The origins of the Real Archicofradîa de Nuestro Padre del Dulce Nombre de Jesús Nazareno y Marîa Santîsima de la Esperanza religious society date back to 1489, just a few years after the reconquest of Malaga by the Catholic Monarchs, when a Dominican community was set up alongside the Ermita de Santa Marîa de las Huertas, located on the right bank of the River Guadalmedina. The building of the Convento de San Carlos y Santo Domingo el Real, to which this preachers’ order was assigned, commenced in the early XVI century on land adjacent to the aforementioned chapel.

The community brought with it to Malaga the statue of Cristo bajo la advocación del Dulce Nombre de Jesús Nazareno, an image especially popular among the coopers’ guild that was so significant in the district at the time, an economically-prosperous sector in view of the importance of the wine-producing industry founded by the Cofradîa del Dulce Nombre society via a papal bull issued by Pious IV in 1651. According to documentation brought to light by Father Llorden, in 1567 the Dominican community donated to this society one of the chapels closest to the apse of the church itself. This chapel, which had previously belonged to Captain Hernán Lorenzo de Zafra, was completed in 1579.

In 1606, in conjunction with other religious societies in Malaga devoted to charity and penitence, it took part in the organisation of what we now know as the Holy Week celebrations. The very first procession saw the origin of the traditional blessing given by the statue of Nuestro Padre del Dulce Nombre to the people of Malaga in the Plaza de la Constitución, then known as Plaza de las Cuatro Calles, which, in accordance with papal bulls issued by Paul V (1606) and Benedict XII (1727-1729), conferred one hundred days of indulgence upon all those who received said blessing with due solemnity.

Besides the temple there is a fabulous museum wirh the huge processional thrones, as well as a sample of religious art that includes painting, carving, metalwork and embroidery extends over two floors with an area of 400 square meters.