The Convento de Santa Clara is an old XVI century monastery, recovering the peace and tranquillity that the Clares nuns enjoyed while living there. It is now a cultural and comfortable space where you can enjoy exploring the landscape where Don Quixote and Sancho Panza once left for adventures.It was rehabilitated and it is now the Hotel Convento de Santa Clara.
Our School is located at the Convento de Santa Clara, in Alcázar de San Juan, Province of Ciudad Real. It is approximately 150 Km. south of Madrid.
Alcázar de San Juan is a city situated in the heart of La Mancha and it has an excellent communication network, allowing travellers to easily reach any place in Spain, by either train or road.
More information: www.hotelconventosantaclara.com
HISTORY OF THE CONVENT OF SANTA CLARA
The Chapel, which does not exist anymore, was a holy place for the region. It is said that the people from Alcázar were very miserable because of the devastation produced by a locust plague, and they turned to the Virgin Mary for help vowing to keep her feast forever. The plague disappeared and the people in the village forgot their promise until 1546, when they had to face another locust plague.
Then, the City Council and the University of Alcázar de San Juan decided to re-establish the vow. The news reached the alcazareña nun Sor Francisca de la Cruz, abbess of the Monastery of San Juan of the Penitence, in Toledo, who along with María Fernández, known as the “Pilgrim of Christ”, conceived the idea of founding a Monastery in Alcázar, next to the chapel. It took several years of paperwork until finally the building was constructed in 1564.
Twenty years later, the Franciscan Order granted the Rule to the nuns of The Convent of Santa Clara. In the XVII century, the Monastery was expanded, and the chapel, once properly repaired, became the Convent Church, which has a long nave ending in an apse. The Convent of Santa Clara was excluded from being impounded during the confiscation and secularization of Mendizabal law, in 1835. Nevertheless, the Convent was closed in the second half of the nineteenth century and turn into a military barracks, depending entirely on the Ministry of War.
In 1980, the Convent was finally part of the City Council property, and after a general restoration, is now used for cultural events and as a Hotel and Restaurant. It is run by Gestnova Tecnic CM. S.L. concern.
The nuns were well-known for their exquisite pastry, and their ‘Holy Conception Sweets’, which were small marzipan figurines, were famous and loved by the alcazareños. Also, from the nuns’ kitchen, came the excellent recipe of the “Tortas de Alcázar”, made with fresh local ingredients.
The Convent was built in a plain Renaissance style. From the original building, only the interior patio and the front façade are left as remnants of the original structure from the sixteenth century. The façade is made of pink sandstones and the central entrance has a semicircular arch topped by a triangular pediment, with an opened niche at the crest. This style of geometric spheres was very much used in the construction of El Escorial. There is also the remarkable pinewood coffered ceiling and cloister, in which some new elements were added later, but retains its masonry semicircular arches.
The Convent was declared a Provincial Monument in 1982.
