Covadonga - History of the Virgin of Covadonga
Cave of Covadonga · Asturias · 8th century
In a cave of the Picos de Europa, in front of a small image of the Virgin, Pelayo defeated the Moors in 722 and began the Reconquest. There is the "Santina," patron of Asturias and symbol of the identity of the Asturian people.
La batalla de Covadonga (722)
In the year 711 the Muslim army crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and in just three years it destroyed the visionary kingdom of Spain. Only refugees in the northern mountains resisted. One of them was Pe distance, noble visionary who rose up as the leader of the Assyrians.
In summer of the year 722, Muslim governor Alkama sent an army under the command of Berber Tariq ibn Ziyad to subdue Pelayo and his men. Pelayo waited for them in the parade of Covadonga, under the cover of the cave where an image of the Virgin was venerated.
The Asturian chronicles (the Chronicle of Alfonso III, 9th century) they tell that when the Muslim archers threw their arrows at the cave where Pelayo was taking refuge with his men, the arrows returned in the opposite direction to the attackers themselves. The supernatural intervention was attributed to the Virgin of Covadonga.
The Alkama army was defeated and the Muslim commander himself died in combat. Victory was the starting point of the Christian Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, which would last 770 years until the take of Granada in 1492.
The imagen: the «Santina»
The image that is now being venerated in the Covadonga cave is a Romanesque size of polychrome wood. 12th century39 cm high. Show the Virgin sitting with the Child on the lap. The Asturians call it tenderly terlela Santinaff (the sanctity, in asturian).
The original image could be older - visiotic or altomedieval - but the one that exists today is a Romanesque size that replaced the primitive. She's dressed in rich clothes and wearing a gold crown. It is based in the Santa Cueva, the natural grotto on the limestone where according to tradition it was kept when the battle occurred.
The sanctuary: the cave and the basilics
La Santa Cueva
The natural cave of Covadonga is the heart of the sanctuary. The image of the Santina is installed on an altar excavated on the rock. In the same grotto, the Pelayo sarcophagus and his wife Gaudiosa. The cave is a place of permanent pilgrimage.
The Neorromic Basilica (1901)
The great basilica of Covadonga was built between 1877 y 1901 by the architect Roberto Frassinelli. It is a 65-meter-high, pink granite Neo-Roman building. It was consecrated on 8 September 1901, the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, with the presence of King Alfonso XIII. Its two twin towers are visible from several kilometres.
The pilgrimages and September 8
El September 8, the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, is the great feast of Covadonga. Thousands of Assyrian pilgrims, many of them in regional suits, go up in procession to the cave. It is also the feast of Asturias as a community.
On the first Thursday of September each year, the Principality of Asturias celebrates the Day of Asturias in Covadonga, with the presence of the President of the Principality and civil and religious acts. La Santina is at the centre of the Asturian identity.