May 29, 2014 WALKS IN HISTORY: La Capilla de la Caridad Text & photo by J.A. Pilares
edieval cities were usually built with three reference points in mind, which would articulate all the settlement’s future development. On one hand there were the defensive structures such as walls, gates, towers and castles; on the other, the religious buildings such as churches and convents. Rota’s streets fanned out from the castle in four directions, to the four gates of the town, along the roads to Chipiona, Sanlúcar, Jerez and to the harbour. Just outside of one of these gates, that of Sanlúcar, Rota’s particular jewel of the baroque was built; the Church of Saint John the Baptist, better known as “Capilla de la Caridad”. This temple was raised in the second half on the 17th Century to serve both as a place for worship as well as as a hospital. It was managed by the Brotherhood of the Holy Charity, organization that cared for the health of the poor roteños of the time, showed hospitality to travelers and cared for the burials of those that had no resources to pay for their own services. Such was the influence of the Brotherhood in Rota, that almost everyone “forgot” the “real” name of the temple, referring to it rather as the church of Charity. This “amnesia” extends to the square in front to the church. The square today is officially named “Plaza
de Andalucía”, although historically many other names have been used to refer to this place. Those known still today to historians are: “Puertas de Tierra” (Gates of Land), “CruzVerde”,“Alfonso XII”, “Alfonso XIII” (both Kings, father and son), “Fermín Galán” (with the II Republic the names of Kings were replaced with that of a general that led a failed republican coup d’ètat against the Monarchy) and “General Franco” during the Dictatorship. In 1982, with the return of democracy, the square was named “Andalucía”. Nevertheless, most roteños took little notice of this name changing and always referred to the plaza as “Caridad”. The Plaza de la Caridad was always in the centre of social life in Rota. Most festivities had their vortex in this square, markets were held here and all religious processions would parade through it to pay homage to the Capilla de la Caridad and the members of the Brotherhood. Even in the darkest hours of Rota’s history, the Plaza was the centre of everything. In February of 1936 the national elections in the Spanish Republic gave control of government to a coalition of socialists, communists and anarchists. Some of them believed the time had come for a social and political revolution and the 17th of April they went about their particular “revolution”. Rota’s churches were assaulted, many of the gold and silver pieces stolen and most of the religious works of art thrown into a pyre in Plaza de la Caridad. The police and Guardia Civil had no orders, and so they did not intervene until it was too late. Invaluable artifacts of Rota’s history were turned into ashes and lost forever. Eventually the revolt was put down with no loss of life.The 18th of July would come another attempted revolution, but this time it was harshly put down and its leaders executed by the supporters of the military coup that started the Spanish civil war. In the 1940’s the official policy of the Spanish State went from a fascist totalitarian dictatorship to a concept known as National-Catholicism. Being Spanish was the equivalent of
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being a good Catholic, hence bad Catholics were considered bad Spaniards. In this environment, undoing the actions of the revolutionaries against the Church became a must for the government and many professional artists were hired to recreate the old lost religious icons. Ramón Chaveli, one such artist, made many of these sculptures in Andalucía. In Rota his best known work is Our Lady of the Pain,“Nuestra Señora de los Dolores”, which presides the Capilla de la Caridad. The temple in itself is not much in the outside, just a simple sandstone façade, but the inside is overwhelming.The nave has a Latin-cross design and is 18 metres long by 10,40 metres at its widest.The church is painted mostly in white except for the formidable retable behind the altar.This is made in wood painted in gold, making it seem far richer than it actually is, and is adorned with images of saints.The top of the retable has an image of Our Lady of Charity breast-feeding a child, while holding a second one in her left arm.This awesome retable was made by Diego Roldán in the 17th century and has survived the British occupation of 1702, the Napoleonic of 1810-1812 and the revolts of 1936 with nothing but a few stones thrown at it. Being the only real problems it has had to endure those caused by time, humidity and termites. Five other religious images are housed in this church. Our Lady of the Pain and the Christ of Charity (cared for by its own brotherhood, la Hermandad de los Dolores,) and Our Lady of the Angst (Virgen de las Angustias), Our Father Jesus of the Holy Welfare (Jesús de la Salud) and Saint John the Baptist. The last three images cared for by the Brotherhood of the Welfare (Hermandad de la Salud). These images are taken in procession every Holy Week on Thursday (the first two) and on Wednesday (the rest). Both brotherhoods, as heirs that they consider themselves to the ancient Hernandad de la Caridad, still dedicate themselves to charitable work; with fund raisers, collecting food for the poor and bringing every summer young people from Belarus to aid them in the treatment of their cancers caused by the radiation of the Chernobyl disaster. Today la Capilla de la Caridad and its Plaza are still a neuralgic place in Rota’s daily life. The main way into the old city is through the gate that links Plaza de Andalucía and Plaza de España. It is usually the end and turnaround point of people’s leisure walks and it has several bars lining up its sidewalks. Bar la Plaza is a great place to sit with a beer and watch people pass. Next to it there is an ice cream deli, and across the street there’s also a tapas bar that specializes in Iberian pork products. However, my personal favourite is the small bar next to the city gates:“el Rinconcillo”.A classic in Rota, although under new management, el Rinconcillo has been serving its staple pork chop sandwishes, “filetitos” since 1920. A jar of beer and a “filetito” cost 2,50€, so go on, and next time you pass by the square do give it a try!
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