Description

The original Sanctuary was built between 1287 and 1304. That building would be replaced by the one designed in the sixteenth century by Andres de Vandelvira, in which architects such as Benito del Castillo and Bernabe de Lorca took part. That temple would be destroyed in the civil war and rebuilt years later by the General Directorate of Devastas Regions.

The facade of the feet is composed of the doorway, arcosino balcony and the belfry with two bodies. The interior is a temple of a single nave covered with a barrel vault articulated with transverse arches and arches with chapels on the side walls, which are occupied by different altars, containing various images, such as a Crucifix by the sculptor Mariano Benlliure, the Virgen del Pilar, Blessed Mark Criado, St. Juan Bautista de la Concepción, the Holy Trinity and the Virgen del Carmen. In the choir there is a magnificent organ, a gift from the Civil Guard, inaugurated by the famous organist Maestro Guridi. After the Main Chapel is the sacristy. A beautiful grille of 1562, the work of Juan Rodriguez de Salamanca and Bartolome Gomez, nephews of the master Bartolomé, individualizes the main chapel, behind which stands the dressing room of the Virgen de la Cabeza. Carving by Jose Navas Parejo, who replaced the former disappeared during the civil war.

The Trinitarian Community made two new extensions. The first consisted of the elevation of the projecting floor, building another pavilion in the rear area of ​​the North wing. The entire structure of the cloister courtyard was completed in a harmonious and functional way. The second phase was carried out in 1965 in the entire north wing, adding a three-story building to expand the dependencies of the Trinitarian priests who attend the service, permanently since 1930.

In the own premises of the Basilica of the Royal Sanctuary, the Mariano Museum is located, where an important artistic, documentary and anthropological exhibition of the historical legacy that the devotion to the Virgen de la Cabeza has been decanting through the centuries is collected.