Basilica of Our Lady of El Pilar
The Basilica of Our Lady of El Pilar is one of the biggest and most important churches in Spain. The story is that there is a pillar in the church and the Virgin is said to have descended from heaven onto the pillar in an apparition to St. James the Apostle by the banks of the Ebro River. She gave him a small wooden statue of herself and a column of jasper and told him to build a church in her honor. The carving of Our Lady of El Pilar is a Gothic cedar carving that is only 38 cm high. The stand of this sculpture is a column made of jasper that is covered with bronze and silver. This column is 2 meters high and has a diameter of 24 cm. The statue of the Virgin is located in a small chapel at the back of the church. Thousands of pilgrims go to the back of the statue to touch the pillar, because it is said that the Virgin has done a lot of miracles.
Several chapels and churches were built at the site and destroyed with time. The current church was built between 1681 and 1686 by the King Carlos II. In 1725 the church commissioned the architect Ventura Rodriguez to transform the building to the Baroque style. The church now measures 130 by 67 meters. There are large corner towers and a central dome surrounded by ten brightly tiled cupolas. There are two domes that were painted with frescoes by Goya. One of them has the Queen of the Martyrs, and the second one has the Adoration of the Name of God. The final reconstruction was finished in 1872.