Search

Sanctuary of the Virgen del Cid

It is a group of buildings arranged around a central courtyard: the hermitage, the inn and the portico.

The hermitage is a rectangular building with a very austere exterior, made of whitewashed masonry and ashlar. The ashlar masonry doorway stands out, with a semicircular arch; above it is the belfry.

The interior has a single nave with three bays covered with ribbed vaults separated by segmental arches. Behind the chancel is the chapel of the Virgin and, at the foot, there is a choir loft where the case of an old organ is preserved. In the interior, the decoration with very colorful baroque mural paintings, with vegetal forms and representations of angels painted in bright colors like oranges, blues, greens, or creams; there are also some borders made in gray and white tones.

The hostelry, attached to the hermitage, is a rectangular building with two floors. Access is through two semicircular arched doors. The openings of the main façade are linteled; the molded decoration of one of the windows stands out.

Inside the guesthouse, the pebbled pavements with geometric motifs stand out, among which the one known as “labyrinth” stands out.

The plaza, or central courtyard, is enclosed on its east and south sides by a covered portico with a length of 35.5 m (south) and 19 m (east). It is composed of linteled openings on columns, from the parish church of La Iglesuela, from where they were eliminated in the remodeling of 1748.

For the construction of the hermitage, ashlars from the Ibero-Roman site next door were used, highlighting the remains of columns, capitals and tombstones from the monumental complex that appear in the corners of the west wall of the hermitage. They are large-scale architectural elements that denote the importance of the site. There are also two Iberian funerary stelae, one inside and the other outside the Hermitage. This Roman funerary epigraphic ensemble dates from the 2nd century AD.

The Virgin of Cid

The devotion to the Virgen del Cid dates back to a miraculous event that took place in the Middle Ages in the municipality of La Iglesuela. As in other Aragonese sanctuaries, the hermitage stands on the place where the carved image of the Virgin appears to a shepherd.

The image of the Virgen del Cid, dating from the 12th century, is preserved in good condition in the parish church.

The name of the sanctuary derives from the tradition according to which the Campeador visited it on several occasions.