Royal Monastery of Guadalupe

The Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe has been a World Heritage Site since 1993. The monastery is one of the most important sanctuaries in Spain alongside Santiago de Compostela and Montserrat. It offers a wide variety of architectural styles: Gothic, Mudejar, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical...

At the end of the 13th century, the farmer Gil Cordero found a statue of Mary. The statue had previously been in Rome and Seville, but it had been hidden near Guadalupe in 714 with the invasion of the Moors. The discovery receives much attention and attracts believers. At the end of the 14th century, King John I of Castile granted the privilege to the Order of Saint Jerome to establish a sanctuary in Guadalupe.

Christopher Columbus was here during Holy Week in 1486 at the court of the Catholic Monarchs with the aim of convincing the royal couple to finance his trip to the Indies. Six years later, in 1492, Queen Isabella the Catholic returned to the monastery to give thanks for the surrender of Granada. Here she writes two letters to the mayor of Palos de la Frontera to gift two caravels to Christopher Columbus for his adventure. He places his first voyage of discovery under the auspices of the Virgin of Guadalupe and will name an island in the Caribbean after the virgin. He also returns to the monastery to give thanks.

Wim Willems