The Purísima Church is intimately linked to the story of the salvation. Tradition talks of the miracle of the appearance of the Virgin in the face of a Berber incursion at a time when there were constant sieges in the middle of the 16th Century.

Also known as the “Most Pure Church of the Convent” in reference to the Miracle of Mazarrón. It was the 17th November 1585 when this incredible event occurred following the landing of ships from North Africa. According to the legend recounted inside the temple, it was the intervention of Our Lady of the Conception who ruined the pirates’ intentions, and therefore saved the town. Inside the temple there is the so-called “miracle flag” or “flag of the Moors”, which was abandoned during their flight. It has inscriptions form the Koran and three lines of unknown origin. It could relate to a previous 16th Century insignia used by the Berbers as a flag, or could simply be a Nasrid flag from before the legendary events.

Its origin as a hermitage could date from the same century, although the first reliable historical date came from the 17th Century when the Franciscans founded a hospital and later a convent; the side chapel in the existing church is thought to be the old hermitage. It also has five other chapels.

Also standing out is the decoration of the so-called Niche of the Virgin, patron saint of Mazarrón, with elegant motifs in dark blue, associated with the Immaculate. In the presbytery there are still remains of a Baroque alter piece.

The church has one nave with a high choir at the end and a domed roof with skylights or embedded crescents. The church façade is the same as that of the rural hermitages with a humble arched entrance door, unlike the grand window of the high choir and a bell gable at the end of the church to house the bell.

A milestone was found next to the Purísima Convent in the 1970s, which marks the distances with the Augusta Way, one of the Romans’ main communication and trade routes.