Multimedia Gallery

The hermitage dedicated to Saint Anthony Abad, colloquially known as La Capelleta, is the last remaining vestige of the primitive parish church of Saint John the Baptist. Although the date of its construction is unknown, the Founding Act of the Parish of Manises is dated the 2nd April of 1370: the day on which it was separated from the Parish of Paterna.

This temple functioned up until the inauguration of the new church in 1751, and then the old temple was demolished, except for one of it chapels, which, following its restoration in the mid 19th century, was converted into the current Hermitage of Saint Anthony.


The current state of the façade of the hermitage is the result of several interventions, the last of which took place at the beginning of the 19th century. It consists of a rectangular body, wider than it is high, and finished with a single-wall bell tower that holds a small bell, and on both sides there are two ceramic spires of reflective metal similar to the bell tower. The existing style of this chapel is somewhat eclectic, fruit of the different interventions, but with a dominance of neo-classical characteristics in the exterior and neo-gothic in the interior.


Access to the temple is gained through a wooden door on which one can distinguish, due to the composition of the metalwork, the gothic style arrangement using the pointed arch. This door may be one of the few elements that have been conserved of the original church.


At each side of the door’s threshold there is a ceramic tile. The left shows a text that gives the name to the current hermitage. The opposite side holds a tile that represents the Virgin of the Rosary with the Child in her arms. To the left of the door there is a ceramic tile which was placed to celebrate the VI Centenary of the foundation of the Parish Church Saint John the Baptist that was celebrated on 16th July, 1970.


The following text can be read on the tile: “For memory Don Jaime de Aragón, Bishop of Valencia; Don Felipe de Boil, Gentleman of Manises, Romeo de Soler, Rector of Paterna and Canon of Valencia; and Sancho de Sancho, solicitor of the honest men of Manises, founded this Parish of Saint John the Baptist, dismembered from that of Paterna on the 2nd April of 1370. Manises 1970 – VI Centenary”.


On the lateral wall there is another panel of tiles made by José Royo Vilar. His iconographic theme is the Saint Viático crossing the River Turia by boat; the Tower and the “Arch Canal” (Sèquia dels Arcs) are represented in the background, as they are emblems of Paterna and Manises . All of which is framed within reproductions of tiles produced in local workshops in both towns in the 14th and 15th centuries.


Inside the small Chapel, we find that the whole chamber is paneled with ceramic tiles of the renaissance style, and produced around 1920. On the wall opposite the entrance one finds the neo-gothic style altar that holds the images of Saints Anthony of Padua and the Virgin of the Rosary. To one side of the Chapel one finds the baptism font of carved stone that dates back to the 14th century.