Historical reviews

THE ORDER OF CALATRAVA TO THE JUDICIAL PARTY OF ALMAGRO

Almagro is part of the history of the Order of Calatrava in the same way that the Order of Calatrava is part of the history of Almagro, since Almagro was born and prospered in the shadow of the glorious Cross of Calatrava, where the Master and she was chosen as head of the Order and of the Calatrava field to move the Convent once the castle of Calatrava La Nueva was dismantled and abandoned in 1802.

The Sacred Convent of Calatrava la Nueva:

• It housed the community of religious and served as a novitiate, where the religious authority of the order represented by the Prior resided.
• The ceremonies of profession of faith of the knights were carried out there.
• The archive of the order was kept under the vaults of the Castle
• From the classrooms of the Convent came the parish priests who spiritually governed all the towns and parishes of the order.



The convenience of changing the convent's establishment is very possible that it was first considered when King Philip II, as Master of the Order, remained in the castle during Holy Week in 1560, in fact, he requested from Rome the necessary authorization that It was granted by a Bull of Pope Pius V in 1568, although it was not obligatory to make immediate use of it.

Based on that Bull, a certain movement in favor of the transfer did not cease to exist during the following two centuries; however, this did not materialize until 1802-1804.

Indeed, it seems that works of certain importance had always had to be carried out annually to repair the damage derived from its eminent position; naturally very affected by winds, especially in windows, roofs and pipes.

Added to this are also the damage caused by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, which forced a large part of the Community to be moved to the Calzada Nursing Home for a time. All this makes the Prosecutor of the Council, through a report, propose the convenience of building a new Convent or transferring it to Almagro to the College of Expelled Jesuit Regulars that was vacant. The possibility of moving the convent to the Convent of the Assumption occupied by the nuns of Calatrava is also being considered.

The truth is that the resolution of the transfer was not an easy task since the occupants of the former Jesuits' house were reluctant to abandon it and the Calatrava nuns would only move, improving their situation.

The solution came in 1802, when on June 15 and before a notary, possession of the House of the Grand Masters was given to the Sub-Prior of the Sacred Convent Don Vicente Gutiérrez Thena and then of the House and College of the former Jesuits and their Annexed church.

However, with the French invasion, the intruding Government dissolved all the Military Orders, and created to replace them the so-called Royal Order of Spain to which, through a Royal Decree, all the properties of the extinct orders were added, including that of Calatrava.

Therefore, between 1808 and 1814 the order was dissolved and the calatravos dispersed.

With the departure of the French from Spain, the abdication of Napoleon and restoration of Ferdinand VII, a new problem arises for the Sacred Convent of Calatrava, since having settled in the then vacant building of the Expulsed Regulars of the Company of Jesus, in the time in which this Company was suppressed, and the Conventuals having in turn been subject to dissolution and suppression by the intrusive Government, when the Monarchy was restored the most natural thing would have been its reconstitution in the same building, but with the return already imminent to Spain of the Company of Jesus and the consequent return of its temporalities, among which were the School and the Church of Almagro, it was thought to look for a new building to house the Calatravos.

The Council of Orders agreed that the conventuals would meet in the Monastery of the Assumption (founded by the Chief Commander of the Order, Don Gutiérrez de Padilla) of the Religious Calatravas of Almagro and that they would be transferred to that of their sisters in the Court.

Logically, the nuns resisted this decision, but finally the Monastery of the Assumption was transferred to the Conventuals of Calatrava whose meeting in the Monastery became effective in 1816.

THE CONVENT OF THE ASSUMPTION 1816-1835

The Sacred Convent resided in the Convent of the Assumption for nineteen years, since in 1835 the violent expulsion and suppression of the same occurred, which we know from communications from the Prior of the Holy Convent with the Superior Government Board of the Province that communicated the suppression of the Royal Casal. and urges individuals to request a passport for their new destination, instructing the Prior not to leave until he has made an inventory of the Convent. The Prior addressed a last letter to the Council of Orders on December 29, 1835, but it remained unanswered because the latter, who was already acting out of inertia, could do nothing to prevent the suppression of the religious order.

From the installation of the convent in Almagro until its dissolution, 33 years pass in which a fatal chain of events occurs, a consequence of the bitter vicissitudes that Spain went through, with the French invasion there is a first seizure of the Sacred Convent, and after its restoration and new transfer, now within Almagro, its second and definitive suppression.