Guadalupe - Real Monasterio de Santa María de Guadalupe

The Royal Monastery of St. Mary of Guadalupe towers over the small town.

The surrounding remote areas were uninhabited and remained largely untouched by the great events of Iberian history. But around 1300, a shepherd discovered an image of the Madonna here, which soon became the subject of numerous legends. The image is said to have been sent to Seville by Pope Gregory the Great around the year 590 and hidden here after the Moors came to power.

After its discovery, several hermitages were built, but soon after the victorious Battle of Salado King Alfonso XI donated the construction of a church and a monastery, which experienced an enormous boom after the discovery of America - numerous places, islands etc. in the Spanish colonial empire were given the name Guadalupe.

Since the construction of the first sanctuary, Guadalupe became the most important pilgrimage center in the Iberian Peninsula after Santiago de Compostela