Chapel of Our Lady of Los Nogales

Thanks to an anonymous donation, the contribution of the grandparents and the rest of the nogalista community, on July 2001, we began the construction of our Chapel lasting almost ten months.  This is the place where the First Communions, the Confirmations and the Graduation ceremonies will take place from 2002 and henceforth.  The Chapel, as well as the rest of the school campus, will be open to the alumnae.  It will be a place for reflection and to help in the construction of a community.

Our chapel, shares its name with the Hermitage of Our Lady of Los Nogales, located in Villanueva de Cameros, a village in northern Spain, near the city of Logroño.

This construction is considered one of the oldest temples established in Spain.  Its origins date back the invasion of the Visigoths to the region, even though its true construction began between 1757 and 1759 with blueprints designed by Francisco Moradillo.

The Hermitage is a good example of baroque style in Spanish art.  Its interior keeps a gothic Virgin from the XIV century; this image is accompanied by a great many gifts left by devotees (exvotos) as a token of gratitude for miracles of protection.  The Virgin is the patron saint of the temple.

Hystory of Villanueva de Cameros

When Henry of Tratamara was proclaimed King of Castilla (1366), he rewarded his knight Juan Ramírez de Arellano for his services, by giving him the ownership of the domain of Cameros, which included the rocky area that gives the name to the county.  The donation expressed conditions regarding the respect for the rights, privileges and franchises of the earlier owners.

Right between the villages and locations comprehended in this county, we find Villanueva linking Naida and Entrena.  This territory was owned by the Lords of Abrantes in the XIX century, until the Court of Cadiz decreeded the abolition of domain ownership (1811).

It was only until the province of Logroño was created by Royal Decree of November 30, 1833, that the region delinked itself from the province of Soria.  The patron saint celebration is held every 15th of August, honoring the Assumption of Our Lady; there is also a great devotion por the Virgin of Los Nogales, under whose protection an hermitage was built, at the right margin of the Iregua River.

1886 marked the end of the construction of the Hermitage of Saint Anton, which is abandoned nowadays.  The Hermitage of Los Nogales has a santero and cofradía attached to its northern wall.  It is built in red brick, lined with ropes.  It has one twin pathed nave, central area with dome and a small space used as headboard, which holds an altarpiece and presbytery.  It has a column decorated with a cross with crucifix in one side and the Virgin with the Child on the other.  You can find more information about the Hermitage of Los Nogales in Spain, visiting: http://conocelarioja.iespana.es/

* Pictures:
1: Chapel of Our Lady of Los Nogales
2: Our Lady of Los Nogales
3: Los Nogales Hermitage - Picture taken by Matthew Fishbane