{"id":8532,"date":"2022-11-25T13:48:33","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T12:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitbocairent.es\/?page_id=8532"},"modified":"2023-05-24T13:27:14","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T11:27:14","slug":"the-cave-monastery","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.visitbocairent.es\/en\/the-cave-monastery\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cave Monastery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row top_padding=&#8221;40&#8243; bottom_padding=&#8221;40&#8243;][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h5>The convent building of the later monastery is a noteworthy construction designed by Vicente Pascual, the modernist architect from Alcoy. Inside the enclosure is another construction of even greater value; an ancient subterranean convent that was excavated out of the rock and which only a few people had the opportunity to visit before it was closed in the 18<sup>th<\/sup> century.<\/h5>\n<p>Its history goes back to the year <strong>1556<\/strong>, when mos\u00e9n Melchor Ferre decided to found a monastery for nuns that consisted of a private secluded enclosure with a Cave Monastery excavated inside. On 10<sup>th<\/sup> March 1556 six nuns arrived in Bocairent from the Convent of Hope in Valencia, although it wasn\u2019t until 10<sup>th<\/sup> October later that year that they actually occupied the convent. The convent-cum-monastery was put under the order of the \u201cSacred Lady of Sorrows and the Blessed Wise Men\u201d. In 1700 the Cave Monastery was sealed off and a second convent built, which in turn was replaced by the current monastery in 1902.<\/p>\n<p>The first impression you get when entering the chapel is one of surprise. The 48 square metre main room has been expertly carved from the rock and contains precisely chiselled roof mouldings. There are a variety of connecting chambers that lead off this room that give on to a large conical extractor chimney (rising 10 metres tall with an exterior opening at the top), and which have all been perfectly conserved.<\/p>\n<p>Inside the convent you can visit the church, which was used by the nuns exactly as it still is until the year 1700, and from then onwards as a place of prayer until 1900. For the first twenty years after the founding of the convent, the nuns had to live in rooms where the conditions were of dampness and an absence of sunlight, mainly due to the extreme austerity of those early times.<\/p>\n<p>After the first two decades, the nuns abandoned the cave cells and lived in the houses that once belonged to mos\u00e9n Melchor Ferre, who on his death had left them to the nuns. These two houses are communicated to the primitive subterranean convent located directly below them.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;]<div class=\"box clearfix style-4 wpb_content_element align-center \" style=\"padding: 20px 20px 20px 20px; \">\n<h4><strong>Visit to Cave Monastery<\/strong><\/h4>\n<a href=\"\/en\/series\/visita-monestir-rupestre\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"button color-1 medium \" style=\"border-radius: 2px;\"><i class='fa fa-ticket'><\/i>ENTRANCE TICKETS<\/a><\/div><div class=\"box clearfix style-4 wpb_content_element align-center \" style=\"padding: 20px 20px 20px 20px; \">\n<h4><strong>Combined visit<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Visit to al\u00a0Cave Monastery, Museum of Trades and Customs, Church, belltower and\u00a0Parish Museum<\/p>\n<a href=\"\/en\/series\/visita-combinada\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"button color-1 medium \" style=\"border-radius: 2px;\"><i class='fa fa-ticket'><\/i>ENTRANCE TICKETS<\/a><\/div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tripadvisor.es\/Attraction_Review-g609039-d12156990-Reviews-Monestir_de_Bocairent-Bocairente_Province_of_Valencia_Valencian_Community.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"button green full \" style=\"border-radius: 4px;\"><i class='fa fa-tripadvisor'><\/i>TripAdvisor<\/a>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=&#8221;full_width_section&#8221; text_color=&#8221;custom&#8221; custom_text_color=&#8221;#999999&#8243; top_padding=&#8221;40&#8243; bottom_padding=&#8221;40&#8243;][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/1&#8243;][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;5886&#8243; img_size=&#8221;large&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; onclick=&#8221;link_image&#8221; el_class=&#8221;prettyPhoto&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;5885&#8243; img_size=&#8221;large&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; onclick=&#8221;link_image&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;5884&#8243; img_size=&#8221;large&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; onclick=&#8221;link_image&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;5883&#8243; img_size=&#8221;large&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; onclick=&#8221;link_image&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;5882&#8243; img_size=&#8221;large&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; onclick=&#8221;link_image&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;5889&#8243; img_size=&#8221;large&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; onclick=&#8221;link_image&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;5881&#8243; img_size=&#8221;large&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; onclick=&#8221;link_image&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;5880&#8243; img_size=&#8221;large&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; onclick=&#8221;link_image&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;5878&#8243; img_size=&#8221;large&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; onclick=&#8221;link_image&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;5877&#8243; img_size=&#8221;large&#8221; add_caption=&#8221;yes&#8221; onclick=&#8221;link_image&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row top_padding=&#8221;40&#8243; bottom_padding=&#8221;40&#8243;][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_column_text] The convent building of the later monastery is a noteworthy construction designed by Vicente Pascual, the modernist architect from Alcoy. Inside the enclosure is another construction of even greater value; an ancient subterranean convent that was excavated out of the rock and which only a few people had the opportunity to visit before it was closed in the 18th century. Its history goes back to the year 1556, when mos\u00e9n Melchor Ferre decided to found a monastery for nuns that consisted of a private secluded enclosure with a Cave Monastery excavated inside. On 10th March 1556 six nuns arrived in Bocairent from the Convent of Hope in Valencia, although it wasn\u2019t until 10th October later that year that they actually occupied the convent. The convent-cum-monastery was put under the order of the \u201cSacred Lady of Sorrows and the Blessed Wise Men\u201d. In 1700 the Cave Monastery was sealed off and a second convent built, which in turn was replaced by the current monastery in 1902. The first impression you get when entering the chapel is one of surprise. The 48 square metre main room has been expertly carved from the rock and contains precisely chiselled roof [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5975,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitbocairent.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitbocairent.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitbocairent.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitbocairent.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitbocairent.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8532"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitbocairent.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8534,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitbocairent.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8532\/revisions\/8534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitbocairent.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitbocairent.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}