Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar

Few churches inspire as much devotion as the Pilar. Inside, a jasper column is venerated which, according to tradition, was placed there by the Virgin Mary herself when she appeared in the flesh to the apostle St James on 2 January in the year 40, while she was still living in Jerusalem. This is why it is presented as the first Marian church in Christendom, although no documents exist to prove it: the details of the story were set down in writing at the end of the 13th century, in a bull issued by Boniface VIII in 1297 and in a declaration by the Jurados of Zaragoza in 1299.

What is documented is that on this very spot, outside the walls of 9th-century Saraqusta, there already stood a Mozarabic church dedicated to St Mary, around which one of the city's Christian communities gathered. Centuries later, in 1293, Bishop Hugo de Mataplana undertook the restoration of the building, which was on the verge of collapse, thanks to the donations encouraged by the papal bull; it was then that the dedication to Santa María del Pilar appeared for the first time.

The present church is Baroque and built in brick, true to the Aragonese building tradition, while the interior is finished in stucco. Three naves of equal height, roofed with barrel vaults alternating with domes and saucer vaults, rest on sturdy piers. Beneath the central dome stands the high altar, presided over by the great altarpiece of the Assumption that Damián Forment carved in the 16th century for the earlier Gothic church, from which the choir and organ also come. The Holy Chapel of the Virgin occupies another of the elliptical domes of the central nave.

Since the Bull of Union of 1676 the Pilar has been a cathedral, sharing the archiepiscopal see with the nearby Seo del Salvador. Pius XII granted it the title of minor basilica in 1948; it forms part of the Marian Route together with Torreciudad, Montserrat, Meritxell and Lourdes, and since 2007 it has been one of the 12 Treasures of Spain.