Royal Sanctuary of María Santísima de Araceli
Arches of the Central Nave
The spandrels of the arches house tondos that represent the fathers of the church, Saint Buenaventura and Saint Thomas.
blessed
Two large shells from the Philippine archipelago, attached to the first column, are used as bendieras.
Altarpiece of the Virgin of the Sun
18th century altarpiece, in carved and gilded wood, dedicated to the Virgen del Sol
Altarpiece of the Virgin of the Rosary
18th century altarpiece, in carved and gilded wood, dedicated to the Virgen del Rosario.
Grid
Made with the bronze of some cannons from the castle of Aguilar that rests on a bench of red and black jaspers, having been made by the local craftsman Antonio García in 1746
Cruise Dome
The spectacular decoration of the transept dome, half orange on pendentives, extends to the vault of the presbytery presenting profuse ornamentation of carved plasterwork with Marian symbols, putti and plant motifs, some of which are decorated in blue, red and gold. Golden eagles that support votive lamps that protrude from the pendentives. It is one of the most outstanding decorative ensembles of the Andalusian Baroque whose design is due to Leonardo A. de Castro Hurtado, being carried out by Antonio de Rivera from Antequera in 1722.
main altarpiece
The main altarpiece is carved, gilded and polychrome wood. It is supported on a red marble seat and presents four Solomonic columns decorated with branches and clusters, those on the sides being advanced, providing depth. Also noteworthy in the set are two other pairs of Solomonic columns, equally decorated but smaller, which support the semicircular arch of the mouth that allows the vision of Our Lady of Araceli in the dressing room. Two large oil paintings on the Nativity and the Epiphany, made by Leonardo Antonio de Castro in 1720, with impressive frames and canopies in carved and polychrome wood, carved by Francisco José Guerrero and later gilded by Leonardo Ambrosio de Aguilar at the same time, enhance the beauty of the whole
Altarpiece of Santa Barbara
Decorated with abundant golden and colorful carving imitating jasper. It consists of four stipes with a central niche for the image and lateral shelves. It is accompanied on the shelves with the images of San Miguel and San Gabriel, and for the attic a relief of the visit of San Antón to San Pablo Hermitaño. Date dated 1732
Altarpiece of Saint Joseph
Decorated with abundant golden and colorful carving imitating jasper. It consists of four stipes with a central niche for the image and lateral shelves. It is located next to the entrance to the sacristy, it has the smaller images of San Joaquín and Santa Ana; and the attic a large relief representing the Flight into Egypt. Date dated 1732
Sacristy
A magnificent door, located to the left, carved with phytomorphic and zoomorphic motifs, leads to the sacristy that preserves a walnut chest of drawers attached to the door that was made in 1714 by Martín Luna. This room is decorated with a large canvas depicting the vision of Emperor Augustus, another of Saint Onofre, and a votive painting of Santiago and Saint Teresa. At the back, a door allows access to the large reception room for pilgrims that has audiovisual means for projections and exit to the outside through stairs. Various metal chandeliers and canvases decorate this room. From the antechamber you can also access the anteroom whose side walls you can admire four oil paintings by Leonardo Antonio de Castro Hurtado, a canvas of the Immaculate Conception by Antonio Filocamo from 1743, a small reproduction of the Shroud of Turin with an ebony and tortoiseshell frame and silver corner pieces from the late 17th century and a painting depicting an Ecce Homo from the same century. On a portable altar of Baroque carving with inlaid mirrors, a beautiful carving of the Virgen del Tránsito with her urn, from the 19th century, from the now-defunct convent of Santa Clara. And finally, presiding over the room, a large canvas of Jesus Crucified under a canopy.
Christ of Forgiveness
The Crucified Christ of Forgiveness, of academic size, which was blessed in 2009, coming from the gouges of the young Lucentine image maker Francisco Javier López del Espino
Access to Sacristy
Through a Mudejar-style door made of walnut and orange wood, one enters the antechamber where two canvases can be admired, one representing a Fall of Jesus and the other of the Virgin of the Rosary, under which, inside a small niche, a bust of the Lucentino historian and great devotee from Araceli, the presbyter Don Fernando Ramírez de Luque, is exposed.
Dressing room
A beautiful door, decorated with vegetable carvings, gives access to the Camarín de Nuestra Señora, where a main arch separates the two areas that compose it. The center of the previous and oldest, under an elliptical dome on pendentives, stands the Image of María Santísima de Araceli on a throne of carved and gilded wood and columns of honeyed jasper from the Sierra de Aras, profusely decorated with cherubs, angels and lamps. ; a work by Pedro de Mena y Gutiérrez, a Lucentino sculptor and altarpiece artist. In front of the Image of the Virgin there is an altarpiece, a continuation of the largest in the church that presents a trilobed niche with two separate pairs of Solomonic columns, on each side, decorated with branches and bunches of vines. In the intrados, two beautiful Dutch mirrors from the 17th century stand out.
Elliptical Vault
In the eight radial bands of the elliptical vault, you can admire, painted by Leonardo Antonio de Castro at the beginning of the 17th century, a choir of musical angels with floral decorations. The four pendentives are decorated with scenes of the Virgin. The side walls are upholstered in colored silk and house mirrors, baroque motifs, reliquaries; They have a Valencian tile plinth and include a canvas of the Annunciation bordered with flowers with an allegorical landscape, a painting representing the vision of the Emperor Augustus and a Baroque Florentine embroidery with the Virgin and two angels with the Shroud, while two others incense it. In the four corners of this room, as many urns guard the carvings of a Passionate Child Jesus, of a Saint John the Baptist and the remaining two, next to the altarpiece, relics of Saint Plácido and Saint Victoriano, donated by Fray Alonso de Jesús Ortega, General Order of San Juan de Dios and Lucentino, from the mid-18th century.
Octagonal Vault
The rear room is covered by an octagonal vault decorated with litter, mirrors and a rosette. On the pendentives, on shelves, there are figures of the three archangels and the angel of Paradise. Its walls were frescoed by Tomás Ferrer in 1761 and represent heavenly armies guarding the Image of María Santísima de Araceli. The whole set is profusely decorated with landscapes, garlands of flowers and fruits, animals and Marian biblical passages.
Window
In front of the entrance door, an exit door with a beautiful stained glass window, a companion to the window that behind the Image of the Virgin faces East, illuminating the room with soft tones. Coming out, an oil on panel reproducing the Roman Aracoeli Madonna, a recent work by Teresa Botella from Lucentina; a reliquary containing a document issued by the Holy See in 1857, containing relics and bones of the Holy Apostles and Evangelists, donated by Don Antonio Villa Álvarez de Sotomayor during the closing of the Aracelitano Jubilee Year on June 2, 2013; and various collections of ex-votos owned by Our Lady.
Access to the Store
From this small room you can access both the Araceli souvenir shop and the velillos room, as well as, going down some stairs, the old shipyards of the Sanctuary, where with simple Andalusian decoration you can see numerous Marian photographs of various images and the Blessed Virgin of Araceli, as well as various belongings, pilgrimage souvenirs, an old wooden base for the throne of Our Lady of pilgrimages and other ancient utensils.
Store
Through the souvenir shop, you access the side entrance of the Royal Sanctuary, which is the place where you access the temple daily and where there is a ceramic altarpiece commemorating the Aracelitano Jubilee Year. Some stairs lead to an exhibition room located on the first floor, recently fitted out in place of various little-used rooms previously existing there. The first floor is completed, in addition to the home for the guardians of the Sanctuary, the chapter house, from which you can access the choir and the bell tower, an office reserved for the Chaplain and a store.
