One of the most renowned spots on the Costa Blanca. Credit: Echiner / Creative Commons
If there is a place of pilgrimage on Montgó, one of the most renowned spots in the Costa Blanca and the Valencian Community, it is the Caseta of Pare Pere and the chapel built 50 years ago in honour of this Franciscan friar from Denia, whose canonisation process is currently underway at the Holy See in Rome.
Few know this better than Father Enrique Oltra, who for more than four decades has been the guardian of what was once the “prayer refuge” of Fray Pedro Esteve back in 1638 – over four centuries ago.
From prayer refuge to sacred sanctuary
That rocky outcrop and Moorish shelter, where Pare Pere found a place for contemplation, gradually became the well-known Caseta that now bears his name, situated right next to the chapel dedicated to the Santíssima Sang, or Pare Pere. The sanctuary was constructed in 1975 by a group of Denia citizens, including Patricio Mut, Germán González, Antonio Ferrer and José Pallarés, and was originally open just once a year: on 28 June, the feast day of Pare Pere.
Beyond the chapel, which features 55 tiled murals illustrating step by step the life of Pare Pere, the site also houses the Way of the Cross, promoted by the Franciscan with the sole aim of allowing Denia residents to “reflect throughout the year, and especially during Lent and Holy Week, on the devoted gestures of Pare Pere”. It is a simple, humble garden, yet “in a very beautiful corner”.
Decades of devotion recognised
Thanks to Father Oltra’s decades-long work to honour the site chosen by Fray Pedro Esteve for prayer, he was awarded the title of Adoptive Son of Denia – a recognition from the town for the Franciscan whose dedication has earned the respect and affection of the faithful, who each week pray for the continuation of the vice-postulator’s work in this temple on the cause for Pare Pere’s beatification.
Indeed, admirers of this secluded spot in Alicante warn that if Father Oltra were ever to retire, or be forced to leave the chapel, the building could be “completely abandoned and vulnerable to squatters. Given the state of the streets and permissive legislation, we cannot – and will not – allow it.”