We celebrate in this year 2024, 250 years of the construction of the current Chapel of Santa Ana and its Sacred Image.
The devotion to St. Anne in our city dates back to the sixteenth century and comes from the particular devotion of the Duchess of Medina Sidonia, Doña Ana de Aragon, who spread it through the towns of their states, including Chiclana, where he ordered the construction of a first chapel in the so-called “Cerro de las Peñas” (1551), which will reach until the eighteenth century, and in ruins.
Between 1772 and 1774 the present hermitage was built, the work of the architect Torcuato Cayón and thanks to the patronage of Francisco and José Manjón, both wealthy merchants. The genius of this hermitage lies in the perfect fusion between Andalusian popular art with neoclassical aesthetics, so present in the Bay of Cadiz, which refers us to the great works of the Italian Renaissance.
The image that receives worship inside is the work of the Genoese sculptor, settled in Cadiz, Domenico Giscardi and was made in 1774. It is a magnificent sculptural group of Saint Anne with the Child Virgin following the iconographic type of Saint Anne the Teacher. This iconography invited the faithful to follow the postulates of the Enlightenment that invited them to cultivate study and education, following the example of the Virgin Mary.
David Gutiérrez Domínguez+Pbro
Parish Priest and Rector of the Hermitage
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