Santuario de las Virtudes

Religious

The sanctuary of Our Lady of Virtues, also called Monastery of the Virtues is located in the district of Las Virtudes, in the municipality of Villena (Alicante, Spain). It is located in a natural area next to an old lagoon, currently dried, and about 5 km from the city, near the Fuente del Chopo. The whole is accessed from the east side where the Renaissance portal is located. This is divided into two bodies; the lower one with a semicircular arch between columns composed on a basement. A frieze decorated with figurative and anthropomorphic elements gives way to the upper body, which has in the central part a avenerada hornacina where the image of the virgin of the Virtues is found. It is made of stone decorated with bas-reliefs of garlands and medallions with figures, characteristic of the Renaissance style. The access leads to the rectangular two-story patio. The lower part is ordered by carpanel arches made in brick. The upper floor has French windows. The galleries of the cloister are covered with revolts and exposed wooden beams. The church consists of a main nave and two smaller lateral ones. It is divided into three sections, with a dressing room to the right of the altar and a high choir at the feet. The access is made by the cloister to the second section on the side of the Epistle (the one on the right). The pointed arches separate the sections covered with ribbed vaults that rest on corbels resting on quadrangular pillars. Next to the altar is the dressing room of the Virgin, of baroque style, made in the seventeenth century and square plan; It is decorated with stuccos and paintings that cover the entire space. The paintings are from the 18th century. Outside there are the buttresses of the church, the belfry of small dimensions and the small dome of the dressing room. At the entrance of the Hermitage the history and miracles worked by La Virgen de las Virtudes are collected in tiles. In the esplanade of access is located the fountain with the sculpture of La Rana, dating from 1916.