Miguel Hernández-Josefina Manresa museum

The Miguel Hernández-Josefina Manresa Museum is the main element that contextualizes the life and work of the Orihuela writer in the province of Jaén. Located on the ground floor of the building that also houses the Zabaleta Museum, it collects a large part of Miguel Hernández’s legacy.

The musealization responds to a chronological discourse that runs through the work and life of the poet and his wife, trying to convey the poetic sensitivity of Miguel Hernández and the depth of his life messages; the cultural value of his work and its social significance; the didactic dimension of the poet as an icon of the universal values ​​of the human being such as simplicity and constant personal effort, among others; and literature as a positive attitude towards life and as a tool for social and solidarity commitment.

This compendium of values ​​runs through six exhibition halls:

  • The reception area, where his main works are exhibited and a feedback panel synthesizes the life and work of the poet.
  • The “Perito en lunas” room, where aspects of his childhood and youth are exposed, as well as his first trip to Madrid and the influence that this causes in his work.
  • The “El Rayo que no cesa” (The Unending Lightning )room, where the museum discourse is marked by his relationship with Josefina Manresa, as a companion and poetic muse. The relationship with other poets and friends and the impact caused by the death of Ramón Sijé are also present.
  • The “Viento del pueblo”(The Village Wind) room, where the time that Miguel Hernández was in Jaén during the Civil War and the imprint it causes on his work is recreated. At this time he wrote the famous poem “Aceituneros”.(Olive Gatherers)
  • The room “Cancionero y romancero de ausencias”(“Songbook and ballads of absences”), where his dramatic prison via crucis is shown, illustrated with the recreation of a gloomy cell and where some of the beautiful verses he wrote during his captivity are exhibited, such as the famous “Onion Lullaby ”.

The tour ends in the room “The Poet’s Legacy”, a room for reading, workshops and audition, where you can see the impact of his work on a touch screen.

You can also enjoy the poet on the walls of the Museum, since there are different plaques with verses of his works on display that make the walk very enjoyable.

Hernándian corners

Quesada has a medieval neighborhood with narrow streets embedded in the terrain, snowy facades and huddled with orchards of pots, which make this town one of the most beautiful towns in the province, and there is no better way to get to know it than through Miguel Hernández and Josefina Manresa.

The city council has had the pertinent and timely initiative to further embellish the town through different mosaics in different streets of the Historic Centre, where you can read and contemplate verses and drawings by Miguel Hernández or passages from the memoirs of Josefina Manresa in relation to the town or author. An excellent way to get to know Quesada and enjoy reading the poet’s work, since the setting is unique.

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Panels and mosaics by Miguel Hernández

The Quesada town hall also pays tribute to the poet and Josefina Manresa through panels that inform and invite you to visit the Museum and through large mosaics, where the relationship between both with the town is explained. The mosaics located in the Plaza de la Constitución stand out, where the spaciousness of the space and the presence of a music band invite to recite the poet’s verses.

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Josefina Manresa`s house in Quesada

The house where Josefina Manresa was born is still preserved in Quesada, on January 2, 1916. A building that cannot be visited or has any type of museum, just a ceramic plaque where Quesada proudly shows the birth of his favorite daughter in that house.

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Monastery of San José del Salvador

Saint John of the Cross arrives at Beas as Prior of the Calvary Convent because Mother Ana de Jesús (whom he held in great esteem, so much so that he directs h Spiritual Canticle) considers the need to have the spiritual assistance of the most Discalced close to their community, because, as they were based in La Peñuela (La Carolina), so far from Beas, they were very rare.

The Calvary Convent has been completely altered and converted into a large farmhouse, conserving only some parts of it and a spring of water, which may well be the one that inspired the Carmelite saint stanza 35 of the Spiritual Canticle, which is engraved on the statue of Saint John of the Cross that is in the entrance square to the Monastery of San José del Salvador:

“Let’s rejoice, Beloved,

and let me see your beauty

through the mountain and the hill,

where pure water flows; let’s dive deeper into the thicket. ” (…)

The visit to Calvary is not available, yet it is in the Monastery of San José del Salvador of the Order of the Discalced Carmelites where the mystical poet acted as confessor and spiritual director of the nuns, the main historical space where to follow in the footsteps of the Saint and where he felt so comforted throughout his stay that he continuously returned to Beas to spend even long periods of time, as shown in some of the letters he regularly sent to the Carmelites.

(…) Do you think that, even though you see me so silent, I lose sight of you and miss the vision of how easily you can be saints, and how, with much bliss and safe protection you can walk in the delight of the beloved Spouse? (…)

Letter from Fray Juan to the Carmelites of Beas who reproach him for his delay and forgetfulness in replying them. (The Hundred Notices of Beas).

On the other hand, the Monastery of San José del Salvador was the tenth foundation of Santa Teresa and the first in Andalusia and its convent complex, its church, built during the first half of the seventeenth century, of a beautiful classicist baroque, stands out.

