Our Lady of Gold

Sanctuary of the Golden Peñas · patron of the Valle de Zuia (Álava)

On an imposing limestone block of the Golden Peñas, a sanctuary documented since 1138 keeps Our Golden Lady, patron of the Valley of Zuia and center of a fellowship of about two thousand cofrades.

Origin and history

The first written news of the sanctuary is 1138, in a donation of Doña María López de Haro to the Royal Monastery of Nájera, where the Golden shrine is mentioned next to that of Estíbaliz. It was originally a Romanesque temple from the late 11th or early 12th century, then transformed into Gothic; it rises on a limestone block of the Golden Peñas, about 845 meters. The image is a 13th century Marian size, restored in 1930, venerated in a baroque altarpiece.

It has been held since time immemorial by patron of the Valle de Zuia, although without a formal document declaring it canonically. His co-fradia brings together about 2,000 co-frades and celebrates their great meetings there (Ascension, Asunción, first Sundays of September). A very unique popular devotion attributes to him the relief of headaches: the devotee kneels under the bell of the swordsman, introduces the head and makes it sound as he prays.

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