There are five Marian shrines in the eastern Pyrenees: Lourdes, Torreciudad, the Basílica del Pilar in Zaragoza, the monastery of Montserrat and the sanctuary of Meritxell. According to legend, on Epiphany Day in the 12th century, churchgoers near Meritxell noticed a rose bush miraculously in bloom beside the snow-covered path, under which they found a statue of the Madonna. They gave it to the priest in Canillo, who locked it up in the church. Mysteriously, however, it was found again the next day. The same thing happened after it was handed over to the church in Encamp. It was therefore decided to build a chapel at the site of the find and to place the 83 cm high painted statue, made of polychrome wood, there in an altar niche. In 1873, the General Council of the Valleys, the Andorran Parliament, declared the patronage of the country over the chapel. On 8 September 1921 (on this day in 1278, Andorra became a co-Principality by the treaty called Pareatges), the statue of the Virgin Mary was crowned. Since then, the day of Nostra Senyora de Meritxell, the country's patron saint, has been celebrated as the bank holidays of the Principality of Andorra. The original chapel was built in the Romanesque style and was renovated in the 17th century. In 1972, the building caught fire the night after the bank holidays and was completely destroyed. No remains of the Romanesque statue were found, so there is speculation that it was arson to conceal its theft. The new sacred building, designed by the Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, was inaugurated on 8 September 1976 and elevated to the status of basilica minor by Pope Francis in 2014. There, a sculpture of the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus created by the Andorran artist Jaume Rubia is presented as a replica of the Romanesque original. In front of the interior of the new church building, the coin shows the replica of the statue of the Virgin Mary with the inscription "MERITXELL" in the base. A six-petalled flower is depicted in a circle at the top right, a decorative element of the statue. |
