Our Lady of the Oak

Sanctuary of Artziniega · co-patron of Álava (crowned in 1954)

Along with an old oak, on the outskirts of Artziniega, the sanctuary of Our Lady of Encine - co-patron of Álava, crowned in 1954 - radiates a devotion that reaches Bizkaia, Burgos and Cantabria.

Origin and history

The tradition points to very ancient precedents in the place: a preromanic and other Romanesque temple would have preceded the present one, and there are even vestiges of use since Roman times. The documented history places the construction of the present sanctuary in 1498, according to an inscription dating back to its solemn inauguration. The Virgin takes her name from the great oak next to the one that rises the sanctuary.

She is venerated as a co-patron of Álava, next to San Prudencio, and was crowned canonically in 1954 in a multitudinary act. His devotion has a remarkable regional and supralocal irradiation, with devotees of Álava, Bizkaia, Burgos and Cantabria, pilgrimages, exvotes and even the registration of his name on bilbaite ships of the 17th century. In 1942 a hurricane seriously damaged the sanctuary; the image, a refugee in the parish, returned on 8 September of that year.

Specific link with the Rosary: not recorded in the sources.