Our Lady of Castañar

Patrona de Béjar (Salamanca)

In a lush chestnut on the outskirts of Béjar, a sanctuary guards the Virgin of Castañar, patron of the city and its region, called old as a protector in front of the eyelashes; every 8 September its image blesses from the viewpoint the Bejaran lands.

Origin and history

The sources place the origins of the cult around 1446, when a modest chapel was erected in the place, then extended and raised to hermitage, germ of the sanctuary. The current building, of simple architecture, was built between the 17th and 18th centuries, and throughout the Modern Age devotion was consolidated as a spiritual center of the Béjar alfoz, with transfers of the image to the villa in times of need. The custody of the sanctuary passed from the Franciscan to the Teatine Fathers in 1946. Some studies point to signs of an earlier Marian cult in the place, under the title of Santa Maria del Monte.

The Bejarana tradition shows that in 1446, in the midst of a plague epidemic, pastors found the image buried at the foot of a chestnut; when the people came to venerate it, the plague ceased, and hence its reputation as a protector against tabs and epidemics. It is a story of the field of popular piety. The central feature of her devotion is the Rome of September 8, with procession to the viewpoint from where, according to the local expression, the Virgin "blesses the lands of Béjar."

Canonical coronation: not found in the sources.