The Convent of Franciscanos Descalzos de San Joaquín and San Pascual, in the municipality of Cieza (Region of Murcia), began to be built in 1685 on the hermitage and site of Lord San Sebastián, outside the city, for hospice and Convent of the Discalced Religious of Our Father San Francisco of the Province of San Juan Bautista, located in the kingdoms of Valencia and Murcia, whose house and convent was Santa Ana del Monte in Jumilla.
The foundation of the convent had problematic origins, with it was intended to stop the bloody rivalry that divided the city on two sides.
The Convent was built by the same friars, in the presence of the Reverend Father Fray Salvador Avellán.
The complex was inaugurated in 1699, which included an orchard of eight tahúllas surrounded by a wall, with water from the Fountain of the Eye. The church was completed in 1699. During the years 1701 and 1707, the Christ of the Choir, the Great Altarpiece, the vaults, the pavement of the cloisters, eight paintings for the refectory, top of the Altar, cloisters and goal.
The church was decorated as early as the eighteenth century. It consists of a single nave divided into four sections, with lateral chapels, rectangular headboard and high choir at the feet. The cloister has five half-point arches per side and two floors. In the center of the patio there is a beautiful well broca. The buildings surrounding the cloister, covered with arched vaults, consist of three floors intended for cells and a hospice area, except for the area perpendicular to the head of the church, where common areas such as the refectory or the library were located. It is covered with half-gable canyon in the outer area and a water in the area corresponding to the cloister, in order to favor the collection of rainwater. Its typology responds perfectly to that established by the Franciscan Order in all its foundations, as described by Father Salmerón himself: "The form of the Convent is the common and ordinary of the Convents of our descalzez; but in the common there are special priors, who make it special. The whole convent is joyful and devout, especially the church, for it seems to instill devotion. The work is of lime and song, with corners of carved stone. It came so strong that it has not broken any part, it is so proportioned and showy that it is the admiration of those who look at it, and it is commonly attributed its success and perfection to the hands that made it, which were those of many great servants of God. "
In this building you can observe great similarities with the convent of Santa Ana del Monte, in Jumilla, since it was founded by its friars.
The materials are very austere and the decoration focuses exclusively on the Via Crucis and Franciscan "maxims", distributed throughout the walls of the convent.
The convent was disentailed in 1836 and ceded to the Town Hall in 1839. Later it was used as the Civil Guard barracks. In 1876, the City Council asked the State to go to public education and created the "La Purísima and San Luis Gonzaga" College, which remained until 1885, and became the Nursing Home. Subsequently, the premises of the convent have fulfilled various functions, housing a birth clinic. Currently the building is divided into two parts: The Church and the inner part of the premises belong to the parish and house the parish halls and the parson's dwelling. The area surrounding the cloister, in which an old well's mouth is located, also serves as the municipal library, study room and headquarters of the historical studies center Pascual Salmerón. Source
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