The monumental complex of the former Convent of San Francisco de Paula was built by the “frailes Mínimos” (Friars Minor) at the beginning of the 18th century. It consisted of the church, convent, hospice, and hermitage, which occupied a space of more than 2,400 m2, and the well-known “Huerto de los Frailes” (Friars’ Orchard) enclosed by a wall, which delimited the area destined for the orchard.
The image shows the convent’s brick façade, with a stone plinth and a three-storey layout. The church is unfinished, as are the two towers designed to span the main entrance to the church. On the far right is the archway and the belfry with two sections to house three bells, which indicate the place where the Convent’s hermitage used to stand.
The Minim friars, whose motto was Charitas, were characterised by their strict vow of poverty and their dedication to the neediest. Established, since their arrival in Alcantarilla at the end of the 17th century, in the primitive hermitage of La Salud, next to the Puente de las Pilas, in 1704 they requested the erection of their Hospice-Convent in a place closer to the town, moving to the new convent together with the venerated and disappeared image of Nuestra Señora de la Salud, patron saint of Alcantarilla, to worship her in the projected church of the Convent.
The works were probably never finished, although the Minim friars, until the disentailment of Mendizábal in 1835, lived there, providing constant assistance to the sick and needy of Alcantarilla, and carrying out great social and cultural work.
