Pray, work and rent: some cloistered nuns from a 16th century convent open up to tourist apartments

The lively ringing of the bell alerts Sister Inés, the caretaker sister of the Poor Clare convent of Santa María de Jesús, in Seville, that a visitor has just arrived.

She is the only religious in the congregation who has contact with the outside, because she belongs to a cloistered order.

The lathe is her connection with the life that runs on the other side of the 16th century walls behind which they shelter.

It is through that door that, thanks to the comments of some of the neighbors who come to buy their sweets, they learned that the tourist apartments were a great opportunity to guarantee income in the touristized Seville of the 21st century.

Also through that revolving entrance is how they met Javier Bernal and Luis Bidón, who manage the four apartments that they themselves renovated to adapt them to that type of accommodation.

Next to the tile that indicates that convent sweets are sold there, the main dedication of the 18 sisters who reside in the convent, for two months the blue plaque with the symbol of Tourist Apartments has also hung.

It is the time they have been operating.

“We came into contact with them last summer, an acquaintance who buys sweets told us that they were interested in putting some rooms they had as tourist apartments and we went to ask,” explains Bernal.

He and his partner have closed a one-year agreement with the nuns to manage them.

The experience of staying in a 16th century convent - as advertised on the RB&B website - is what most motivates the national visitor, but it is the location, in front of Casa Pilatos, in the heart of Seville, which is what convinces foreigners.

“They are the majority at the moment, but it is true that the percentage of Spaniards is higher than that who stays in this type of housing,” explains Bernal, who with his partner has just started managing apartments.

“We didn't want to get involved in directly managing the apartments because that is not our life, it gives us income to live on, but we do not want it to be detrimental to our vocation and that is why we commissioned the management,” explains Sister María José by phone.

The sister says that a few years ago they decided to use “the little houses” that they had in the convent area (around 220 square meters in total).

Two of them, as Bernal relates, were restored by the single sister of one of the nuns, who when she grew old, she asked to move to one of the rooms to be accompanied by her.

“She renovated it and when she lost her legs due to illness, she moved to another one that had direct access to the convent and that she also fixed it out of her own pocket,” she continues.

She even installed an elevator to facilitate mobility for the older sisters.

The nuns were in charge of adapting the largest room - about 110 square meters - for the family of the caretaker, who was in charge of interacting with the outside world and running errands to the nuns.

“We wanted a long-term lease, but the family returned abroad and that's when they told us that the best thing was to make tourist apartments,” explains Sister María José.

The adaptation works took a long time.

“Almost three years, because the homes are behind the Church and the works stopped us very often to guarantee the conservation of what was appearing,” says the sister.

At this point, it is worth noting that the church of the convent of Santa María de Jesús houses images by the Baroque masters Juan de Mesa and Pedro Roldán and two altarpieces attributed to their daughter Luisa, the fantastic sculptor known as La Roldana, who also carved to the virgin who presides over the main altarpiece.

The work finished in September and the furniture was the responsibility of the managers.

“We deduct the cost from what we get from the rentals,” explains Bernal.

The result is four modern floors that twist in four heights around the roofs that make up the convent.

Anyone looking for any resemblance to a monastic cell will not find it, unless they stay in the old caretaker's house.

As soon as you enter and, duly protected, embedded in the wall, a rectangle of lists in mauve tones appears.

It is part of the dressing room of the titular virgin - who is changing the diapers of the baby Jesus - attributed to La Roldana, which rests on the other side of the wall, in the center of the main altarpiece of the Church.

“This is where the image was turned around,” explains Bernal.

The manager still cannot specify if the tourist apartments are going to be profitable because they have just started and these first months of the year are very low in terms of tourist influx in Seville.

The price for two nights (the established minimum) is 180 euros in the largest three-room room and 90 euros in a two-room room, without taking into account cleaning costs, which range between 30 and 55 euros.

The nuns are happy.

In any case, their main source of income is the convent sweets that they began to make a decade ago and that, in this time, have become a draw in the city, especially at Christmas and Easter, when the lines of buyers They are lost beyond the beginning of Águilas Street, where they are located.

Learn to make sweets to get ahead

Tourist apartments in the Santa María de Jesús convent, Seville. PACO PUENTES

The Poor Clare sisters were not used to working in a workshop either.

“They had a printing press, but they stopped receiving orders,” says Bernal.

Aware that they were becoming fewer and older, they visited other convents to learn the craft of baking and ended up finding a new vocation.

The need to look for alternatives to their traditional contemplative way of life is a constant in cloistered convents.

It is forced by the lack of vocations and the gradual aging of the members of its congregation.

The Poor Clares of Santa María are 18, a high number - they do not exceed 20 - according to Sister Carmen Murga, who works at the Episcopal Vicariate for Consecrated Life, of the Archbishopric of Seville.

The customs and society of the 21st century have nothing to do with that of the 16th century, when Álvaro de Portugal, cousin of Isabella the Catholic, founded this convent in 1502. In the thriving Seville of the Golden Age, the epicenter of trade with America , there was almost more religious population than secular, according to the data reflected in the census carried out by the Marquis of Ensenada.

Now, about 400 nuns live in the 34 convents that remain in Seville, says Murga.

“Today's society is not the most suitable for religious life to bear fruit,” she acknowledges.

Added to the lack of vocations is the change in the customs of the parishioners.

“Now, older people have to help their children or grandchildren financially and they no longer make the donations to convents that they did before.

Until a while ago they also used to embroider tablecloths, but now there is no demand for this type of thing,” she explains.

That is why the Archdiocese encourages them to look for other alternatives, such as sweets.

“They prefer things they can do at home, that's why they opt for sweets,” says Murga.

“It is very difficult for them to distribute them through supermarket chains, because they are austere and they are surprised by how much they sell it to the final consumer.

That is why many have opened websites and sell online,” adds Murga.

The Bishopric accompanies them in their initiatives and advises them in the legal field to, for example, establish themselves as a company or register as self-employed to be able to invoice.

The smell of almonds, spun with sugar and egg, spreads through the entrance patio and is permeated in all the tourist homes where it mixes with that of the oranges freshly picked from the orchard that the Poor Clares have, with which the guests are welcomed. the guests.

These days there are no tenants, except for a young woman who wants to participate in the religious life of the sisters and has settled in the smallest apartment, the one with the elevator that leads directly to the convent.

She is part of the agreement with the managers.

This type of visit must be able to stay in tourist apartments.

Bell rings.

This time it's not a tourist dragging a suitcase.

On the weekend, when there are reservations, you will probably come across some candy buyers at the turnstile.

The door where the old meet the new times.

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