Our Lady of the Hyinite

The Iniesta · venerated in Zamora and the Land of the Bread

A few kilometres from Zamora, the people of La Hiniesta keep in their temple Santa María la Real de la Hiniesta, an advocation very close to the city and to the Land of the Pan, which tradition links to a finding between retamas during a royal hunt.

Origin and history

The image is venerated in the church of Santa María la Real de La Hiniesta, a short distance from the city of Zamora, with which it maintains a very close devotional bond. The documentation contains a reference to a real privilege of 1290 related to the construction of the temple, a framework of the ancient veneration, although the institutional sources on some specific data are limited.

The tradition tells us that the image was found among hiniestas or retamas - from where it would take the name - by a king during a hunt, and then moved to Zamora; the versions are not unanimous and some place it in times of Sancho IV and others in older times. It is a story of the field of popular piety. The devotion is expressed above all in an ancient pilgrimage and in the strong link between La Hiniesta and Zamora, where it is held by much loved advocation, especially rooted in the region of the Land of the Pan.

Own liturgical party, formal patronage and canonical coronation: they are not safely recorded in the sources.