Auditorium / old Jesuit church
The current municipal Auditorium of Cervera was built in the ancient church and school of the Jesuits in the capital of Segarra. The Baroque church of Sant Ignasi de Cervera, located in Major street, was constructed between 1690 and 1727, when the Society of Jesus school settled there. Previously, however, the same space had hosted a meeting of the Catalan Courts, headed by king Peter IV the Ceremonious (1359) and it was the place where the Catholic Monarchs signed their marriage contract (1452). The voussoired portal, that can still be contemplated today, belongs to the medieval building. In 1767 the Jesuits were expelled and it became the Real Colegio de San Carlos (Royal College of Saint Charles), destined to house university students.
It is a Baroque temple with a single nave and lateral chapels, covered by three sections of barrel vaults with lunettes, while the chancel is covered by a big pendentive. Singularly, it has its entry point at the chevet, so that it can be accessed from Major street.
One of the most noted spaces of the old church is the chapel of the Immaculada (the Immaculate) or la Mare de Déu de l’Incendi (Our Lady of the Fire), a big quadrangular space, centred by a dome translated outside as an octagonal lantern tower, with eight picture windows separated by pilasters. The skilful work of the stucco that decorates it, of a measured Rococo, makes it one of the most interesting and unknown Baroque spaces of the city.
