This important BIC and oldest female convent in the Canary Islands shows its enormous historical and artistic heritage in a programme of free guided tours.
The Museum of Sacral Art Santa Clara de Asís, one of the most important museum spaces of its kind in the Canary Islands, opens its doors until Sunday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the declaration of La Laguna as a World Heritage City. And it does so with a programme of free guided tours organised by the Department of Cultural Heritage and the Monastery, an opportunity to tour its magnificent architecture, discover the works of art housed within its walls and travel through the five centuries of history of the first female convent founded in the Islands.
The Councillor for Cultural Heritage of La Laguna, Adolfo Cordobés, and the Doctor in Art History and exceptional guide for these open days, Pablo Hernández Abreu, accompanied the media today on a tour of the cloisters and exhibition spaces of this remarkable historic building, declared an Asset of Cultural Interest, with the category of Monument, back in 1978.
Cordobés pointed out that the inclusion of La Laguna on the Unesco list “is a recognition of the exceptional value of our heritage, which not only highlights the importance of preserving and protecting our legacy, a cultural heritage of which the Santa Clara de Asís Museum of Sacral Art is a living testimony, but also reminds us of the responsibility we have to disseminate its importance and pass it on to future generations”.
The mayor recalled that “we have launched a wide range of cultural activities, lasting more than a month and which continues to grow, to celebrate this 25th anniversary. Many institutions and organisations are collaborating in this programme, including the religious community of the Poor Clares, whom I would like to thank, on behalf of the Town Hall, for opening their doors to us and allowing us to contemplate such a well-preserved space that has managed to highlight the value of its enormous heritage”.
For his part, Pablo Hernández, explained that “the visit allows us to take a tour of the magnificent architecture of the monastery and the seven exhibition rooms, which house a legacy of sculptures, paintings, engravings, textiles, gold and silver work, documents, relics, etc., that the community of nuns has been accumulating, caring for and preserving over the centuries”, an important artistic collection that includes works by painters of the stature of Juan de Miranda and Francisco Antonio Vallejo.
The free guided tours, aimed at small groups, will end this Sunday (24 November). This weekend, there will be four visits, at 12:00 and 17:00 on Saturday, and at 10:00 and 12:00 on Sunday. To attend, prior registration is required on the website www.lhorsa.com/lnp.html. For more information, call 696 568 419 and email rutas@lhorsa.com.
Active convent
This Museum of Sacred Art is the only one in the Canary Islands that is located inside an active convent, which also has more than 470 years of history and was the mother house of the Poor Clares in the Canary Islands. The presence and history of this order in the Canary Islands dates back to 1547, when ten nuns arrived in the city of La Laguna from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, although this cloistered convent was not built until 20 years later, thanks to the donation of Olalla Fonte del Castillo.
Consecrated to San Juan Bautista, the convent building of Santa Clara has stood ever since in the centre of the city, on a block bounded by the streets Ascanio León y Huerta, Anchieta, Viana and Nava y Grimón. In 1697, a fire destroyed a large part of the convent, which was quickly rebuilt, and in the 21st century, the building underwent a complete restoration, which has made it possible to harmonise convent life with the museum’s openness to the outside world. All this evolution can be understood thanks to the models exhibited in the lower cloister, next to the 17th century bells.