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As if hiding in the rugged Picos de Europa mountains of Asturias, in northern Spain, the Santa Cueva de Covadonga (the Holy Cave of Covadonga) is a place rich in history and religious significance. This Catholic Asturian sanctuary is both a spiritual destination and a symbol of Spain’s historical resilience. The cave is associated with the beginnings of the Reconquista, the Christian effort to reclaim lands from Muslim rule, making it a place of pilgrimage for believers – and a research destination for history aficionados.
Origins of a sacred space
The origins of the cave as a place of worship are the stuff legends are made of. Local Christian traditions claim that Pelagius (the famed Don Pelayo, not to be confused with the British heretic of the same name), a Visigoth noble and future leader of the Reconquista, pursued a criminal into a cave in the Picos. Once there, he found a hermit praying to the Virgin Mary.
The hermit asked Pelagius to spare the man’s life because he had sought the Virgin’s protection. He also predicted that Pelagius would one day seek refuge in the same cave.
This prophecy came true during the Battle of Covadonga in 718, when Pelagius and his small band of fighters made a defiant stand against the Muslim forces. According to Muslim chronicles, Pelagius and his men hid in the cave and survived on honey found in the crevices of the rock. In contrast, Christian accounts emphasize the miraculous intervention of the Virgin Mary, whose protection was seen as the key to their improbable victory.
This marked the beginning of the Reconquista, a defining moment in Spanish history.
From battle ground to sanctuary
After the victory, King Alfonso I of Asturias honored the Virgin Mary by building a chapel in the cave. Dedicated to Our Lady of Covadonga (from cova domnica "Cave of Our Lady) – affectionately called La Santina – the sanctuary became an important site for Christian pilgrims. The Sacred Cave also housed altars to St. John the Baptist and St. Andrew, and was entrusted to Benedictine monks.
The original Marian statue was lost in a fire in 1777, but a 16th-century wooden image of the Virgin and Child, donated by the Cathedral of Oviedo, took its place and remains there to this day.
Restoration and legacy
In the 19th century, Bishop Benito Sanz y Forés led efforts to restore the Sacred Cave, culminating in the construction of a new Romanesque-style chapel. The architect Luis Menéndez-Pidal designed the current structure, which was inaugurated in 1874.
The statue of the Virgin disappeared momentarily during the Spanish Civil War, and was found in the embassy of Spain in France in the year 1939.
