Convento de San José del Carmen - Seville

This community of Discalced Carmelites settled in Seville in 1575 under the leadership of Saint Teresa herself, who traveled to the city to oversee its foundation.

They settled first in a few houses in Calle Alfonso Saint John of the Cross himself took part in the transfer of the nuns to their new location, as he was in town to oversee the operation.

It was decided to buy the house of a Sevillian banker named Pedro de Morga. His house was a classic 16th-century Sevillian palace , so it was decided to use the courtyard of the house as the cloister of the new monastery.

The cloister of the Monastery of Las Teresas is therefore a courtyard with Renaissance style arches around which all the rooms of the cloister are located. The courtyard is rectangular in shape and has arches on marble columns, semicircular arches in the lower gallery and segmental arches in the upper gallery, a feature common in other Sevillian palaces.

On the outside, the facades leading to the church and the entrance to the monastery are joined together, both with very simple entrances with lintels. The only decoration at the entrance to the monastery is a small mural with the order's coat of arms , flanked by cherubs. As for the facade of the church, what stands out is the enormous tiled roof that covers the entrance and is held in place by wrought iron brackets.

Inside , some original paintings from the 17th century have been preserved, depicting various symbols and saints referring to the Carmelite order. Artistically, the most interesting part of the monastery is the church, dating from the early 17th century, with a design attributed to the late Renaissance architect Vedmondo Resta. It has a rectangular plan with a single nave and a square chancel. The nave is covered with a barrel vault with lunettes and the choir with a semicircular vault. On the sides are large niches in which altarpieces have been placed as side chapels.

The main altarpiece is the work of the assembler Jerónimo Velázquez from around 1630 and combines paintings on canvas and statues in a fairly classical late Renaissance composition, inspired by notable models such as those of Martínez Montañés and Alonso Cano.

The central niche contains a beautiful representation of Saint Joseph with the Child , the work of Juan de Mesa. The iconography in which the Child Jesus points the way to Saint Joseph is continued here. On either side are the most important saints of the order, Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa of the Cross, in two anonymous statues from the 17th century. The paintings on canvas that complete the altarpiece are anonymous and also deal with themes related to the Carmelites.

Also by Juan de Mesa is the beautiful Immaculate Conception that occupies the center of one of the side altarpieces. The Virgin is depicted in the classical arrangement of his iconography, but dressed in the habit of the Carmelites. It is flanked by Saint John the Baptist and the prophet Elijah, and in the attic there is a relief depicting the Mystical Wedding of Saint Teresa. With the exception of the Immaculate Conception of Juan de Mesa, the rest of the images on the altarpiece are anonymous, although they are considered very close to the style of Pedro Roldán.

The rest of the altarpieces contain a good collection of Sevillian painting and sculpture, mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Unfortunately, free visits to the monastery church are very limited and are practically only possible during mass hours.

Willem Vandenameele