El Convento San Agustín de Alicante

Abstract

The Augustinian Province of the Crown of Aragon at the end of the 16th century took over the small but popular hermitage of the Virgen del Lluc, located in the suburbs of the city of Alicante. The Augustinians founded their first convent there called the Augustinian Convent of Nuestra Señora del Socorro. For centuries they cared for and propagated the popular Marian devotion. A few years later, in 1609, without ever leaving this chaplaincy, they entered the city and built the new convent that took the name of its owner San Agustín. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Augustinian institution grew and consolidated as a devotional, social and cultural center, reaching an important influence in the city. It was a medium-sized convent that had more than twenty religious in the community. The 19th century with the confiscation brought about its ruin and today only the archaeological remains of the convent remain, as mute witnesses of the Augustinian presence, but long live the popular devotions to Christ "El Morenet" and to the Virgen del Socorro, in a new hermitage that already replaced the classical in the twentieth century.