Our Lady of Chilla

Candeleda and the Tietar Valley (Avila)

In the throat of Chilla, in the skirt of Gredos, a serrana hermitage guards the Virgin of Chilla, patron of Candeleda and of the Tietar valley; tradition links to the miracle of a resurrected goat, so her image usually appears accompanied by the animal.

Origin and history

The local tradition states that the Virgin appeared to a pastor named Finardo as he looked after his goats by the throat of Chilla, towards the 14th century: one of the goats had died by eating poisonous herbs and, by invoking the shepherd to the Virgin, it appeared to him and resurrected the animal, which is why the image is usually represented with a goat. The Virgin would have asked him to be erected a temple in that place. It is a account of the field of popular piety, of which the Romeria, the traditionally agricultural and livestock offerings are born, and the spread of devotion to the Tietar valley and the Talavera field.

The present sanctuary is a simple hermitage in a wooded place by the throat, with ancient phases dating from the 16th to the 17th centuries and reconstruction in the 18th on the primitive hermitage. In its interior are preserved ceramic panels that tell the miracle of the shepherd and the goat, and pictures of exvotes of favors attributed to the Virgin. It is a markedly serrana advocation linked to the rural world, whose devotion culminates in the Romeria of the second Sunday of September - declared of National Tourist Interest - with mass, procession and offerings.

Canonical coronation: not found in the sources.