In our travels along the main route to and from Priego de Cordoba where we stayed in Spain in September I kept seeing this sign. One day as we set out for another small town and I knew we would pass this turn off, I told Dan let's investigate.
It was a very winding road up to a mountain top.
The site dates from 1260.
There were only two cars up there. One from another visitor and the other belonging to Jose, the groundskeeper. He spoke no English but with Dan's Spanish we learned that the statue of the Virgin of the Sierra was in the town of Cabra for the month of September. The hermitage where the Virgin is kept for the other 11 months was not open for visiting. The grounds were.
The scene below is one of the few vistas where olive groves were not the prominent sight. Jose told us we were looking at horse country.
Below is a small version of the Virgin in a grotto. Notice the half moon and star. All the various versions we saw of the Virgin Mary had that symbol.
Jose said we were looking down here on Roman ruins. Looks like an old bull ring to me.
I imagine the hermitage is maintained by all the leases it has with cell phone companies. The highest point was well sprouted with towers.
We enjoyed our unofficial tour with Jose.
