Full history of Begoña - Chronology

Our Lady of Begoña - History of the Sanctuary

Bilbao, Bizkaia · Patrona del País Vasco

The basilica of Our Lady of Begoña, embodied on the top of Artagan on the old town of Bilbao, is one of the most venerated Marian shrines in northern Spain. His history intertwines the medieval tradition of miraculous finding of the image, centuries of Basque popular devotion, the drama of the Carlist wars and the vitality of a faith that has survived intact at the time of the centuries.

The origins: the tradition of finding in oak

The devotion to Our Lady of Begoña goes back, according to the oral tradition most rooted in the Basque Country, to the 16th century, although the place of Begoña - a high hill on the homonymous forechurch, now integrated in the municipality of Bilbao - was already known before that date. Tradition reports that a Labriego of the area found an image of the Virgin hidden between the branches or in the hollow trunk of a product - tree of deep symbolic and religious significance in the Basque culture.

The finding in the oak is not casual or arbitrary in the Basque cultural context: the tree - and in particular the oak - is in the Basque tradition a symbol of the identity of the people, of their roots in the land and of their ancestral ways. The Sea and Gernika's tree are his best known expressions. May the Virgin manifest herself in an oak, in this context, has a deep resonance: the Mother of God chooses the sacred tree of the Basque people as the place of her apparition, thus making one with the earth and the people of that nation.

The image found - a size of the Virgin with the Child Jesus in arms, in style gothic-late flamenco and dated by art historians in the 16th century - she was moved to a small chapel on the top of the hill of Artagan, where she immediately began to receive the veneration of the faithful of Begoña, Bilbao and the entire region.

The primitive hermitage and the first basilica (1511)

The construction of a decent building to house the venerated image began in the early years of the 16th century. The historical documents of the diocesan archive of Bilbao and the municipality of Begoña allow to date in 1511 the beginning of the works of the first basilica. The initiative was supported by the noble Vizcaina families and the village of Bilbao, which was already at that time a major shopping centre thanks to the Spanish wool trade with Flanders and England.

The first facade of the temple, of late Gothic style with emerging Renaissance elements, dates from that time. The main cover - which is preserved today in its essential elements - shows the style of transition between the Gothic and the Renaissance that characterized the Basque religious architecture of the first third of the 16th century.

Throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the basilica was extended and reformed several times to accommodate a devotion that continued to grow. Begoña became the place of pilgrimage par excellence of the Vizcayos: there came sailors before they sailed, merchants before their travels, mothers with their sick children, in love in search of blessing and plain people in their joys and sorrows.

The image: description and dating

The image of Our Lady of Begoña is a polychrome wood size that art historians are part of the Gothic style - late flamenco, dated in the second half of the 16th century. It represents the Virgin Mary standing, with the Child Jesus in her arms - in the iconography known as "Virgin with Child" or "Eleusa" - with an expression of tenderness and closeness that contrasts with the hieratic solemnity of Roman images.

The image wears blue mantle with golden embroidery, and the Virgin bears royal crown. The Child, also crowned, shows a tender attitude towards his Mother. This iconography of the Virgin Mother - close, human, compassionate - explains the popular appeal that the Basque give to Begoña: "Amatxu"which in Basque means simply "mom." She is not the distant Queen or the majestic Lady: she is the Mother who welcomes, who listens, who understands.

Patrona de Bizkaia

Throughout the 17th and 18th century, devotion to Our Lady of Begoña was growing to become the central religious expression of the Vizcaine identity. The Foral Institutions of the Señorío de Bizkaia - the Diputación, the Corregidor, the General Boards - took the Virgin of Begoña under her special sponsorship, going in an official procession to the sanctuary on the dates indicated.

The formal recognition of Our Lady of Begoña as Patrona de Bizkaia is the result of centuries of popular devotion that culminated in the official declaration. The patron party is held August 15, solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, when all Bilbao and the peoples of Bizkaia are turned into the celebration. The procession from the basilica and the rosemary in the surroundings are the central moments of a holiday that combines the religious and the popular with a characteristic nature of the Basque Country.

The Carlist War and the Unexploded Bullet (1835)

The most dramatic episode in the history of the Begoña Basilica took place during the First Carlist War (1833-1840). Bilbao was a liberal square - the villa supported the cause of Queen Elizabeth II and the constitutional regime - while the Carlist forces of General Tomás de Zumalacárregui besieged the city in 1835, trying to take it for the cause of the suitor Don Carlos.

During the Carlist bombing, the Begoña basilica was hit by at least one artillery bullet that penetrated the interior of the temple unexploded. The projectile, which could have caused enormous destruction and numerous victims among the faithful who at that time sought refuge in the sanctuary, was inert. The Bilbaites interpreted the fact as a direct intervention by the Virgin of Begoña protecting her devotees.

La Carlist bullet was preserved as relic and testimony of the prodigy. For a long time it was shown in the basilica as a memory of the episode. The site of Bilbao in 1835 was finally raised after the death of Zumalacárregui - wounded during the siege of another square - without the Carlists being able to take over the city, which the Bilbaites attributed in part to the protection of their Patron.

The Restorations of the 19th and 20th Century

The Begoña Basilica suffered significant damage throughout its history - fires, structural damage, the bombing of the Carlist wars themselves - which led to successive restorations. The most important were made during the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, when the urban growth of Bilbao - driven by steel industrialization - made it possible to have important economic resources for the restoration of the religious heritage.

The neo-Gothic facade that today presents the basilica is the result of the interventions of the 19th century, which respected the original elements of the 16th century while adding decorative elements of the Neo-Medieval taste of the time. The current set - facade, main ship, side chapels and tower - is the product of these successive interventions over five centuries.

The sanctuary at present

The Begoña Basilica is now one of the most active Marian pilgrimage centers in northern Spain. The sanctuary receives visitors throughout the year, but the dates of the greatest influx are the August 15 (patron party), Holy Week and on spring and autumn Sundays, when the Vizcaina families have the tradition of "going up to the Amatxu."

Access to the sanctuary from the old town of Bilbao can be made on foot - by the historical step of 313 steps - or by the Begoña public lifta modern facility that facilitates access to older persons or people with reduced mobility. This coexistence between secular devotional tradition and modern means of access is characteristic of the Bilbain sanctuary.