Our Lady of the Rock

Patrona de Mijas (Málaga)

In a hermitage excavated on the rock, lying on the Costa del Sol, it venerates Our Lady of the Peña, patron of Mijas, whose image, according to tradition, was hidden centuries in the castle and was found in 1586 guided by a dove.

Origin and history

The hermitage of the Virgin of the Peña is a rock sanctuary, excavated on the rock next to the view of the Compás, the current configuration of which dates back to the XVI-XVII centuries (the sources disagree on whether it was opened by merchants or Carmelites). It is one of the most characteristic corners of Mijas.

The local tradition maintains that the image was hidden for centuries on the walls of the old Mijas castle during the Muslim rule and that it was discovered in 1586, when the Virgin would have appeared to two pastoral children, John and Asunción, guided by a dove. Patrona and Mayor Perpetua de Mijas, its hermitage is a constant center of local pilgrimage.

The date of the main party and a canonical coronation are not safely recorded in the sources.