Real Monasterio de Santa María de Guadalupe
Monument · Guadalupe, Villuercas-Ibores-Jara, Cáceres
According to tradition as recorded by the Hieronymite chronicler Fray Diego de Écija (1467-1534), a shepherd—later identified, in 1743, as Gil Cordero—found the image of the Virgin that gave rise to the sanctuary. King Alfonso XI, after the Battle of the Salado, granted a royal privilege on December 25, 1340 confirming the sanctuary; the archbishop of Toledo established a secular priory on January 6, 1341, and by a decree of Juan I, on August 15, 1389, it became a Hieronymite monastery, an order that kept custody of it until the 1835 disentailment; Franciscans have attended it since 1908. The monastery was a key site in the preparations for Columbus's first voyage, which he visited in 1486, 1489 and 1493, and Native Americans were baptized there on July 29, 1496. It was declared a Monumento Nacional in 1879, raised to minor basilica by Pius XII in 1955, and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. The complex combines Gothic, Mudejar, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical styles, with a 14th-15th-century Mudejar cloister as its most characteristic feature.
25 de diciembre de 1340 (privilegio real); 15 de agosto de 1389 (paso a monasterio jerónimo); 1879 (monumento nacional); 1955 (basílica menor); 1993 (Patrimonio de la Humanidad)
Photo: Alonso de Mendoza (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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