Simon Wade
ORIHUELA Council has obtained authorisation to proceed with the rehabilitation project of the old Savings Bank of Our Lady of Monserrate.
Sabina-Goretti Galindo, the city’s Councillor for Major Projects, announced the project on Friday, after notification from the Conselleria de Cultura.
Galindo explained: “In the coming weeks, we will receive the execution project that will allow us, shortly, to start the tender for the work.”
Background
According to tradition, the site was built over the former gothic Parish of Saint Julian, after unearthing the image of the Virgin Mary once the city had been recaptured from its Moorish occupiers.
It is a Baroque temple in the shape of the Latin Cross with a Neoclassic facade featuring the anagram of Our Lady of Monserrate.
The interior features the Hallazgo chapel, which houses a cave, the site on which the image of the Virgin Mary appeared and above her.
The high altar houses the niche with the Virgin of Monserrate, the city Patron Saint.
Reviews on social media are consistently positive, with Salvo Cagliostro commenting, ‘Magnificent, especially during Holy Week’.
Jesus Antonio Diaz Riera went as far as describing the sanctuary as, ‘a work of art’.
