2-370-046 - Samuel Magal/Sites & Photos/Heritage Images

Santa Teresa Church, Avila, Spain, 2007. The convent of Santa Teresa del Jesus was built in 1636, after the canonisation of St Teresa, over the house where she was born in 1515. The Baroque convent belongs to the Discalced Carmelite order. It houses an important collection of carvings made by the sculptor Gregorio Fernandez, in addition to a chapel, remarkable for its profuse ornamentation, devoted to the saint. The decorative scenes demonstrate her powers of levitation. The Sala de Reliquias contains the relics of St Teresa and of her spiritual advisor, St John of the Cross. In the interior there is an orchard where, according to the legend, the saint played as a child. Today the convent is one of two main destinations for Catholic pilgrims to Avila. Avila was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985.