Crypt of Fray Leopoldo

The crypt of Fray Leopoldo in Granada contains the remains of the Spanish Capuchin monk Leopoldo de Alpandeire . The room, designed by the fresco painter Hugolino de Belluno, is the second most visited monument in the city of Granada after the Alhambra complex, with around 60,000 visitors per month .

Leopoldo de Alpandeire

Fray Leopoldo was a Capuchin monk who was mainly active in Granada and was beatified in 2010 . He was also called "the beggar of the three Ave Marias" in Granada because he said this prayer for those who sought his blessing . Fray Leopoldo died in Granada on February 9, 1956.

crypt

Shortly after his death, the body of Fray Leopoldo was placed in a crypt under the Capuchin convent located directly at the Jardines del Triunfo in Granada. The coffin of Fray Leopoldo located here (the Fray Leopoldo website currently even offers a webcam aimed at the coffin) quickly attracted many believers; Some even say he did miracles, and even today you can see people asking for assistance by hanging up. The convent itself became dilapidated in the 1960s and was replaced by a functional new building.

Design

The Italian painter and Capuchin Hugolino de Belluno was commissioned at the end of the 1990s to design the crypt-chapel of Fray Leopoldo. The result was a large-scale work completed in 1998 as the painter's last work, the main part of which tells the life of the monk in panels along the walls of the circular chapel. Belluno's pictures each show two aspects, on the one hand the biographical events, on the other hand their, so to speak, transcendental interpretation, which takes place through the connection to people and stories from the Bible depicted in greater detail in the works. The names of the ten picture panels are:

I-Tuve hambre y me disteis de comer / I was hungry and you fed me (Matt. 25-35).
II-Estuve desnudo y me vestisteis / I was naked and you dressed me.
III-Quiero ser capuchino como ellos / I want to be a Capuchin like you.
IV-Recibamos lo que nos dan, bueno y malo / We took what they gave, for better or for worse.
V-Soy un campesino como vosotros / I am a farmer, just like you.
VI-Estuve enfermo y me visitasteis / I was sick and you visited me.
VII-El Espíritu Santo os lo enseñará todo / The Holy Spirit will teach you everything.
VIII-La Virgen descendía vestida de Pastora / The virgin came in the dress of a peasant woman.
IX-A Jesús por María / Maria is the way to Jesus.
X-Te adoramos tu Santa Cruz / We venerate the Holy Cross.

The ceiling of the chapel is designed in a radial or fan-shaped fold; The artist decorated the resulting surfaces with texts from the Ave Maria and old music notation.

museum

In addition to the crypt, there is also a small museum dedicated to the life of Fray Leopoldo, which contains photographs and objects from his property, as well as a replica of the room in which he spent his 42 years in Granada, with original furniture. There is also a souvenir shop.