Route of the Virgin Mary
EL PILAR DE ZARAGOZA
On the banks of the river Ebro, in Zaragoza, rises the Basilica
of Our Lady of el Pilar, the jewel of Baroque art in Aragón.
The temple is visited daily by thousands of believers and pilgrims.
It keeps the image of the Virgin of el Pilar, the centre of an
ancient veneration that dates back to apostolic times. According
to tradition, the Virgin Mary came to Zaragoza to comfort and
encourage the apostle Saint James, who was in the city preaching
the Gospel. The Virgin gave the apostle a column or pillar (el
pilar), around which the first chapel was built. This would be
the first church devoted to the Virgin Mary in the whole Christendom.
That is why Zaragoza and Santiago de Compostela constitute the
two main axes around which Spanish spiritual life rotates, attracting
every year millions of visitors.
TORRECIUDAD
This sanctuary devoted to the Virgin is located in the province
of Huesca. It was open to worship in 1975, next to the hermitage
that kept, from the 11th century, a Romanesque sculpture of Our
Lady of Torreciudad. The building of the sanctuary was possible
thanks to the spiritual drive of the founder of the Opus Dei and
to the generosity and help of thousands of people from all over
the world. Torreciudad is an international pilgrimage centre.
This prayer and penitence place is sited in a landscape of singular
strength and beauty. The temple is a work by the architect Heliodoro
Dols, who lives in Zaragoza, and the altarpiece was done by the
artist Juan Mayne, who was inspired by the Aragonese monstrance-altarpieces.
LOURDES
This is one of the most famous sanctuaries in the world since
the middle of the 19th century. Above the cave where the Virgin’s
apparitions took place, three superimposed churches were built:
the Crypt, the Basilica of the Rosary and the Basilica of the
Immaculate Conception. To the west of the cave we find the swimming-pools
for the sick; to the east the fountains where the miraculous water
springs up. The subterranean Basilica of Saint Pious X can hold
30 000 people, and the Via Crucis is built on the mountain.
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