Monastery of Corpus Christi - Bornos - Andalusia

The ancient monastery of Corpus was founded by Per Afán de Ribera , 1st Duke of Alcalá de los Gazules, Margrave of Tarifa, who died in Naples in 1571.

In his will he decreed that a house and hospital or college should be built on Bornos for "twelve noble servants, squires of the duke's house, or other men of good blood and blood of their station".

When the work was half finished the Patriarch came to see it in 1573 and found it very large and the work was discontinued . In order to comply with the Duke's orders, he ordered to occupy another square in the same square opposite and buy some houses for a new house and hospital . The other large building was intended for a monastery.

The monastery was consecrated in 1597 . From the beginning it was decided to populate the convent with poor Poor Clares, but there were no sisters of this order, so the first sisters to inhabit it were from the Cistercian order.

From its foundation to its closure, the monastery has suffered several fires , the worst of which was on April 13, 1685. After the building was completely abandoned, the city council bought it and a year later donated it to the Caixa d'Estalvis de Jerez, who restored it and used it as a professional training center and club for the elderly, reserving certain spaces for communal use. , like the large meeting room. It currently houses the “El Convento” high school.

The building itself consists of two floors and a vaulted courtyard with semicircular arches on the ground floor. The entire building is made of stone and brick. It also has a beautiful staircase with a carved stone balustrade.

Among the precious objects in the audiovisual room, the former sacristy, there are two tombstones embedded in the wall of Francisco Enríquez de Ribera and his wife Leonor Ponce de León, founders of the Monastery of Nuestra Señora del Rosario, where they were buried; His remains and their tombstones were transferred to the Corpus Christi Monastery in 1981.

A solid stone hydraulic wheel well survives from the moment of its foundation, with a spiral staircase leading to the well that provides water for the irrigation of the adjacent gardens , which are now planted and tended and used for rest and relaxation. Recreational area for students, teachers and other staff.

The most characteristic of the ensemble are the sober and unadorned volumes, visible only in the frames of the very simple portals with upholstered pilasters and pyramidal pinnacles.

Willem Vandenameele