The extraordinary exhibition ‘Great city‘values the heritage of the city of Caravaca de la Cruz, while opening the doors to the Jubilee Year of the True Cross 2024.
Promoted by the Camino de la Cruz Foundation, of which the Autonomous Community, Caravaca de la Cruz City Council and the Vera Cruz Brotherhood are promoters, together with the patrons, You can visit, from December 5 to February 18, 2024, in the old Church of the Company of Jesus of Caravaca. All the details about it were offered today in the presentation, in which the Minister of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports, Carmen Conesa, the mayor of the town, José Francisco García, and the curator of the exhibition, Nacho Ruiz, participated. .
According to Conesa, this exhibition “is the culmination of a period of research into the artistic heritage of Caravaca de la Cruz, and includes, through 40 works of art, a journey that begins in the 16th centuryand which runs through the Renaissance and the Baroque.
The title ‘Magna urbe’, magnificent city, refers to the fact that we are “before one of the most monumental and important cities in the Spanish southeast, not only from the cultural and architectural point of view, but also from the spiritual point of view,” he noted.
In this sense, the selection of works is made based on the temporal story that the city represents, combining some of the key pieces moreknown in the city with unpublished, recovered or reconstructed worksso that milestones already studied are completed with paintings, sculptures and historical documents from Caravaca de la Cruz that will definitively enrich the historical-artistic heritage and knowledge of the city itself.
Furthermore, the headquarters of the exhibition, the Church of the Company of Jesus, was the intellectual center of one of the most powerful cities, which attracted religious orders, under the shelter of the True Cross, from the 16th century to the 20th century. XVII.
During the presentation, the restoration work on the oil painting was announced.Appearance of the True Cross between Saint Félix and Saint Régula’, dated 1680, which contains a topographical view of the city of Caravaca de la Cruz in that year and which had not been exhibited until now. The neglect suffered for centuries and the lack of understanding of what the painting represented had left the painting in an advanced state of deterioration, from which it has been rescued through its restoration.
The work is a votive offering, a donation from someone in gratitude to the saints representedin which the client pays tribute to them and asks that the Vera Cruz and the city of Caravaca be shown next to them.
The exhibition, promoted by the Way of the Cross Foundationhas been possible thanks to the main sponsorships of Desserts and Dulces Reina, Grupo Fuertes, Estrella de Levante and Costa Cálida, along with the collaboration of the La Caixa Foundation and the participation of the Catholic University of Murcia, Limcamar and Café Salzillo.
Since its beginnings in 2017the Foundation has mobilized a total of four million euros (including donations, collaboration agreements and sponsorships) promoting a multitude of actions, projects and initiatives for promotion, communication and infrastructure improvement, among which stand out large exhibitions such as ‘Signum. The glory of the Renaissance in the Kingdom of Murcia‘; ‘Mystics’ and ‘Saint John and Saint Teresa in the Golden Age’, and the restorations of the facades of the parish of El Salvador and the convent of Santa Clara, as well as the signage of the Camino de la Vera Cruz and the entrance to the road to Caravaca through the old town.
Forecasts indicate that the Jubilee Year 2024 can attract up to one million pilgrims and visitors to Caravaca de la Cruz and the Region, doubling the figure for the last Jubilee Year, in 2017, which attracted 500,000.
