ANDÚJAR - It is considered the oldest pilgrimage in Spain, in which half a million people participate every year, that of the Virgen della Cabeza, which is now trying to be declared a Festival of International Tourist Interest.
For about 800 years, every last Sunday of April, pilgrims have traveled for about 10 hours on foot, on horseback or in trolleys towed by tractors - over a hundred - the Sierra Morena, in Jaén (Andalusia), after leaving Andújar to arrive to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Cabeza, about 20 km away.
In the evocative route full of olive trees - Jaén is in fact the world's largest producer of olive oil, with 60 million olive trees - you can dance and sing flamenco, eat potato tortilla, salmorejo, ham and typical dishes based on wild boar and deer,
and typical wines such as Montilla are drunk.
Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, is considered the first chronicler of this pilgrimage, to which he would have been present in 1592 and of which he wrote in his work "Los trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda" (1617).
According to tradition, on the night between 11 and 12 August 1227 the Madonna appeared to the shepherd Juan Alonso de Rivas in the mountain of Cabeza, the heart of the Sierra Morena, from which it took its name, and healed his sick arm.
From the first moment there was a flood of devotees and at the end of the thirteenth century a sanctuary was built in the Cabeza mountain and the devotion quickly spread and reached Latin America as well.
The carving of the Madonna disappeared during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) - the period in which the sanctuary was destroyed and then rebuilt - without being found, and what is now shown is from 1944. Pope Benedict XVI declared the Sanctuary as a Basilica and in 2009 awarded the Golden Rose to the Virgen della Cabeza,
The final stretch of the path before arriving at the sanctuary is done by some devotees kneeling or barefoot for the promises to the Virgin, such as the Moreno Jiménez family, who arrive excited after scattering the ashes of their parents here years ago.
"Coming here is like staying at home. This emotion lasts for a whole year", she tells Ansa Teresa, to whom, like everyone here, these two years of pandemic without pilgrimage have become eternal.
"There are pilgrims of the Madonna and pilgrims of the bottle of wine. But those of the bottle are also devoted," adds her husband.
For many, the night passes between dances of sevillanas, food and wine and a few hours of sleep in the country tents set up around the Sanctuary after, inside, having sung and acclaimed the Virgin for hours.
The big day of the pilgrimage is Sunday, when after mass the statue of the Virgin, also known as "La Morenita", is carried in procession back to Andújar by about a hundred people and flanked by two Trinitarian monks (the Order who manages the Sanctuary).
In the procession the monks receive many children from the devotees, who bring them one by one to the Madonna, as well as hats or sweaters, becoming a typical image of this religious festival.
"We are now seeking international recognition, which is declared a Festival of International Tourist Interest: we have History - in 2027 we will be 800 years old - and a singular place, the Sierra de Andújar Natural Park", says the mayor of Andújar Pedro Luis Rodríguez.
