Buddhist Stupa, Santa Domingo Church

Posted on by Lea Ann Reynolds

Buddhist Temple “Enlightment Stupa” Spire

Today was a busy day although we didn’t plan it that way. When trying to navigate the busing system on an app on our phone while looking at landmarks, sometimes you might miss your stop or even get off long before your stop. Some of the buses have a small scrolling sign that lets you know what stop is next and some don’t. We happened to get on one that didn’t so the first time, we got off way too soon.

Overlooking the coast from the temple.

I realized this once I looked at Google maps to see how far to walk to our first destination. It wasn’t even close! So we had to wait on another bus. They run about 20 minutes apart but another bus, different number, similar route, drove in so we hopped on after determining what stop we needed.

Structure at the Butterfly farm

Also, not only did the bus not have a sign telling you what stop you were at, it wasn’t easily visible to see where you were getting off so when we thought we had the right stop, we were actually 2 stops past it. Oh well, its an adventure and as Chuck said, where do we have to be?


View from the Church

The good part about missing our stops is that we ended up at the Buddhist Stupa. We wanted to see this anyway, just wasn’t in our plan today. Plans changed! Easy as that.

The Buddhist Enlightment Stupa. Symbolically, the shape of the Stupa is thought to be that of Buddha sitting in meditation.  The top of the spire is his crown, his head is the square at the base of the spire, the vase shape is his body, the four steps beneath represent his legs and his throne is the base.

Rustic Park of Benalmadena with the temple in the background

There are 8 types of Tibeten Stupas. This one is beautiful. It was built by a Buddhist master Lopon Tchechu Rinpoche. His last project, the Enlightment Stupa built in Benalmadena by architect Wojtek Kossowski, the largest Stupa in the West, is considered by many to be the crown jewel of all Lopon’s work.

Outdoor theater set in multiple stages

The Stupa is fairly new. It was inaugurated in 2003 and was built on the observation deck overseeing Benalmadena. The views are magnificent.

One of the stages of the outdoor theater

We also noticed some small areas behind the temple that we assumed were for mediating. Its called Parque Reustico Benalmadena. In reality, this is used for many plays for reenactments.

Benalmadena town

One such representation, set in the time, is the most dramatic moments of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ or “El Paso”.  It is one of the oldest and most established traditions in Benalmadena. It’s an outdoor theater with many stages and done in 35 acts. It can last for several hours. This amazing live story telling is held during Holy Week. Sadly, we missed it. Maybe we can make it another time.

Butterfly farm

On the same street as the temple was the butterfly farm. We walked around inside but decided not to partake of the adventure. We still had the church to see.


Animated butterfly inside the butterfly farm


We walked up to the bus stop and this time we got off at the right stop. Yay! We still had to do a little walking but we enjoyed the scenery as we walked around. We stopped for lunch. Chuck had a sandwich and fries. I just ate a little of his. I wasn’t very hungry and I wanted some ice cream later. Didn’t want to ruin my appetite for the ice cream. 


Cute, narrow streets in the city. Cars fit but they are all tiny!

After lunch, we made our way, walking, by my trusty Google maps to the church.


View from the church overlooking the Mediterranean sea and a village of homes on the top of the hill. 

It showed a winding road to get up and still not super stable on my ankle, I rolled my eyes. Superman, I mean Chuck, saw a “lift” aka elevator to the top of the hill. My hero!! 

The church stands where the Moorish Benalmadena castle once was.

Santa Domingo Church

In 1485 the castle was destroyed by the Christian armies. This castle was a lookout for the coast during air raids. In the 17th century, the Santa Domingo Church, named “Iglesia de Santa Domingo” was constructed in place of the castle.

Bells and clock at the top of the Church. The time is wrong. The bells actually rang at 3 pm while we were there.

We failed to take into consideration that everything in Spain closes between 2 pm and 5 pm and we weren’t able to enter into the Church.

Mosaic tiles by each window were very detailed. This one was on the left of the door.

You would think by now, we would know this!

This picture was on the right of the door.

The church is beautiful on the outside and the view overseeing the coast is amazing. 

We made our way back into the city to catch the bus once again (after having my ice cream) and made it back in one piece.

The beautiful mountains behind us. We turned 180 degrees and the ocean was on the other side. 

Today was wonderful. The weather has been perfect the last several days  and the sights have been amazing. 

Picturesque view looking down over the city and ocean.



Looking forward to our trip on Friday to see Gibralter. 

May God bless you all!

Chuck & Lea Ann 

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