Our Lady of Guadalupe

Patrona de La Gomera · Puntallana

In the hermitage of Puntallana venerates the patron of La Gomera, a flamenco size of the 16th century; every five years it stars the only sea bass of Canarias, moved in procession by sea to San Sebastián.

Origin and history

The image is a 16th century flamenco size, small (about 25 cm) and brown, preserved in the Puntallana hermitage. The devotion has been documented on the island since the 16th century, in the context of the navigation between the Canary Islands and America; several authors relate it to the first count of La Gomera, Guillén Peraza de Ayala, linked to the monastery of Guadalupe in Cáceres, which would have promoted the first sanctuary of Puntallana before 1542.

The recognition as an island patron is consolidated in the 19th century, when the Lustral Bajada is institutionalized, whose first documented edition is 1872. It was canonically crowned on October 12, 1973. The tradition tells us that a ship to America saw a light in a cave in Puntallana where the image was found, and that the ship could not get away until it was returned to the ground. Its most unique feature is the Lustral Bajada by sea, the only one in the Canary Islands that takes place in a maritime procession.