Ermita de Santa Bárbara

Religious

The hermitage of Santa Bárbara de Monóvar (Province of Alicante, Spain), located on Santa Bárbara Street of that town, is a religious building built in the 18th century in the Baroque style. Built on one of the two hills that dominate the city, it can be seen from a distance, and it draws, along with the castle and the Clock Tower, the characteristic silhouette of Monóvar. It was built on a large stone base at the end of the 18th century, after demolishing the previous one, which was erected between 1692 and 1694 by Tomás Estacio. The style of the chapel follows Valencian Baroque models, but derives from clearly Baroque Italian positions, with a soft neoclassical mixture. It is the only one of the diocese that uses the curve, and there is only another hermitage of these characteristics in the whole Valencian Community, the chapel of the Communion of Santa María de Elche. Its authors may be José Gonzálvez de Coniedo or Lorenzo Chápuli. It is an isolated building with a rectangular floor divided into three different spaces. To the south there is an arched porch with three arches on stone columns, in the intermediate zone the elliptical chapel and to the north the sacristy or house of the santera. A half-orange dome rests on the cornice; dome that in the exterior (outside) is observed in double curvature, finished in glazed tile in blue color The interior highlights the floor of large stone slabs, and the decoration based on garlands, borders, weeping in relief and the use of Corinthian capitals.