Virgen del Camino
| Municipality of Valverde de la Virgen: Virgen del Camino | |||
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| coat of arms | Map of Spain | ||
 Help on coat of arms |
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| Basic data | |||
| Autonomous Community : | Castile and Leon | ||
| Province : | Leon | ||
| Comarca : | Tierras de León | ||
| Coordinates | 42 ° 35 ′ N , 5 ° 38 ′ W | ||
| Height : | 905 msnm | ||
| Residents : | 5,035 (2013) INE | ||
| Area code: | 24189000800 | ||
| Nearest airport : | León - Virgen del Camino | ||
Virgen del Camino a place on the Way of St. James in the province of León in the autonomous community of Castile and León . Today the town includes the airport of León , an aviation center and a pilot school. Administratively it is dependent on Valverde de la Virgen and with around four thousand inhabitants within the municipality it is the place with the largest population.
history
The place developed at the gates of León around a pilgrimage chapel, which was built after the Virgin Mary appeared to the shepherd Alvar Simón Fernández on July 2nd in a field and asked for a chapel to be built. There was also a Virgen del Camino before, but it was renamed and is now known as the Virgen del Mercado.
The small church mentioned above was built in the sixteenth century. This church was enlarged and demolished in the twentieth century in favor of a new building. In 1914 the “Virgin of the Way” became León's patroness . It is the destination of numerous pilgrimages, but with the aging of Spanish society, the number of participants has recently decreased.
Sanctuary of the Virgen del Camino
The building has the shape of a white cube, which rests on a darker base of smaller dimensions. The bell tower is a steep concrete structure in the shape of a cross. The portal front shows a Pentecostal scene (Mary and the disciples, without Jesus) by the sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs . The group consists of thirteen figures each six meters each, each weighing 700 kg. The narrow stylized silhouettes seem like a response to the Gothic style of the Leonese cathedral. Inside, the visitor is greeted by a relatively low-looking hall. Corresponding to the outer base, the lower part is paneled with dark wood, while the upper part is kept light. The altar niche made of natural stone strives straight up and receives light from there. The retable (18th century) comes from the previous church, the depiction of Maria ( Pietà ) cannot be dated precisely, but it is likely to have been made in the period after the apparition of Mary.
The construction, including the Dominican College , was financed by a wealthy emigrant, the Portuguese Dominican Francisco Coello designed the church, its foundation stone was laid in 1957 and it was consecrated in 1961. Their appearance was sometimes the subject of public discussion.
literature
- Míllan Bravo Lozano: Practical pilgrim guide. The Way of St. James (“Guía práctica del peregrino”). 8th edition, Editorial Everest, Léon 2002, ISBN 84-241-3835-X .
- Werner Schäfke : Northwest Spain. Land, history and art on the way to Santiago de Compostela . 3rd edition Dumont Buchverlag, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-7701-1589-9 .
Web links
- History of the Santuario de la Virgen del Camino (Spanish)
- La Virgen del Camino in Guiarte (Spanish)
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