convent of the Franciscan Friars

Church of Our Lady and the Convent of the Franciscan Friars

A church featuring a luminous semi-spherical dome, a Baroque altarpiece, sculptures by Pedro de Mena, and a convent with a cloistered courtyard and a monumen...

Although the church was founded in 1558, its current appearance is the result of work carried out in 1620 by the Malaga-born master builder Francisco de Lucena, on the site of an old medieval chapel. A simple Mannerist façade leads into a spacious nave on a Latin cross plan, with side chapels, centred around a high, luminous semi-spherical dome. The high altar is presided over by a beautiful Baroque-Salomon style altarpiece, crafted by José Matías Sánchez, based on designs by Leonardo Antonio de Castro. Also noteworthy are the side altarpieces and a collection of religious sculptures of considerable interest, including several figures attributed to Pedro de Mena and the image of Our Lady of Sorrows, a Pietà created in 1799 by Blas Molner. The adjoining convent is organised around a beautiful, large square courtyard comprising two cloisters, upper and lower, with arcades supported by Doric columns in the lower cloister and Ionic columns in the upper one, and centred on a monumental fountain with a mixtilinear plan and a Baroque double-bowl pillar dating from the early 17th century.