Convents of O Carme and Santa Clara and Former Hospital of San Roque

Loureiros leads to Santa Clara street, which ends at the discrete and austere Convent of El Carmen. Granite masonry defines the façade of this building constructed in the second half of the 18th century, following a style characterised by its solidity and called `Carmelite´ (the church façade is identical to that of San José in Avila). The Discalced Carmelites, created by St. Teresa of Avila, occupied the convent, which is still their home today. They are the ones that make most of the wafers used in the city´s churches.

Opposite the Convent of El Carmen there is the Convent of Santa Clara. The church´s curtain-like façade is an outstanding example of Compostela´s typical baroque architecture, known as `slab-based baroque´, designed by Simón Rodríguez in the first third of the 18th century. This theatre-like front hides the real church, which is at the back of the convent´s small garden. The convent was founded by Doña Violante, the wife of King Alfonso X (the Wise) in the 13th century.

The Hospital of San Roque was erected due to plaque epidemics in the 16th century and thereafter transformed in the 18th century. It now houses several of the city´s cultural institutions, as well as a model of Peter Eisenman´s future City of Culture. Passing by its small garden, we arrive at the complex formed by the contrasting architectures of theGalician Contemporary Art Centre (CGAC) and the Convent of San Domingos de Bonaval, which form a strategic passageway leading to the park.

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Convents of O Carme and Santa Clara and Former Hospital of San Roque