At the entrance square to the Monastery you can see the statue of Saint John of the Cross (and another of Santa Teresa) and inside, you can visit the museum-reliquary of the Monastery, housing remarkable various liturgical ornaments and relics of Saint John of the Cross, a bust of the Saint, a copy of the original drawing of Mount Carmel made by himself for Mother Magdalena del Espíritu Santo, nun of Beas, or the Book of Professions with seven unpublished autographs of the mystic poet, among other elements of interest.

You can also visit the parlor where Saint John of the Cross confessed and spiritually attended to the nuns. In it, there is a painting by the famous painter Ricardo Sanjuán, which represents the arrival of the Saint to Beas and the first interview with his nuns.

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Interpretation Center of the Villa de Beas, the 16th…

It is located next to the Sanctuary of the patron saint of the town, the Virgen de la Paz, in an old convent-school of Madres Calasancias, built in the 19th century on the remains of the old Castle and Fortress of Villa Vieja.

The Interpretation Center is divided into two different spaces, the History area and the Mystic area.

In the thematic area of ​​History, the visitor can explore aspects related to Beas de Segura, such as its history, the different noble families, the castle-fortress, the Order of Santiago and the Encomienda, the symbolism of the bull or the folklore of the town .

In the Mystic area, the figures of Santa Teresa de Jesús and Saint John of the Cross are the basis of this thematic space and you can visit the room of the dwellings and that of the mystical scale, and enjoy an allegory of the mystical garden , among other elements of interest.

Way of San Juan de la Cruz

The Way of Saint John of the Cross is a pilgrimage route that begins in Beas de Segura and concludes in Caravaca de la Cruz.

The Way originates from the beginning of 2016, at the initiative of the Discalced Carmelites of Caravaca, with the support of the Discalced Carmelites of Beas, to promulgate the heritage, landscape and ethnographic legacy of those villages it crosses and bring tourists or pilgrims closer to his message, his mystique and his poetry.

A pilgrimage route of 151 km, performed by the Saint as Vicar and confessor of the Carmelite convents.

The Way runs through the old communication routes from the 16th century and its purpose is to promote tourism and culture of the figure of Saint John of the Cross. The municipalities that belong to the Camino are Beas de Segura, Hornos de Segura, Santiago-Pontones, Nerpio, Moratalla and Caravaca de la Cruz.

The tourist and pilgrimage routes are configured with beginning and end in the municipalities of Beas de Segura and Caravaca de la Cruz, and vice versa, linking the religious, cultural, historical and literary heritage of each municipality around Saint John of the Cross, with the intention that the tourist or pilgrim travels all the localities on the route.

Plaza del Pópulo / Plaza de los Leones( The…

As with the Plaza de Santa María, Federico García Lorca describes the Plaza del Pópulo or de los Leones in an admired and somber way, lamenting the abandonment in which it is found.

LOST CITY (BAEZA) I Baeza

(…) In a serene square, which has an elegant but mutilated and shattered little palace, a graceful altar with rag flowers next to the aristocratic seriousness of a triumphal arch with a warrior’s air, and a fountain with lions blurred in the stone ( …)

The Plaza del Populo was one of the most important squares in Baeza, which housed the main public buildings. In this square there were institutions such as the Old Butchers -current seat of the courts-, the Civil Court and Public Notaries or Pópulo House -current Tourist Office-, the Arch of Villalar, the Puerta de Jaén or the Fuente de los Leones , named for the ornamental elements in the shape of a lion from which the water gushed out and that apparently come from the Ibero-Roman ruins of Cástulo, which today is in question, because for experts in Iberian sculpture its siliceous stone carving and its formal appearance suggest a much more modern chronology.

Convent-College of Carmen-San Basilio

As you can see, the name of the Convent-College can be misleading: del Carmen or San Basilio? The reason is because, although the convent was called Nuestra Señora del Carmen, the popular name could be San Basilio because he is the patron of the College:

“Note that this school from the day it was founded was given as Patron Saint Basilio and has Nuestra Señora del Carmen as title, and yet many call it San Basilio for not distinguishing between Patron and Title”

“Estudios Joselinos” 46, 1992, pp. 15-25, taken from GABRIEL BELTRÁN O.C.D . Testament of Fray Gregorio de San Angelo, in “Saint John of the Cross” No. 12, 1993, pp. 279-291.

The convent of Nuestra Señora del Carmen in Baeza is where Saint John of the Cross founded the first Colegio Mayor of the Barefoot Order, which was intended to be established in localities with training centers (remember that Baeza was a university headquarters) so that better prepared vocations could emerge.

The mystical poet remained in this city of Jaén until 1582 as rector of the Colegio Mayor, a position that shows the public recognition of his high intellectual level, although he personally refused to teach at the university.

Unfortunately, the original building was torn down in years sixties of the twentieth century to build the new building that currently belongs to the School of Arts and Crafts of the city, with no vestige left of the place of such great importance. Except for a statue dedicated to the Saint in the entrance garden to the School of Arts and Crafts.

Vicar’s House

Saint John of the Cross resided in the so-called house of the Vicar throughout his stay in Baeza, until 1582. This house, which is still preserved, was the first house in which the Carmelites lived when they arrived in the city, to immediately move to the houses of Juan de Escos, in La Calancha, and later in the new convent (Convento de Nuestra Señora del Carmen). It has a backyard closed by the city wall.