Parish Church of Purisima Concepcion

In the Spain of the XVI century, it was common to build a great temple of ashlar and Renaissance style at the same time it was built another kind of construction made with poorer materials. It was called mudejar or Moorish style, made with humble materials like bricks or rammed earth, although ashlar was sometimes used for some parts. This is the case of the Parish Church of Nuestra Señora de la Concepcion, built in the same period that the Parish Church of El Salvador.

This building, started in 1532, rises over an old church of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John, devoted to care for the sick and dying person and bury the dead.

The hospital was demolished after the nursing home facilities were built.

The restrained and austere looking church combines Muslim elements with Renaissance style, which was being set in Caravaca at the beginning of the XVI century. Rationality and economy was searched in this building, giving more importance to the creation of an organic space than to light and orientation.

It has sole forty metres length nave by twenty-three metres wide. Two symmetric chapels work as a transept, the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John chapel on the left and another with less architectural interest on the right, by which the church service facilities can be reached.

The ceilings are of particular note- we have to differentiate the one in the presbytery from the one that covers the main nave. In the presbytery, the ribbed vault with tiercerons traditionally gothic covers the ceiling and the main nave is covered by an impressive wooden coffering (mudejar typical material). It is divided in three sections, each one of them with a different ornamentation, which make them a unique work among other mudejar buildings.

The coffering had a pictorial decoration done that does not block the wood colour. The colours still keep their light and liveliness. This work is of the first third of the XVI century with jointed rafters, held by round arches.

In the central vaulted niche, the high altar reredos of La Inmaculada Concepcion, saint of the church, by Francisco Fernandez Cano made in 1792 is remarkable.

The tower was built in the XVII century at the head of the church and it has four bodies.

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