Santa María de Tentudía

Calera de León · Sierra de Tentudía (Badajoz)

On the top of the Tentudia saw, a monastery - the strength of the Order of Santiago is a Marian devotion born, according to legend, of the day that the Virgin stopped the sun to give victory to Christian troops.

Origin and history

Tradition tells that, in the time of Fernando III, the sanctiaguist Master Pelay Pérez Correa, seeing himself about to lose a battle at the fall of the afternoon, asked the Virgin to stop the day with the invocation "Holy Mary, stop your day!" from that phrase would come the name "Tentudia." In thanks for the victory, he would have founded a hermitage there.

The documented history places the foundation of the temple in the 13th century as a hermitage linked to Pelay Pérez Correa, extended in the 16th century and declared a monastery in 1514, becoming one of the most important centers of the Order of Santiago. The set is a remarkable sample of the Spanish mudejar and is declared Good of Cultural Interest. Devotion unites Marian piety to the legend of the stopped sun and to the strong sanctiaguist imprint of the place.

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