Photo: Entrance Monasterio De Santa Maria De Las Cuevas Sevilla Spain

The entrance to the Monasterio de Santa Maria de las Cuevas (Monastery of Santa Maria of the Caves), which is also known as La Cartuja de Seville and used to also house a ceramic factory and is now a Centre for Contemporary Arts in Sevilla.

The entrance to the Monasterio de Santa Maria de las Cuevas (Monastery) or La Cartuja de Seville in the city of Sevilla, Andalusia, is ornate, unique and very elaborate. It lets the visitor know that this is a well respected and taken care of building, and that what lays behind the entrance is something to be marveled at. When an architect takes that much time over just the entrance to the building, then they want everyone to know it is special.

The Monastery of Santa Maria of the Caves used to also house a ceramics factory, but is now the home of the Andalusian Centre of Contemporary Arts, called the Centro Andaluz Arte Contemporaneo in Spanish. There is a legend that says in 1248, a statue of the Virgin Mary was found in a cave that was supposedly put there during the Muslim era, and so the Spanish built Ermita Santa Maria de las Cuevas to honor the statue. ... continue below the picture...

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The monks that lived at this monastery for hundreds of years were expelled from the property between 1835 and 1836, after four centuries of living there. It was in 1841 that it became a China factory run by Charles Pickman from Liverpool. However in 1964, it was declared a National Monument and was finally given over to the Andalusian government in 1982 for them to take care of and turn it into a tourist attraction so that people could enjoy a well preserved slice of history.

Entrance to the Monasterio de Santa Maria de las Cuevas - La Cartuja de Seville (Monastery of Santa Maria of the Caves), which once also housed a ceramics factory and now houses the Centro Andaluz Arte Contemporaneo (Andalusian Centre of Contemporary Arts), Isla de la Cartuja, City of Sevilla (Seville), Province of Sevilla, Andalusia (Andalucia), Spain, Europe.