Sanctuary of True Cross
Inside the castle at Caravaca stands the sanctuary church of the Vera Cruz, or True Cross. Here it was that a Muslim ruler ordered a Christian bishop to perform the holy mass for his entertainment; I suppose that the Moors were as fond as any other colonists of watching quaint native customs. Unfortunately, the bishop lacked a holy cross, but the Big Man ordered him to go ahead anyway, whereupon two angels descended from the sky bearing a cross made from the wood of the original article.
Naturally, the Moor was immediately converted to the Christian faith and fell on his knees with the bishop.
Ever since this time the True Cross has been carefully guarded. It is kept in a jewelled silver casket which is so old that nobody knows its age - and, of course, nobody is permitted to open the box and check on the content.
During the Spanish civil war the casket and the True cross went missing, but fortunately they turned up again afterwards.
For more than 1,000 years now people have been making pilgrimages to Caravaca and to the sanctuary of the cross, and in recognition of this fact the Pope has awarded the town a special status. It shares this honour with the renown pilgrimage centre of Santiago de Compostella, and with only three other towns (two in Italy; one in France).