Caños Santos is a jewel of Andalusian and Spanish heritage, located approximately 6 km from Alcalá del Valle. Close to the monastery and giving it its name are some water pipes that flow from a cave in the rock. The origin of the monastery of Caños Santos merges with the legend of the place.
Near Olvera, a town called Cenosia, according to ancient times, "was inhabited by Greeks, Trojans, Romans, etc", until it lost importance in the time of the Visigoths and was reduced to a simple village.
Under the name of Islam, the inhabitants of Cenosia hid the image of the "Concepcion de la Virgen Nuestra Señora" on a nearby mountain. These events must have happened around the year 711 when the Muslims began to invade the Iberian Peninsula.
The image remained hidden throughout the Arab domination until 1512, when Tello Pascual observed that one of the cows he was putting out to graze escaped daily. When he followed her, he found a spring flowing nearby. Tello Pascual decides to find out its origin and discovers the image inside a rocky cave. After seeing it, he decided to go to the town of Olvera, where he told the clergy and the council, who agreed to take it and place it in their church.
Legend has it that three times they took the image to the church and every time it returned to its original location, so they decided to build a small chapel, which was cared for for 30 years by mundane hermits. Fray Martin was given possession of the chapel of our señora de Caños Santos by the clergy of the town of Olvera and its accountant Bernardo Luzon, acting as apostolic notary Hernan Gomez Camacho. On August 28th 1542, Fray Martin took possession of the chapel and of its inventory.
Increasing faith and devoutness, it was decided to build a monastery and a house. In 1542 the primitive chapel was converted into a sumptous church and convent.
Through the privatization of Mendizabal the monument was passed into private hands in the 19th century. It was then that a collective initiative from Alcalá del Valle acquired this jewel of our heritage and transferred it to the public ownership of the Town Hall of Alcalá del Valle in 1984. The monumental complex was declared Asset of Cultural Interest on the 18th of September that year.
Now a brief mention is made of the building of the historical complex, which is explained in greater detail in the following sections.
The facade of the square is a wall of masonry that develops in two heights being in the body under the primitive entrance to the monastery that gives to the square .
The window openings are irregularly positioned, which indicates that they have been opened and closed according to the needs of the moment.
Between the cloister and the second courtyard was the main staircase leading to the upper floor, the sacristy between it and the church and the kitchen leading to the second courtyard, separated from the cloister by the staircase.
On the outside of the monastery and on the other side of the entrance square, there is the old guesthouse currently used as a garden park.
Our village has been maintaining a historical and intense relationship with Caños Santos, due to its proximity, the annual celebration of the Pilgrimage that bears its name on May 1st.
