Description
El Santo Cerro in La Vega is one of the most important religious shrines in the Dominican Republic. It is a small hill at the top of which there is a church dedicated to the Virgin de las Mercedes and whose historical and religious value dates back to the first years of the Spanish conquest. It stands in the same place where the first sanctuary of Mary in America was built.
It is believed that in this place in 1495, when the natives and the Spaniards were fighting, the Virgin appeared on the Vera Cruz, a wooden cross that Christopher Columbus had placed under a medlar tree. It is said that this apparition ensured the victory of the Spaniards, as the natives fled in terror at the sight of the omen. On his deathbed, Columbus asked his son Diego to build a convent on this hill in honor of the Virgin de las Mercedes. The request was ignored, although in 1527 the first La Mercedes convent was established on the hill.
However, the shrine that stands today did not begin construction until 1880 and took 17 years to be fully constructed. In the area where the temple is located, the first Eucharist was celebrated in America on November 6, 1495 and the celebration of the first baptisms which marked the beginning of the practice of Catholicism in the New World.
A few meters from the temple of Las Mercedes stands a tree that is believed to be a descendant of the one that Christopher Columbus used to extract a log to make the cross on which the Virgin appeared. At the back of the temple is the sacred hole, the place where the cross would have been nailed as a symbol of the beginning of the Christianization of America.
Pilgrims to the top of Santo Cerro and to the temple that sits on its top are frequent throughout the year. It is a tradition among the locals to climb the mountain as a sign of sacrifice or as a necessary sanction to receive the wish of a promise. However, pilgrimages reach truly impressive levels during the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes festivities which take place every September 24.
Location - access map to Santo Cerro La Vega
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- le 28/02/2024
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