Monasterio de la Santa Faz

The Monasterio de la Santa Faz is a Baroque monastery in the village of Santa Faz, about 5 km from central Alicante, on the border with Sant Joan d'Alacant. It keeps the relic of the Holy Face, and each spring hundreds of thousands of people make a pilgrimage to it.

The Santa Faz Monastery stands in the village of the same name, about 5 km from central Alicante, between Alicante and Sant Joan d'Alacant. It is an important place of worship that keeps the relic of the Holy Face – the cloth with which, according to tradition, Christ's face was wiped on the way to Calvary. Tradition recognises three such images: in Rome, in Jaén and here in Alicante. According to the monastery's website, the priest Pedro Mena received the cloth from a cardinal in Rome when he was appointed parish priest of Sant Joan. On 17 March 1489, during a procession to pray for rain, the priest carrying the cloth felt such a weight in the Lloixa ravine that he could not hold it up, and, according to the account, a tear flowed from the image's right eye. The first church was built on the spot in 1489–1490, and in 1518 the sanctuary was taken over by Poor Clare nuns from the convent in Gandia. The only part of the original buildings still standing is a 16th-century tower on a rectangular plan, with defensive features such as machicolations and loopholes. The church owes its present Baroque appearance mainly to an 18th-century rebuilding: it has a Latin-cross plan and a dome covered in blue ceramic tiles. The façade with Solomonic columns was built between 1721 and 1738 and shows the miracle of the Three Faces. Behind the high altar is an octagonal camarín, the chamber where the relic is kept. On 26 July 1936, during the Civil War, the monastery was attacked: the Baroque high altarpiece was burnt and the statues on the façade destroyed, but local residents saved the relic. The composer Óscar Esplá and the artist Eusebio Sempere are buried in the church. Since 2 July 2019 the monastery has been in the care of a community of Canonesses Regular of St Augustine (Canónigas Regulares Lateranenses). Every year, on the second Thursday after Maundy Thursday, the pilgrimage known as the Peregrina sets off for the monastery from the Co-Cathedral of San Nicolás in Alicante; according to the monastery's website, about 300,000 people took part in the most recent one. One visitor describes the chapel with the relic as small but elegant, and another praises the square in front of the monastery. On the day of the Peregrina the area is very crowded, so choose another day for a quiet visit.