Virgin of the Head

Patrona de Ferreira · Marquesado del Zenete (Granada)

In the lush area of El Castañar, in the Marquesado del Zenete, a hermitage guards the Virgin of the Head, patron of Ferreira, the goal of a serrana rostrum at the end of April.

Origin and history

The hermitage of the Virgin of the Head is among the main monuments of Ferreira, along with the Arab Baths, the Alcazaba and the parish church. It is located in the area of El Castañar, "one of the most famous and attractive of Ferreira," in the region of the Marquesado del Zenete, at the foot of Sierra Nevada.

The Virgin of the Head is venerated as patron of Ferreira. His Romeria is celebrated on the last weekend of April, with mass, procession and ascending of the image from the village to the hermitage, organized by an association of his own. The accessible sources do not document in detail the origin of the hermitage or a direct historical link to the great homonymous devotion of Andújar.

Origin of the hermitage, link to that of Andújar and canonical coronation: they are not recorded in the sources.