Las Lajas Sanctuary

Las Lajas Sanctuary (in Spanish Santuario de Las Lajas) is a basilica church located in the southern Colombian Department of Nariño, municipality of Ipiales and built inside the canyon of the Guaitara River.

The cathedral is of Gothic revival architecture and was built from January 1, 1916 to August 20, 1949, with donations from local churchgoers, replacing an old nineteenth-century chapel. The name Laja comes from the name of a type of flat sedimentary rock similar to floor tiles found in the Andes Mountains. There was a claim that in one such stone, an apparition of the Virgin Mary was seen.

The legend of the cathedral's creation is that in 1754 an Amerindian named Maria Mueces and her deaf-mute daughter Rosa were caught in a very strong storm. They found refuge between the gigantic Lajas, and to Maria Mueces's surprise, Rosa exclaimed "the mestiza is calling me..." and pointed to the lightning-illuminated painting over the laja. The oldest account was recorded in the accounts of Fray Juan de Santa Gertrudis's voyage through the southern region of the New Kingdom of Granada between 1756 and 1762.

In 1951 the Roman Catholic Church authorized the Nuestra Señora de Las Lajas virgin, and it declared the sanctuary a minor basilica in 1954.

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Rutas por Colombia
28 March 2012
Se conoce como el Milagro sobre el Abismo. Su estilo gótico es su sello característico. La obra consta de tres naves y tres impactantes torres. En su parte inferior está el Museo Las Lajas
Álbum Viajero
5 August 2013
Uno de los mas impresionantes Santuarios que tiene Colombia desde su historia y infraestructura, si quieres apreciar toda la majestuosidad no vayas un domingo hay demaciada gente. ÁLBUM VIAJERO
Federico Almanza
12 June 2022
Un sitio chévere para visitar ????????????????
Alvaro Mujica Quintero
Sin duda un lugar lleno de mucho amor y magia espiritual....Hermoso!!!
????Carlos Naranjo????
9 January 2013
De los excelentes lugares que tiene Colombia.
Julio Cesar Misnaza Morán
Lo mejor de la tierrita
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0.3km from Santuario De Las Lajas, Narino, Colombia Get directions
Sun 8:00 AM–7:00 PM
Mon 9:00 AM–5:00 PM
Tue 11:00 AM–1:00 PM
Wed-Thu 8:00 AM–8:00 PM
Fri 10:00 AM–8:00 PM

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