Our Lady the Great Virgin

Patrona de Torrelavega (Cantabria)

In the heart of Torrelavega, a Gothic image of the 15th century, well before the great temple that today the host, is venerated as Virgin Great, the patron of the city, around which the major parties of August 15 revolve.

Origin and history

The historical core of devotion is an image of the Great Virgin of the 15th century, Gothic style, well before the present temple. The church that today the guard was raised to replace the ancient parish of Our Lady of Consolation, destroyed during the civil war; it is the work of the architect Luis Moya Blanco, of rationalist traces with historical elements and structure of armed concrete, completed in 1964, and driven by the parish priest Don Teodosio Herrera. Some descriptions remember that it rises near the site linked to the ancient Torre de la Vega, origin of the name of the city.

The Great Virgin is a patron of Torrelavega, and her devotion is closely linked to the urban identity: around the Solemnity of the Assumption, on August 15, the Festivals of the Great Virgin are celebrated, with the ninth, solemn Eucharistic and the patron celebrations of the city. Beyond the antiquity of the image and its patronage, there is no legendary account of its own (apparition or finding) collected from verifiable ecclesial sources.

Canonical coronation and own foundational account: they do not contain in the sources.