Our Lady of Guadalupe

Teguise Patron (Lanzarote)

In the historic village of Teguise, the former capital of Lanzarote, the parish of the island keeps Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron of the villa, whose first image, according to tradition, was abducted by Berber corsaries.

Origin and history

The church of Our Lady of Guadalupe was founded in the first half of the 15th century, as a simple construction, in the ancient capital of Lanzarote; it is today the parent parish of the island. On its main altar is the Virgin of Guadalupe, flanked by San Marcial and San Pedro. The temple has undergone various reforms and reconstructions, including a serious fire in the early 20th century.

A historical tradition, supported by island studies, refers that the image of Guadalupe de Teguise would have been brought in 1455 by Diego García de Herrera, lord of the Canary Islands, and that she was abducted by Berber corsaries during an attack and taken to Algiers; the exact continuity between that first image and the current one is not fully documented. The Virgin is the main Marian reference of the villa, in whose historical centre the temple is a neurological center.

Own liturgical date and canonical coronation: they are not safely recorded in the sources.