Church of San Juan de Dios

The church was erected in one of the most important streets in Granada during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Through this street, processions passed on their way to the Cathedral. It was also the place where feasts were celebrated.

The temple is dedicated to the Inmaculada Concepcion and was designed to serve as a sanctuary and crypt for San Juan de Dios body. In 1916, Pope Benedict XV gave it the title of basilica, at the request of the Prior Alonso de Jesus.

It was designed by Jose de Bada y Navajas, high master of Granada and Malaga cathedrals and Compañia de Jesus works. It is one of the last great works promoted by Religious Orders, arising out of the Counter-Reformation.

It has Latin cross plan with a single nave with side chapels, transept, chancel, choir, vestry and lady chapel.

It is decorated with sculptures and paintings in order to create, in all those who are within it, the feeling of entering heaven.

The Main Altar is made of gilded wood by Francisco Guerrero, who also designed other altars, the pulpit, the boxes of the sacristy, the chancel and choir stalls.

This is an altarpiece of just one body with three separate sections based on pilasters and surmounted by an attic. It is presided by the image of the Immaculate Conception, located in the central niche with its lady chapel. The whole group is decorated with geometric and plant motifs.

The Lady Chapel is above the Sacristy and comprises four rooms. The plant is located in the central room where, in a silver urn, Granada saint's relics are contained. The whole premises are decorated with paintings by Sarabia, mirrors and golden ornaments.

A shrine shelters the urn, though this is not the original which was stolen in the looting of the French armies in 1810. The vestry is rectangular and is located behind the High Altar. It is profusely decorated with frescoes, paintings, mirrors, cornucopia drawers and niches.

The facade is designed as an altarpiece. It comprises two bodies and three sections separated by Corinthian columns on high plinths. In the side streets, two side doors are opened and, over them, niches housing the images of San Rafael and San Gabriel. In the central section, which is a wider one, the front door can be found and on it the emblem of the Order, held by the allegorical figures of Faith, Hope and Charity. In the second body, the statue of San Juan de Dios is placed, a work by Ramiro Ponce de Leon. In both sides, Saint Ildefonso and Saint Barbara. The facade is surmounted by a curved pediment divided by a medallion which houses the image of God the Father and, crowning everything else, the crest of the Hospitaller Order of Saint Juan de Dios.

The main façade is flanked by two high towers with slate-covered capitals.

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