The church of the Convent of San José reopens — Caravaca de la Cruz, October–November 2026

Teresa of Ávila founded the convent of San José at Caravaca de la Cruz in 1576, the twelfth house of her reform. The church was rebuilt in the eighteenth century; the complex was listed as a Bien de Interés Cultural in 2003, and the Region of Murcia bought it in 2021 for 800,000 euros. A first phase of restoration, costing more than 1.4 million euros from European Next Generation funds, has now finished: the facades inside and out, the roofs of the church and its bell-gable, the mural paintings and vaults, the altarpieces, access, and the services a public building needs to hold guided visits, exhibitions and concerts.

The church opens to the public on Saturday 3 October 2026, four hundred and fifty years after the foundation, in a year that is also a Sanjuanist jubilee. The opening concert is given by Cantoría, a vocal ensemble that sings Iberian Renaissance polyphony and early Baroque, with a programme built around Francisco de Zurbarán and the artistic, religious and musical world of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Spain. It also opens the tenth Ciclo Teresiano-Sanjuanista, which runs to November.

The programme

• Friday 2 October 2026, 4.30pm–7.30pm — open day: the restored church can be visited.
• Saturday 3 October 2026, 10.30am–2pm and 4.30pm–7.30pm — open day.
• Saturday 3 October 2026, 8.30pm — reopening concert by Cantoría, on Zurbarán and the Spain of his century.
• Sunday 4 October 2026, 10.30am–2pm — open day.
• 15 October 2026 — poetry recital, within the tenth Ciclo Teresiano-Sanjuanista.
• 22 to 29 October 2026 — theological conferences.
• November 2026 — seminars given by the Instituto Teológico San Fulgencio.

Practical details

• When: 2 October to 30 November 2026
• Where: church of the Convent of San José, Calle Mayor, 30400 Caravaca de la Cruz, Region of Murcia, Spain
• Organised by: the town council of Caravaca de la Cruz with the Instituto de Turismo de la Región de Murcia and the regional ministry of tourism, culture and sport
• Information: Oficina Municipal de Turismo, Calle de las Monjas 19, telephone 968 702 424

Caravaca de la Cruz is one of the five cities in the world granted a perpetual jubilee, and one of the fourteen towns of the Huellas de Teresa network. Cultural Heritage Online lists this reopening for readers following Teresian heritage and the restoration of religious buildings in Spain.