Convento Santa María de Jesús - Seville

In 1502, the houses for the first monastery building were officially allocated. From then on, a number of nuns began to settle there, forming the first community of nuns.

In the summer of 1765, a lightning strike on the upper part of the residence caused a fire that quickly spread through a large part of the monastery. The nuns took refuge in the convent room and many people came to rescue them and try to put out the fire. It was decided to evacuate the nuns to the Franciscan Monastery of Santa Inés. The extensive damage could be repaired in just a year, thanks to the generosity of the local nobility.

Today the monastery survives through bookbinding (in which they have a great tradition) and through the sale of sweets made by them.

A long wall borders the building along Calle Águilas, with a single doorway, although further on we can see another covered one, on the side of which the door leads to the lathe and the rest of the monastery. Above the walled doorway is a tile of Saint Pancrazio.

The main entrance is in Mannerist style, with a lintel resting on two sober columns, on which two angels hold a cartouche with the text: "Santa María ora pro nobis. Seren. Year 1695". Above the doorway, in a niche, is a statue of the Virgin and Child from the same period.

The church has a rectangular plan with one nave that is accessible from the side. There are no side chapels or altarpieces attached to the walls. The church is divided into a public part and a closed part like typical monastery churches. The central part has a barrel vault divided into sections decorated with plant motifs.

The presbytery has a vault with a wooden coffered ceiling made at the end of the 16th century and decorated with ornaments.

This monastery, like others in the city, is decorated with elaborate altarpieces dedicated to the saints . The main altarpiece that occupies the entire wall of the chancel is dedicated to Saint Mary of Jesus , a beautiful statue of the saint changing the swaddling clothes of the baby Jesus, placed in a niche decorated with twisted columns and crowned by angels and a small niche in the shape of a temple. All this is framed by many statues of saints and other twisted columns of gigantic order.

The monastery is mainly organized into two courtyards, a small courtyard giving access to the lower choir and the large courtyard, which is laid out on two floors, in the central part of which there is a well. In this space there are several service areas for the church and the monastery. The nuns of the monastery are engaged in bookbinding and baking cakes and sell them to the community.

Willem Vandenameele