Convento de San Jose de Carmelitas Descalzas - Granada

Granada is one of the 17 cities that received the name "Teresian" because of the Monastery of San José de las Carmelitas Descalzas.

The Convent of the Discalced Carmelites was founded by San Juan de la Cruz together with the nuns sent by Santa Teresa de Jesús, from the town of Beas de Segura in Jaén. It was the penultimate congregation founded during Saint Teresa's lifetime. The foundresses arrived in Granada in 1582 .

In 1584, Saint John of the Cross, under the guidance and guidance of Saint Teresa, bought from Jesus the old house of the Dukes of Sessa , descendants of the Great Captain. The congregation had to rebuild the building and the new church was consecrated in 1629.

The church has two Mannerist doorways of gray Sierra Elvira stone. The doorways are very similar in composition and are characterized by their doors with lintels, with semicircular arches, set between Doric pilasters on plinths.

Above each door is a curved split pediment with a niche, and another semicircular pediment surmounted by a cross. Small Carmelite coats of arms are placed on either side of the cross.

On the main entrance there is a 17th century niche with a group of statues of the Holy Family, made by Alonso de Mena. There is also a large cartouche with an inscription recalling the life and death of the Gran Capitán in this house.

The church is surmounted by a belfry with a double bell tower . The interior consists of a single nave with barrel vaults, a pattern repeated in the transept arms and apse.

Willem Vandenameele