Vera Cruz de Caravaca

The sanctuary of the Vera Cruz stands in the castle above Caravaca, near the old frontier with Granada, and guards a fragment believed to come from the True Cross.

Tradition places its origin in 1231 or 1232, when the captive missionary Gínes Pérez Chirinos was made to say Mass before the Muslim ruler Zeyt-Abuzeyt: as the priest lamented the lack of a crucifix, two angels were said to bring a cross down from heaven, and the ruler and his family converted and asked for baptism.

The relic, venerated as the double-barred Caravaca Cross flanked by angels, was guarded by the Knights Templar from 1266 and, after 1344, by the Order of Santiago. After 1492 Franciscan friars carried copies to the Americas. The medieval chapel was replaced by a Baroque basilica-sanctuary, built between 1617 and 1703.