Mínimas Monastery
On the XVIII of January 1551, the Count and Countess of Ureña founded the convent along with two nuns from the convent of Andujar, Sister Marîa de Jesús Quesada and Sister Antonia de San Josê Montenegros. For the purpose, they donated the palace and the adjacent Ermita de Jesús y Marîa.
The convent, which also became known as Jesús y Marîa, belongs to the female branch of the Minimos de San Francisco de Paula order, which is still in evidence here today.
The convent’s exterior consists of masonry and brickwork and features windows between its pillars. It also has an inner patio which is porticoed on one side.
Its church reflects the intimate nature of closure, while the highlight of its exterior is its unusual Baroque brick tower, crowned by a green and white ceramic capital. It was first built between 1615 and 1618, though it was not finished until the mid XVIII century.
The stone and brick exterior of the building features three sections of differing width separated by cushioned pilasters. The first level of the tower, built in 1782 by the master architects Francisco Astorga Frîas and Antonio González Sevillano, consists of square stone blocks which support an octagonal shaft featuring four brick volumes and a number of cushioned pilasters.
The church has a single nave crowned by a half-barrel vault with lunettes alternating with trefoil sash arches finished off by outlined panels. The presbytery is covered by a semi-spherical vault supported by pendentines decorated with the Order’s coat of arms and bearing a triple ring which serves as a base for the dome, which in turn fulfils the same purpose for the lantern.
The XVIII-century main altarpiece comprises two levels marked out by imposts and three sections. The first level features an image of the Inmaculada flanked by images of two Minimalist saints (Gaspar and Nicolás) at its centre, while the second is decorated by a series of canvases and the third is crowned by a crucifix.
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