Our Lady of the Plane

Almenar de Soria Patron

In Almenar de Soria, a Romanesque size of more than one metre was venerated to Nuestra Señora de la Llana, a tradition that links to an apparition in the unpopulated of Andava and to the account of the Cautive of Peroniel, miraculously released from the captivity in Algiers.

Origin and history

The image is a 12th-century Romanesque size, made of polychrome wood and more than a meter high. The present hermit-sanctuary was raised in the 18th century over a previous one, and it conserves in its interior abundant votive devotion, a sign of continued veneration. The party is held on August 15 and a rosemary - linked to the Peroniel Cautive - on Tuesday following the Sunday of Pentecost.

The local tradition tells that the Virgin appeared in the end of Andava, now unpopulated, in the linde between Peroniel del Campo and Almenar, and links her devotion with the account of the Cauctive of Peroniel, a story of miraculous liberation after the captivity in Algiers; a story of the field of popular piety. He highlights his fame as a healer of evils, attested to the custom of offering him exvotes as a testimony of favors received.

Formal patronage and canonical coronation: they are not safely recorded in the sources.