A MEDIEVAL Spanish city is offering tourists a chance to get homemade cookies made by hidden nuns.
The Convento de las Carboneras, a convent of cloistered nuns in Cáceres, Spain, sells handmade biscuits and other sweet treats to tourists through small cloaked windows.
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The nuns keep the centuries-old traditions of making marmalades, jams, cakes, cookies and candies alive and well.
And as more and more tourists visit the fairytale town of Caceres – where House of Dragons was shot – these nuns have now made a livelihood out of the hobby.
Marco Mangut, a native of Cáceres who works as a tour guide around the city, told Food & Wine: “I remember when I was a little boy walking with my father and his groups around the old town and stopping by the convents to buy cookies from the nuns.
“This was a usual activity for us locals and is something in my earliest memories.”
The Convento de las Carboneras, or the Convent of St Pauls, is located at the highest point in the picturesque city.
Upon reaching the place, tourists are guided towards a sign that reads “Se Venden Dulces Artesanos”, which means sale of sweets.
An intercom device sits near the sign through which tourists can place orders for their cookies.
But it is not so simple.
Tourists first need to say the unique phrase “Ave María Purísima”, which means Holy Mary, most pure and wait.
A nun then replies saying “Sin pecado concebida”, which means conceived without sin.
A door then opens to a concealed menu of items – handmade by the cloistered nuns.
Visitors can then choose the items and put the money on a tray which keeps rotating until the order arrives.
The poor Clare nuns who make these iconic delicacies are members of the Roman Catholic Franciscan Order of St. Clare who have vowed to live a life of poverty, chastity and obedience.
Their sole way of earning is by selling such hand-made products to tourists who often flock to the convent to enjoy traditional Spanish recipes.
A few more cookie-selling convents run across Spain, including the famous Monasterio del Corpus Christi in Madrid.
