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Ermita del Calvario

According to Father Mariscal, “the Hermitage of Calvario was built, largely with their alms and solicitude, by some devotees of this town with the surname Soto; In the years 1696, a hermit, who was called Brother Mendoza, a native of Córdoba, was collected in the hostel that is attached. This one, with the alms he requested from the neighbors, added another room to the chapel, in a square and as a better half (...) The monastery of San Jerónimo helped him a lot, with sustenance for himself and a lot of material for the work. The last illness gave him when his attempt was reaching perfection. According to the Bornense historian Manuel Barra, despite this statement by Father Mariscal, the truth is that those who constantly took care of the needs of Brother Mendoza were the Franciscans of the Convent of San Bernardino de Siena. So much so, that they made a Via Crucis (imitating the one that D. Fadrique Enríquez de Ribera had instituted from the Jerónimos Monastery), starting from the door of his Convent to the Calvario Hermitage and which is very frequented on Fridays, especially those of Lent. Some crosses and chapels that indicated the stations of the Via Sacra are still preserved.

The triangular façade stands out in its construction, which offers a beautiful niche, topped with a typically Baroque belfry. In the hermitage, a beautiful image of San Francisco de Paula is venerated, dating from the first half of the 18th century. Other images of merit that are currently in said hermitage are: Santa Rosa de Viterbo (16th century); Saint John the Evangelist; an image of the Virgin, under the invocation of María Santísima de la Soledad; and others of less merit. It also houses paintings of great interest, highlighting a Deposition (16th century) from the Italian school and which presided over the Chapel of the College of Blood.

Logia

Etymologically, a loggia is a gallery or succession of arches.

From the loggia before us we can say that after the culmination of the Renaissance Garden of the Palacio de los Ribera, the lords of Bornos built an open-air art gallery; private museum where they could intimately recreate or show their guests, with the pride of their owners, those jewels that were Roman statues from the 1st century, restored by Giuliano Meniquini, or the new ones, sculpted by him, with the purest and most perfect forms of the 15th century Italian.

Years later, when some of the Ribera infants were educated in Bornos, it would be useful for their tutors to put beautiful examples of Greek and Latin mythology giving life to the cold forms of marble and alabaster.

When we say that this loggia is the only 16th-century Pompeian imafront in Andalusia, we are referring to a balanced and brilliant architectural composition by Benvenuto Tortello: a composition of arches topped with a classical Roman frieze (although clearly Greek-inspired), whose decoration alternate triglyphs and metopes.

Tortello came to Spain from Italy called by the Riberas to build new buildings in their possessions, as well as to improve or restore existing ones: with a very clear objective; import the most recent currents of the Italian Renaissance.

The Riberas helped create a growing interest in art and letters among the nobility. The architect Tortello became highly regarded in Spain among his contemporaries; and among his works, apart from those carried out in Bornos, he highlighted the construction of the facade of the Seville City Hall in the Plaza de San Francisco.

At present, the statues that were displayed in this lodge are kept by their legitimate owners in the Casa de Pilatos in Seville and have been declared Artistic Heritage of Andalusia.

Therefore, this lodge is offered to us as an evocative place in a designated environment of great historical and artistic value, such as the Gardens of the Ribera de Bornos Castle-Palace.

Monasterio de Santa María del Rosario.Monastery

It was founded in 1505 by the Mayor of Andalusia, D. Francisco Enríquez de Ribera. It occupied a space of approximately eight squares, almost square. The building consisted of a cloister with 56 Genoa marble columns with openwork stone skylights, around which the different rooms would be distributed, and a Church without a transept. In this, two altarpieces were built in 1572: one for San Jerónimo and another for Santa Ana. Its builders were the carver Pedro Becerril and the imagery painter Luis Hernández.

It had great splendor during the s. XVIII, due to the wisdom of its monks, among whom Fray Pedro Mariscal de San Antonio, Fray Esteban Rallón, Fray Rodrigo de Carmona, Fray Bartolomé de Cádiz, etc. stood out.

In the year 1895, due to the confiscation of Mendizábal, which brought with it the disappearance of many religious orders, it was abandoned, ending here the life of the Jerónimos in Bornos. Before, in the s. XVIII, also had to be abandoned, due to the damage caused in it, the tsunami of Cádiz. At present, very little of its structure is preserved: only a tower and part of its walls and orchards.

Colegio de la Sangre. Noble House

The building was completed in 1597. It consists of a single floor, with a central, around which the different units were distributed. In the South wing it had rich orchards and gardens. This school was made to house twelve noble servants, squires of the house of the Lord Duke and other good and clean blood men of his state. At present it has been rebuilt by the City Council and is used as an extension of the "El Convento" Secondary School and Nursery.

Carissa Aurelia.Roman site

Carissa is an impressive Roman site that, however, still has a lot to discover.

In it you can see hypogea, necropolis, columbariums...

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The passage from this Iberian to the Roman civilization can be observed in the Bornos area through the ruins of Carissa Aurelia, located about 3 km west of Bornos. First of all, thanks to the discovery of some lions carved in stone, we can know that there was an important Iberian population center there. Apparently, this type of sculpture was placed on funerary monuments, fulfilling a symbolic function of defense of the deceased, which is a custom of Eastern origin. Along with these sumptuous images, paid for by a ruling and powerful social class, there are small figurines, possibly votive offerings deposited in tombs of a lower social class. We also found remains of pottery made on a wheel and decorated with horizontal bands. All these remains make us think of an advanced standard of living, with a society of great economic prosperity, based on agriculture, livestock and commerce.

Subsequently, the Roman influence spread and over the years, Carissa became an important Roman city. According to Pliny, we know that Carissa had, within the Roman administrative system, the category of Municipality, which means that its traditional administrative and legal organization was respected, although it was dependent on the Governor of Bética. Later, during the government of Vespasian, the right of citizenship was extended throughout this territory, leaving Carissa as a Municipality to become "Cives romani" which gave it the privilege of minting money. Numerous archaeological and sculptural remains from this Roman period have been found in Carissa, although most are in private collections, among which are: fragments of inscriptions; a small bronze sculpture representing a nude Venus; two female marble sculptures representing water nymphs; a bust of the goddess Ceres with traces of polychromy; a female head, currently on display at the Town Hall; abundant coins and remains of ceramics.

The last stage of Carissa corresponds to the decline of the Roman imperial power, which brings as a consequence the entry of the barbarian invaders and the establishment and permanence of the Visigoths until the arrival of the Arabs. From this moment some archaeological remains have been found, among which stands out a tombstone that refers to the relics of various saints and that, at present, is embedded in the façade of the Parish Church.

Religious Monumental Route

There are several monuments in Bornos related to the Via Crucis such as the Monasteries of Ntra. Sra. del Rosario (16th century), the Monastery of San Bernardino (16th century), the Casa Palacio de los Ribera (16th century) and the Hermitage of Calvary (S. XVII).

In addition, during our visit we can see many other monuments built in the Renaissance. Bornos is one of the few towns in the province with architecture from this period.