Hermitage of Our Lady of Majadas Viejas

The Hermitage of Nuestra Señora de Majadas Viejas is a hermitage-sanctuary located in the municipality of La Alberca, in the Sierra de Francia (Salamanca), about 3 km east of the town center, on the road to Mogarraz. It stands in a traditional oak and chestnut grove, historically linked to the pastoral use of the environment and local popular devotion. For its constructive characteristics, it is a temple of simple stone masonry, with a portico of Romanesque tradition and an exterior pulpit of granite. The consulted sources also point out the presence in the interior of a Romanesque reproduction of the image of the Virgin, inspired in a carving dated in the XII century, data that refers to the medieval origin of the devotion, although the present hermitage is not documented with precision in those files as a work entirely of that time. The complex is closely linked to the religious and festive identity of La Alberca, since it hosts a traditional pilgrimage held on Whit Monday, shared with neighbors from Mogarraz and Monforte de la Sierra. In this celebration, the Loa de Majadas Viejas is performed, a popular play of great regional roots, which makes the chapel a heritage site of religious, ethnographic and scenic value.