Our Lady of the Ancient

Orduña (Bizkaia)

At the foot of Mount Txarlón, over Orduña, a Baroque sanctuary has kept the Gothic size of Our Lady of the Old, "Andra Mari" and patron of the city since 1639.

Origin and history

The tradition links the sanctuary to the legend of the miraculous finding of the image by a shepherd who carried his flocks at the foot of Mount Txarlón: the size would have appeared entangled between the branches of a Moor, and there the primitive temple was raised. In the present sanctuary a Gothic size of the Virgin, from the 14th century, is sold in polychrome wood, sitting with the Child in the attitude of blessing.

The present temple is a baroque building of the 18th century, built on an earlier building from which a nodal cover is preserved, with a neoclassical altarpiece. The devotion is documented of ancient: in 1639 the image was officially declared patron of Orduña, and remains an identity symbol of the city as its "Andra Mari" patron.

Canonical coronation: not found in the sources.