Cañete la Real – Santísimo Sacramento Convent

The Carmelite Convent of El Santisimo Sacramento – Cañete la Real

The Carmelite Convent of El Santisimo Sacramento is located in the andalusian town of Cañete la Real, province of Malaga.
This convent was funded by the vice-chancellor of the University of Osuna in 1662. The church has a single nave with a half barrel vault. Inside the church we must highlight the main chapel and the choir, where the nuns sing the mass. Its façade presents a lintelled front located towards one side of the temple and next to big buttresses. The convent coserves several original patios and ancient corridor, the rest is almost completely remodelled. It is worth mentioning that the congregation keeps elaborating homemade traditional pastries (like pestiños or mantecadas) which we can buy through their torno, a revolving pass-through similar to a “lazy Susan” characteristic of Spanish and Latin American cloistered convents.

Cañete la Real Municipality

In the north of the Serranía de Ronda, at an altitude of 742 meters, we find the town of Cañete la Real, on one of the arms of the Sierra del Padrastro and limited by the northern foothills of the Serranía de Ronda and by the Sierra de Cañete. , forming a valley watered by the Guadalteba and Corbones rivers, which communicate with the Guadalhorce and the Antequera Depression.

Its geographical location and the characteristics of its orography have undoubtedly been the two main factors that make Cañete la Real an enclave of great historical importance thanks to its strategic position and difficult access, allowing it at times significant independence from the Caliphate of Córdoba and good contacts with North Africa.

Despite the existence of towns from Roman times such as the city of Sabora, and the knowledge of Phoenician presence through sources, perhaps the most significant element of Cañete la Real and, in fact, its place name is the fortress of “Hins Canit” of Muslim origin.

An exact date for the construction of the fortress cannot be set, however chronologies belonging to the 9th century are estimated, becoming a key piece for the rebellion of “Umar Ibn Hafsun against the Caliphate of Córdoba. Read more…