Corpus Christi Convent

Don Per Afán de Ribera, first Duke of Alcalá, Marquis of Tarifa, who died in Naples in 1571, ordered in his will that a house-hospital or school be built in Bornos so that twelve noble servants, squires of the house of the Lord Duke, and other good and clean blood men of his state. The execution of this part of the will was entrusted to Don Juan de Ribera, illegitimate son of the testator, Patriarch of Antioquia and Archbishop of Valencia, today San Juan de Ribera.
When the work was halfway done, the illustrious patriarch came to see it and it seemed to him that it was very large, with high houses and many stairs climbs, for which reason he did not like it to accommodate the elderly and the works were stopped. To comply with what was ordered by Mr. Duque, he ordered that another site be taken in the same square, opposite, and some houses be bought where the school would be built, now more comfortable and secluded for a home-hospital. The other large work was destined for a nunnery, which was authorized in 1593 by Pope Clement VII.
In the year 1597 the convent was inaugurated, being the first nuns to occupy it the Cistercian order, coming from the Colegio de las Dueñas of Seville. These nuns, not happy with the convent, decided to return to Seville and then, at the patriarch's request, four nuns from the Franciscan Clarisas order came from Alcalá de los Gazules. The foundation was consolidated and lasted until 1973, when it was abandoned because it was in ruins.
From its founding to its closure, said convent suffered several fires, the biggest being the one suffered on April 13, 1685, in which the chapel was totally destroyed and rendered useless, only conserving a large main arch with two shields of the house of Alcalá, in addition to lawsuits between the nuns, the ecclesiastical court and the founders.
After the total abandonment, the City Council bought the building, to transfer it, a year later, to the Caja de Ahorros de Jerez, which restored it as a Vocational Training Center. It currently houses the "El Convento" Secondary School, having celebrated the IV Centenary of its foundation in 1997.

The building itself consists of two floors, a porticoed courtyard with semicircular arches on the ground floor. The entire building is built of stone and brick. It also has a beautiful staircase with a carved stone railing. As valuable objects are found in it, in the Library, formerly the Sacristy, two tombstones embedded in the wall, belonging to D. Francisco Enríquez de Ribera and his wife Dª. Leonor Ponce de León, founders of the Monastery of Ntra. Sra. del Rosario, where they were buried, their remains and corresponding tombstones were transferred to the Corpus Christi convent in 1862.
From the time of its foundation, a well for a waterwheel in solid stonework has been preserved with a spiral staircase to the well and that supplies water for the irrigation of the adjacent gardens, planted and cared for today, which serve as an area for recreation and recreation. students, teachers and other staff.