Mare de Déu del Castell de Cullera

Marian title of Culera (Valencia Community)
Recognized by the Church

The Mare de Déu del Castell - Our Lady of the Castle, also called of the Incarnation - is the patron of Culera (Valencia), venerated on the top of the mountain crowned by the castle, which dominates the mouth of the Júcar and the Mediterranean Sea.

Main data

Origin and history

The Mare de Déu del Castell - Our Lady of the Castle, also called of the Incarnation - is the patron of Culera (Valencia), venerated on the top of the mountain crowned by the castle, which dominates the mouth of the Júcar and the Mediterranean Sea.

His story is intertwined with the Reconquist: 1248by the king Jaume I, los caballeros sanjuanistas (la Orden de San Juan) entronizaron la imagen de la Virgen en la capilla del castillo de Cullera, trasladándola desde la iglesia parroquial. Desde entonces, «la Mareta» reina sobre la villa desde la altura.

Culera was for centuries a coastal villa threatened by the piratería berberberisca: the dreaded corsario Turgut Reis, Niceand looted and burned the population 25 May 1550. En aquel mundo de «moros en la costa», torres vigía y rebatos, la Virgen del Castillo, alzada en su monte como una atalaya, se convirtió en refugio y esperanza del pueblo.

The image and the sanctuary

The image is a size 14th century polychrome alabaster Gothic, about 38 centimeters high, of great delicacy.

Se venera en el Shrine of the Mare de Déu del Castell, Neo-Byzantine style temple built between 1891 y 1897 thanks to the efforts of the town of Culera, by the castle. From 1922 until 2007 he was in the care of a community of Franciscan parents. Its famous lobby and walls preserve a remarkable collection of ceramic stables of the 18th and 19th centuries, transferred from the ancient hermitage, which represent the miracles attributed to the Virgin.

Sponsorship and coronation

Culera's boss. No canonical coronation.

Party and devotion

The big date is «la Baixà» (la Bajada): on the Sabbath following the Sunday of Resurrection, the patron goes down from her sanctuary on the way to Calvary to the city. in the light of the candles, accompanied by the municipal corporation and traditional dances to the dulzain and the tabal. After the holidays, the celebration ends with the process of the image back to its sanctuary on the top of the mountain, among fireworks.

A beautiful one legend explains the origin of devotion: a shepherd of Utiel who fed his flock by the cave of the ravine of the hermitage of Santa Marta heard a noise on a rock and, as he approached, found two images of the VirginOne to which one arm was missing, which he gave to the clergy of Cullera, and one complete, which he took to his parish of Utiel. The next day, when opening both temples for veneration, the images they had changed places miraculously: the whole had returned to Cullera and the incomplete had appeared in Utiel. That's why the Virgin of the Remedia, patron of Utiel, is small and very similar to the major of the Culera Castle, probably carved by the same hand: two Marian sisters united forever by legend.

Link to the Rosary

Desde su monte sobre el mar, la Mare de Déu del Castell vela por Cullera y por cuantos navegan, como una madre que no aparta la mirada de sus hijos. Rezarle el Rosario es subir con ella, avemaría a avemaría, por el camino del Calvario hasta esa atalaya de luz; y, como en «la Baixà», dejar que la Madre baje hasta nuestra vida a la luz de las velas, para volver luego a llevarnos consigo a lo alto, hacia Dios.