Basilica di Giadalupe

The Virgen de Guadalupe is the Queen of Mexico and the Empress of the Americas. Nowhere is her cult as strong as at the Basilica de Guadalupe, built in her honor and now one of the most visited religious sites in the world. Here’s everything you need to know.

👩🏻‍🏫 LEGEND
Legend has it that a baptized Aztec Indian named Juan Diego was walking on the hill of Tepeyac in the dead of winter, when he saw the apparition of young girl. She asked him to visit the local bishop and tell him that the Virgin Mary wanted a church built in her honor on the hill. Juan Diego did what he was told, visiting the local archbishop several times, but each time the bishop rejected his story.

Upon Juan Diego’s last visit to the hill, Mary told him to go gather roses in a different part of the hill – roses that could not possibly be growing at this time of the year. To his surprise, the roses where exactly where she said, and he gathered them up in his tilma (a cloak-like poncho) and carried them to the bishop. When he laid the flowers at the feet of the bishop, the front of his tilma was adorned by the image of the now-famous Virgin de Guadalupe, and the bishop was convinced of the miracle of her sighting.Read more