THE CONVENT OF SAN PEDRO DE ALCÁNTARA

RELIGIOUS BUILDING, HOUSE OF CHARITY AND THE FIRST EDUCATIONAL CENTER OF ÍLLORA

The building in which we are, that at present it shelters the dependences of Íllora’s Town hall, belongs to the former church of the Convent of San’s Pedro Order of Alcántara. According to the Geographical

Statistical Dictionary of 1850, the license for his foundation was asked in 1669, being supported the costs of construction by the neighborhood. The conclusion of the works of the church took place in 1688 and the convent in 1694, but on August 30, 1835, because of the ecclesiastic disentailments, the convent was extinguished and all his goods and effects were sold, except the church that was kept opened the worship, in spite of that it was in poor condition of conservation.

Later, in 1898 a few attached houses are acquired, on the part of the town hall, to the church of the convent to shelter to a daughters’ community of San Vicente’s Charity of Paúl, to give assistance to the patients and to give Religious and free education to poor girls. This way, from 1899, this institution is founded and in 1902, in addition, there is created a boarding school in which fifty per cent of the squares they did not suppose any cost. This Congregation gave his services in Íllora only until 1910,

when the destined sisters here had to leave to another locality where his presence was more necessary.

Starting in 1910, the buildings attached to the Convent Church were acquired and until 1968/69, the year of construction of the Gran Capitán Public School, these facilities housed up to four schools.

In architectural sense, the building presents a simple construction, with smooth walls and without vain whose plant of Latin cross exhibits a few arms of cruise with few width. In the wings, still there remains part of the convent’s cloister to which the church belonged.

THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE SAN PEDRO DE ALCÁNTARA CONVENT.

Since the end of the 19th century, this building has had within its walls women whose names have not transpired, but at this moment we see it necessary to recover to give visibility to their important work in the town of Íllora in times when their help was invaluable. . In the first place, we must highlight the Daughters of Charity, four sisters of the order of Saint Vincent de Paul who were in charge of assisting the sick between the years 1899 and 1910. Since this year, by converting part of the building into schools We must highlight the figures of the teachers María Avelina Morcillo Ferrón, M. Carmen Martín Gutiérrez, Concha Cardenete Baena and Dolores Ortega García, who left their students in the mid-twentieth.