Our heritage
of our past and a part of our present.
The stones here speak, because they are a part
of our past and a part of our present.
Benissa
Ermita de Santa Anna
The chapel of Santa Anna is part of the area that gives it its name. Starting from the washing place known as Pou d'Avall and following a short asphalt road, one arrives at the chapel.
The closest one to the town, this chapel is also the oldest in the area, dating back to 1613. However, like many others, it has received various modifications that have masked what must originally have been a late Gothic style. The last restoration was completed in 2007.
The chapel is a building of elongated rectangular body, with walls reinforced by buttresses and a gabled tile roof. Attached to the apse is the hermit's dwelling and on the left is the quadrangular body of the sacristy, also with an independent roof. The walls of the building are mostly whitewashed, although on many sections the masonry has been left exposed.
The triangular and unpainted facade has a semicircular opening with large voussoirs for the two-leaf wooden door, next to which there is a sign with the name of the chapel. The simple belfry tops the gable with its bell and small iron cross.
Around the chapel is an area that extends in front of the façade, forming a small square defined by a stone pillar in the centre.
The interior is sober and austere, consisting of a single nave divided into three sections by semicircular arches that start from pilasters to support the gabled roof with wooden beams. The floor is of marble, recently laid. Towards the centre of the nave, on the epistle side, there is a pulpit. To the left in the presbytery, a Renaissance doorway communicates with the sacristy.
On the wall behind the altar, within a niche, one can find an image of Santa Anna with the Virgin Mary, above which there is a Christ depicted in the Romanesque style.
In 2002, some baroque mural paintings were discovered, naive and modest in design, which were hidden by order of Archbishop Mayoral, who visited the chapel in 1758 and considered them inappropriate. These paintings have been partially recovered in the restoration of 2007.
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