Santuario de los Santos y de las Sagradas Reliquias

Monument

Plaza Sta Maria. 23760, Arjona How to get

The sanctuary was erected during the bishopric of Moscoso and Sandoval to guard the supposed remains of the martyred saints Bonoso and Maximiano, found in this town at the beginning of the 17th century, as well as the remains of more than 3,000 martyrs of the first Christians during that time. Roman. It was built between 1617 and 1619 with stone from Santiago de Calatrava and, as planned by Juan de Aranda y Salazar, who also worked on the cathedral of Jaén, two churches were superimposed. In the lower part a chamber was drilled to be seen from the outside, as a crypt, with access through the Los Santos cemetery. It has a polychrome plaster altarpiece, baroque decoration, which was not finished until the middle of the 19th century, tombstones with the stories of the martyrs and a Plateresque doorway. The upper part has its entrance from the Plaza de Santa María, through a doorway from 1659, and its floor plan consists of a single nave covered with a barrel vault with lunettes and architrave pilasters that support semicircular arches. The upper floor was destined to house the stone images of San Bonoso and San Maximiano, which were never placed. In 1843, with the Confiscation of Mendizábal, the images were transferred to the church of Santa María, and the relics of the martyrs to the upper floor. Leaving the lower floor without functionality. Currently this space houses the Religious Museum of the parishes of Arjona where a good part of the patrimony of the brotherhood is exposed, as well as old drawings and photographs.