The story of this place
Deep in the mountains of Extremadura, the monastery of Guadalupe grew from the 14th century around a venerated statue of a Black Madonna said to have been carved by Saint Luke and hidden from the Moors. It became one of Spain's greatest pilgrimage centres and a favourite of the Catholic Monarchs, who signed here in 1492 the documents authorising Columbus's first voyage. When he returned, two of the indigenous Americans he brought back were baptised at Guadalupe in 1496—among the first from the New World received into the Church in Europe. The Virgin of Guadalupe later became patroness of the Hispanic world, her name carried across the Atlantic to Mexico.