Saint Mary of the Eagle

Patrona de Alcalá de Guadaíra (Sevilla)

On the castle that dominates Alcalá de Guadaíra venerates Santa María del Águila, patron and mayor Perpetua of the city, a sign of identity present in almost all their homes.

Origin and history

Since the 13th century Reconquest, after the take of Alcalá, a secular Marian devotion is attested to on the hill of the castle under the title of the Eagle, for centuries the main of the place. The current brotherhood was founded in 1891. The primitive, medieval image was destroyed in 1936; the present one is the work of Antonio Illanes (1938), inspired in the 15th century.

Tradition tells that, in the face of the Muslim invasion, Christians hid the image in a tower of the castle, and that after the Reconquist an eagle pointed to the place where it was found, giving name to the advocation. Patrona and Mayor Perpetua of Alcalá, with the Gold Medal of the city, was crowned canonically on 3 June 2000.