Cloister of Immaculada de Jesús, Espai IMMART

The College of La Immaculada is a civil and religious building located above the old Franciscan Convent of the village of Jesús. It forms part of an enclosure with different buildings like the Church of Sant Francesc and the Parish Centre, and it mainly stands out because of its central space, an almost square area that frames a large inner courtyard with a ground floor and three upper floors.

The oldest records refer to the cession of a house and a hermitage dedicated to Sant Bernabé in order to found the Franciscan Convent in 1440. This is the nucleus of the original village which was later transformed into the current village of Jesús. Until the 18^th century the convent grew in importance and it was in 1732 when significant building works transformed it. Around 1825, the Franciscans had to abandon the convent because of their exclaustration and in 1843 it passed into the hands of the Societat Cristallera. In 1854 the Jesuits took it over until 1933 when they were expelled and the old convent was converted into Casa d’Exercicis (Retreat House), a prison during the Civil War, and then Seminary and College of La Immaculada.

The convent courtyard, one of the biggest in Catalonia at that time, is formed by a cloister in the ground floor and three upper floors. The ground floor has five semicircular arches on each side and highly stylised Doric columns, while the upper floors are arranged with rectangular windows and are coated with plaster.