Real Convento de Santa Inés

Located in the heart of the city of Écija, the Royal Convent of Santa Inés belongs to the Franciscan Clarist Congregation. It was first founded outside of the city walls, later moving to its current location, two hundred yards from the city centre, adjoining the path that led Our Lady of the Valley to the Shrine of the Virgin, which is where the name comes from. It was definitively founded in 1487.

According to tradition, the convent received valuable contributions from the beginnings of its foundation, which included contributions from the Catholic Queen, Isabella of Castille, who stayed at the monastery and paid many alms, which were used to pay for the choir stalls, choral books, bring water to the convent, etc. The Empress Maria of Austria and the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia were also guests of the convent, and they bequeathed to it valuable relics, including a thorn from the crown of Jesus. The nobility of Écija and the city council showed their affection for the Franciscan monastery.

The church is a large nave covered with barrel vaults and lunettes in the main nave and a dome above the crossing. It is richly decorated with plasterwork, paintings of the Marian Mysteries and Franciscan scenes, of little artistic worth but of high ornamental value. The church was built at the end of the first quarter of the 17th century, and it was master builders from Écija who created such an unusual composition.

The main altarpiece comprises two parts: the first is a large central piece with the monstrance and side panels for the images of Saint Joseph and Saint Joachim, with a tabernacle underneath, with a hemisphere crowned with a lantern containing a sculpture of the Virgin. The second part of the altarpiece completes the top of the chapel and has different artistic elements of average artistic value, in particular a relief of the history of Saint Clare and the Saracens, from around 1630.