El Cisne is a city in the southern region of
Ecuador, in
Loja province
Loja Province () is one of 24 provinces in Ecuador and shares its southern border on the west with El Oro Province, on the north with El Azuay, and on the east with Zamora-Chinchipe. Founded on its present site in 1548 by Captain Alonso de Mer ...
, about from the city of
Loja.
The city is known for the much venerated Marian National Shrine of Our Lady of El Cisne.
History
The inhabitants of El Cisne region had wanted their own virgin Mary shrine similar to the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Representatives of the city in 1594 requested sculptor Don Diego de Robles to build the Virgin de El Cisne statue which he made from the wood of a cedar tree. Each year on August 17 thousands of
pilgrims gather in El Cisne to carry the Virgin Mary statue in a religious procession to the cathedral of Loja where it is the focus of a great festival on September 8 and is later returned to El Cisne.
Image gallery
File:BasÃlica Del Cisne.JPG, Marian National Shrine of Our Lady of El Cisne
File:Virgin of El Cisne.jpg, Altar of the Marian National Shrine of Our Lady of El Cisne with the icon of the virgin in the center.
Notes
Populated places in Loja Province
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