HERMITAGE OF HOLY CATALINA AND OLD CEMENTERY

Though we know exactly neither the moment of his construction, according to D. Antonio Verdejo’s work The confraternity and the hermitage of Holy Catalina of Íllora, we have references on her from 1598, moment in which the Licentiate Diego Muñoz, alderman and doctor of the villa, left for testament the order of which the day of Holy Catalina, November 28, was doing a procession to itself to this hermitage.

On the structural characteristics of the building we do not know a lot of information either, but yes we know, for the mentioned work previously, that it could be a building of rectangular plant, with a window of approximately 1 ‘ 5 meters of height to give clarity to the interior and in order that the people could see mass from out. In his interior one was giving the existence of a choir, which was lengthened in 1641 and in 1741 a sacristy was constructed. The access could be done by two doors, the false one and another so called “door of the Sun” for being probably orientated in the eastern part. The call was doing to the public by means of a bell of 31 kg, placed on a reedmace.

In 1785, it is constructed, contiguous to the hermitage, the cemetery of Íllora’s villa, which was the first cemetery public and located to the suburbs of the village, to expire with the measures of hygiene and public health promulgated by Carlos III. It was known later as ” Old Cemetery “, and had usefulness until 1915, when one began to use definitively the current one, inaugurated in 1878.