Oratorio de la Santa Cueva - Cadiz
This Oratory (small chapel) is a unique architectural and artistic complex formed by two very different religious enclosures: an upper church and an underground chapel.
Their construction began around 1781 at the request of José Sáenz de Santa María, Marquis of Valdeiñigo, for the Brotherhood of Disciplines of the Ancient Mother, from a basement that appeared under the parish church of Rosario. The work was projected by Torcuato Cayón de la Vega around 1781 and directed from then until 1796, being finished by his godson and disciple Torcuato Benjumeda in a neoclassical style, with certain Baroque reminiscences.
The upper church is inspired by the work of Ventura Rodríguez, one of the best Spanish neoclassical architects, and takes shape through eight tall marble columns of the Ionic order attached to the curved wall, on which it supports the elegant elliptical vault with lunettes at its base where, among others, a work by Francisco de Goya appears.
The lower chapel in sharp contrast to the upper one is of a very sober bearing, as befitted the purposes for which it was intended. It has a hall plan with three naves separated by columns with a square base, and on its front altar it presents an impressive complete life-size marble Calvary, the work of the sculptors Vaccaro and Gandulfo, for which Joseph Haydn composed his famous Oratory of the Seven Words of Christ on the Cross.
Declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 1982.
Located
Located on Calle Rosario.
