Can there be in Grenade a more historic place than Alhambra? Well, maybe yes. THE hermitage of San Sebastianwhich is much less talked about and which is normally closed to the public, except during masses, can compete for this privileged position with the Nasrid monument. This is pure history, not only of Granada but of Spain.
Because in this small temple, located on the banks of the Genil river and away from the local tourist circuit, it was there that the Catholic kings On January 2, 1492, they met King Boabdil le Chico so that he gave them the keys to the city as a symbolic sign of his capitulation.
After, Boabdil and his entourage headed towards the coast and the already deposed Nasrid king, from the top of a hill today called Suspiro del Moro, looked back, saw what he was leaving behind and wept, which, as the story goes the story earned him a reprimand. of his mother, Aixa: “Cry like a woman for what you could not defend as a man.”
Meanwhile, the kings presided over the first mass in Christian Spain after 777 years of Muslim rule. THE Reconquest, started in Asturias by Don Pelayo By the year 722 this was over. On the side of the temple is a discreet plaque commemorating what happened that day.
On one side is a plaque that commemorates the celebration of the first mass after the Reconquista
The meeting point was not chosen at random. During the previous two centuries, the hermitage was a marabout, an Arab temple built in 1218, which was also very close to the Alcazar of Genil. This monument, still standing, was a recreational space for the rulers of the Nasrid kingdom. Also, at the time of the Christian siege, it was a sort of no man’s land, a meeting place between Muslims and Christians, a respite between attacks.
After the Reconquest, it was dedicated to Christian worship and dedicated to the saints. Sébastien and Fabienalso known as the Holy Martyrs. The first of these was at that time the patron saint of Granada, although since the end of the 16th century he has been the patron saint of Granada. Saint Cecilia.
But before that, a second historical event occurred in this hermitage, or at least important for the history of Granada: a painting offered by Queen Isabella the Catholic was deposited there with an image of the Virgin of Angustias. He had taken it with him during the last stage of the Reconquista. In 1545, the Brotherhood of Nuestra Señora de las Angustias, the oldest in the city, was founded there.
The vault is the most artistically interesting element of the temple
Since then, it has undergone several renovations, it has been enlarged, it has survived the occasional floods of the river which passes by and in the 19th century, after the confiscation of Mendizabalpassed into the hands of the Granada Town Hall, from there into private hands and became a tavern.
In 1933 it was declared National monumenta title which saved it from demolition because at that time it had an almost ruinous appearance. It now depends on the parish of San José de Calasanz and is only open on Sundays for the celebration of mass, at 10:30 a.m., although it is also possible to visit it during the weeks preceding Holy Week, because the Brotherhood meets there.
In recent years there have been attempts to enhance its historical value – greater than its artistic value, because inside it is not, far from it, one of the most beautiful churches in Granada – and it has even been proposed that it is the center of the annual commemorative exhibition, on January 2, of the Capture of Grenada. While waiting for these events to happen or not, the hermitage remains there, discreet and in the background, but aware of the role it played.
