Convent of Alcántara - C.I. North Santiago Way

The Convent of Alcántara consists of three buildings: the Convent of Alcántara, the Church of San Pedro de Alcántara and the Chapel of the Venerable Third Order. Of these, there remains part of the building used as a hostel for pilgrims on their way to Santiago, the Church of San Pedro which houses the Cultural Center of Alcántara on Mindonienses writers and musicians as well as the Interpretation Center of the North Road to Santiago and the Chapel of the Venerable Third Order of San Francisco where the images that procession during Holy Week are kept. At present this complex, except for the VOT Chapel, is a disentailed building, that is, it ceased to be the property of the church in the 19th century, during the disentailment process. This meant that its life was very short, barely a century, since the friars settled in the convent in 1730 and were exclaustrated in 1835. Bishop Muñoz y Salcedo wished to create a monastery of the Barefoot Alcantarine Fathers and so he made it known to the Chapter, which agreed with him on the spiritual needs of Mondoñedo and the suitability of carrying out the foundation. Once in agreement, they raised the request to the corresponding ecclesiastical dignities and in 1727 the first friars were already in the city to look for a location and finalize the agreements for the foundation. The land considered suitable, located at the end of what is now the small square of San Xoán, belonged to the Cabildo and, after compensation, the works were authorized, but were slowed down by a dispute arising from the opposition of the religious of the Convent of Los Picos. In 1729, following an agreement, the request was submitted to Rome and the work continued. The approval of Rome arrived in 1731 and with it the religious of the Alcantara were authorized to begin community life. Together with the construction of the convent, the Church of San Pedro de Alcántara was built with an architecture similar to that of the convent. This is a construction of a single nave with three sections. It has vaults and a vaulted dome. The chapel of the VOT, built in 1731, is a contiguous building to the Church of San Pedro, it presents a plant with three differentiated spaces: Nave, Presbytery and Sacristy. The Main Altarpiece is by Andrés de Barriera (1743) of Regional Baroque style with three bodies. The person in charge of the works will be Fray Lorenzo de Santa Rosa (master builder of the Convent of Vallamañán). The Alcanarinos fathers were exclaustrated in the confiscations of the 19th century, so the convent and the church ceased to function as such. Even so, the church had a religious recovery in charge of the Passionist Fathers during part of the 20th century. Today it houses the museum content already indicated.