Nosa Señora da Lanzada

La ermita del mar · Sanxenxo (Pontevedra)

On a rocky exit by the sea, on the beach of A Lanzada, a Romanesque hermitage guards Our Lady of La Lanzada, linked to the protection of the sailors and the ancient rite of fertility of the "nine wave bath."

Origin and history

The hermitage is a late Romanesque-style temple, built between the late 12th and early 13th century, on the remains of an earlier church linked to a coastal fortress of the 10th century (the Tower of La Lanzada, documented about 952). Damaged in the Irmandiña revolt of the 15th century, the temple and ruins of a tower are preserved; inside it, a baroque altarpiece with the image of the Virgin.

His devotion is linked from ancient times to the protection of sailors and sailors - with abundance of boat exvotes - and, above all, to the rite of fertility of the "nine wave bath": the morning of last Sunday August, women who wish to be mothers are bathed by trying to get nine waves to hit their belly. The rite, of pre-Christian root linked to the sea and the moon, has been integrated into Marian devotion.

The rite of the nine waves belongs to the popular religiosity of ancient root. Canonical coronation: not recorded.