Ermita El Calvario

The Ermita del Calvario is a small chapel located on a hillside in the Sierra de Ubrique mountains, at the foot of a rocky knoll called La Viñuela, and it can be seen from anywhere in our village.

It was founded sometime around 1700 by Fray Buenaventura as part of the Vía Crucis which he created and which started at the Ermita de San Antonio.

Padre Buenaventura de Ubrique, who was probably born in 1691, is one of the most popular characters in our history. Everybody knew his name, and his sayings and miracles were touchingly passed on from mothers to their children. He was the ”Apostle from La Serranía".

Fray Buenaventura, not only founded the Calvary Chapel in Ubrique, but in almost all the villages in the Serranía region of Cádiz.

The Via Crucis and the Calvary in Ubrique were built with the help of all the townspeople, who worked for nothing, providing materials and resources, and they were similar to the one which departed from the Casa de Pilatos for the Cruz del Campo in Seville, and those constructed in many other towns in Andalusia.

The posts lining the Via Crucis started at the Church of San Antonio, and were crowned with simple wrought-iron crosses.

The Via Crucis ended at a small chapel with a simple, modest altar venerated by the Cristo del Calvario. The promises, for illnesses, wars, absence and dangers consisted of ordering a mass and lighting a candle for the night, which means that the Calvary was illuminated for centuries as if it were a lighthouse indicating the faith of the people in the village.

In February 1936 the Ermita del Calvario was destroyed and the Cristo del Calvario profaned and destroyed, and with it, small statues of La Dolorosa and San José, which made the people of the town of Ubrique very angry.

What remains of the Calvary features a simple façade, with a triangular bell tower whose bell dates back to 1966, and was sponsored by popular donations and blessed by the parish priest Antonio Rodríguez Gutiérrez with the name of Santa María de los Ángeles.