Page 6 - Loading brochure

RELIGIOUS
AND CULTURAL

CARAVACA

DE LA CRUZ

CARAVACA
TERESIAN CITY

Part of the “Teresian Cities” tourist route, Caravaca
has a convent founded by St. Teresa of Jesus in
1576. The building has two separate parts: the
Church of St. Joseph and the Carmelite Nuns
Monastery. The church, endowed with just one
nave, was reconstructed in the 18th century and its
decoration belongs to the Rococo style. The
monastery, currently uninhabited, still retains areas
which invite us to live the experience of the life at
the time of St. Teresa. St. John of the Cross passed
through there on up to seven occasions, in 1587
founding the Convent of Our Lady of Carmen of
the Discalced Carmelites of Caravaca, very close
to which was that of St. Teresa. The Saint dispat-
ched him specifically to look after the congregation
first and foremost in view of the fact that, at the end
of her days, she was unable to attend in person
owing to illness, with the City of the Cross
becoming one of the few examples which, in turn,
have the Teresian and St. John’s foundation. St.
Teresa used to wear a Cross of Caravaca until the
end of her days which is safeguarded at the
Convent of the Discalced Carmelite Mother
Superiors of Brussels. This demonstrates her close
relationship with Caravaca and with Vera Cruz, but
also the desire with which the pilgrims acquired the
Cross of Caravaca as a symbol of faith.

Caravaca has one of the best sets of religious
architecture of the Murcia Region: the
Church of Solitude, the Church of the Saviour
and the Company of Jesus, the Shrine, the St.
Claire’s Monastery, the Hermits of St. Helen, St.
Sebastián and the Reja and the magnificent
Basilica of the Holy Saint and Vera Cruz, are
must visits on a route which will leave a deep mark
on the pilgrim.
A fabulous network of spaces which floods a
labyrinthine system of alleys and small squares in
which it is easy to lose oneself in order to find
oneself again.

Caravaca is proud of its people, its gastronomy
and its spirituality and not for nothing is it one of
the places with the most tourist attractions in the
Northwest of the Murcia Region which will look
after the traveller right from his arrival and will not
leave him unmoved.