Santa Clara Church

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The present-day Santa Clara Church is what remains of the disappeared namesake temple; a monastery founded in 1498 by the sisters Juana and Elvira González de Lucenilla y de Benjumea and run by the Poor Clare sisters. Its location, very close to the town centre, was instrumental to organising and urbanising the current neighbourhood of San Sebastián and Santa Clara Street, one of the straighter and wider avenues. This allowed the town to expand for the first time.

The Convent was the first large urban monastery in Marchena. It frequently received the patronage of the Ducal House of Arcos, some of whose female members entered the cloister.

Several centuries later, both the Convent and its annexed rooms were destroyed. In 1975, the Poor Clare sisters moved to the town of Estepa due to economic constraints. Today, only the Church remains, without the upper and lower choirs that were also demolished.

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