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Culture
San Roque hermitage
The San Roque hermitage is in the municipality of Calamocha in Teruel, which belongs to the Jiloca District.
It is a Baroque church built between the 17th and 18th centuries. The building was ordered built by Calamocha Council is around 1645, the year in which the original hermitage was ordered demolished, and over which the current one was to be built.
There is abundant documentation about this temple, thanks to its having belonged to and formed part of the Colegio de los Misioneros Apostólicos de San Roque, a Franciscan convent founded in 1690 in Calamocha, which operated until the 19th century confiscations.
The work was performed by local masons Juan Colás and Antonio Alfaro, and the new church was opened in May 1647.
This hermitage consists of a single nave, divided into two bays, both of which are covered with a barrel vault with lunettes. Built using stone and masonry, the nave is flanked by a set of chapels covered with small domes. It has a false crossing with a vault dome and a polygonal apse in the chancel.
Outside, there is a simple portico on one side of the nave, overlooked by an austere belfry with a single bell.
This temple is the site of the patron saint’s festivities in honour of San Roque held between 14 and 17 August, known in the region thanks to the San Roque dance. This tradition has been declared a Festival of Tourist Interest of Aragon. It originated in 1885, and since then people of Calamocha have celebrated it every year, when they ask the saint for protection.
Furthermore, the San Roque Association was created around the hermitage to preserve and recover the hermitage’s forgotten heritage, restoring its assets and conserving the history of the former Franciscan convent.