Chapel of San Juan de la Cruz

Although the building that you see today dates back to the 18th century, during the creation of the town of La Carolina, the Chapel of San Juan de la Cruz was built over an old chapel-oratory located at the foot of the historic Andalusian Way or Puerto del Rey.

The original chapel belonged to the friars of the Carmelite convent of La Peñuela and was built in the 16th century. Here in the so-called "solitudes of Sierra Morena", San Juan de la Cruz lived out his final days before moving on to Úbeda to cure his ills. He never came back.

Doña Juana de Nava y Vozmediano, at that time the owner of the lands of La Peñuela and Las Torrecillas, located in the old municipal district of Linares, donated them to King Carlos III to establish the new colony of La Carolina. This was under the condition that a new chapel was built in memory of San Juan de la Cruz. The old chapel was extended and a new central nave was added. The town's first cemetery was created here and there is a crypt and an ossuary under the chapel.