Cueva de Achbinico, also called cave of San Blas ( es, cueva de Achbinico) is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

and cave located in Candelaria,

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

(

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

). After the

conquest of the Canary Islands The conquest of the Canary Islands by the Crown of Castille took place between 1402 and 1496 and described as the first instance of European settler colonialism in Africa. It can be divided into two periods: the Conquista señorial, carried out ...

it was the first Christian sanctuary of religious significance. It was also the first sanctuary dedicated to the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

in the Canary Islands, where the

Virgin of Candelaria The Virgin of Candelaria or Our Lady of Candle ( es, Virgen de Candelaria or ''Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria''), popularly called ''La Morenita'', celebrates the Virgin Mary on the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands (Spain). The cent ...

, the patron saint of the Canary islands, was worshipped.

Situation and presentation

Virgen de la Candelaria Cueva de Achbinico Tenerife

The cave is located on the coast, just behind the

basilica of Our Lady of Candelaria The Basilica of Our Lady of Candelaria or simply La Candelaria Church, as it is more popularly known, is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to the Virgin Mary under the title of Virgin of Candelaria. It is located in the center of the city of Medel ...

. It is elongated and deep, with a ceiling shaped as a dome. It is 14 meters long by 6 meters wide and 5 meters high. A small chapel was built just outside of it, covering and including within its walls the entrance of the cave. Inside the cave is a bronze replica of the Virgin of Candelaria. Her statue is most venerated on the island, and has turned the cave into the most important pilgrimage centre in the Canaries for the past 5 centuries. It is still visited by pilgrims, who commonly take and leave flushed candles and do requests to the Virgin. The Achbinico cave has a great importance, not only religious but also historic and prehistoric.

History

The cave long served as a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

worship place. When the statue of the

was found on Güimar's beach of Chimisay at the end of the 14th century, the island had not yet been conquered by the

Kingdom of Castile The Kingdom of Castile (; es, Reino de Castilla, la, Regnum Castellae) was a large and powerful state on the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region. It began in the 9th centu ...

and its native inhabitants were the

Guanches The Guanches were the indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean some west of Africa. It is believed that they may have arrived on the archipelago some time in the first millennium BCE. The Guanches were the only nativ ...

. The statue's finders brought it to Acaymo, the Guanche king (or ''

mencey The Guanches were the indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean some west of Africa. It is believed that they may have arrived on the archipelago some time in the first millennium BCE. The Guanches were the only native ...

''), at his cave-palace of Chinguaro. The statue was

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

to the Achbinico cave in 1446, the ceremony accompanied with popular celebrations. In one of the walls of the cave there is a picture explaining the story of the translation of the Virgin. In the lower part of it is a text that says: Guanches were baptized in the cave. The original baptismal font used to this effect is preserved in the basilica's

camarín A camarín is a shrine or chapel set above and behind the altar in a church, but still visible from the body of the church. They are especially found in Spain and Portugal and throughout Latin America. George Kubler George Alexander Kubler (26 J ...

. In 1497, Tenerife conqueror

Alonso Fernandez de Lugo Alonso is a Spanish name of Germanic origin that is a Castilian variant of ''Adalfuns''. Geographical distribution As of 2014, 36.6% of all known bearers of the surname ''Alonso'' were residents of Spain (frequency 1:222), 26.1% of Mexico (1:83 ...

held in this cave the first celebration of

Candlemas Candlemas (also spelled Candlemass), also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Feast of the Holy Encounter, is a Christian holiday commemorating the presentati ...

, at the same time as the Festivity of the Purification of the Virgin. In 1526, on February 2 (

), the Virgin was

from the cave to its new chapel. The current

basilica of Candelaria The Basilica of the Royal Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Candelaria ( es, Basílica y Real Santuario Mariano de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria or simply ''Basílica de la Candelaria'') is a Roman Catholic minor basilica, the first Marian shrine ...

, the primary Marian shrine of the Canary Islands, was built later in 1959. It sits over the remains of a small church that had burned down a few hundred meters away from the cave. King Philip III was declared protector of the Virgin of Candelaria. After ascending the throne, the Spanish monarch gave the title of "Royal" to this sanctuary - the first sanctuary in the

to have received that title. In this cave there is also a statue of saint Blas, whose original statue was placed there in 1530 and substituted much later with the present one from sculptor

Fernando Estévez Fernando Estévez may refer to: * Fernando Estévez (football manager) (born 1979), Spanish football manager * Fernando Estévez (sculptor), Spanish sculptor from the 18th century {{hndis, Estevez, Fernando ...

. Thus the cave remains honoured by the statue of a saint and maintains its tradition of worship in February: on February 2 there is a religious ceremony in honour of the Virgin of Candelaria and on February 3 the worship is dedicated to saint Blas, with the statue carried out in procession around the

plaza de la Patrona de Canarias The Plaza de la Patrona de Canarias (in English language, English ''Square of the Saint Patron of the Canary Islands'') is a large Town square, square in Candelaria, Tenerife, Candelaria, Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). It is next to the Basilica ...

. This is why the Achbinico cave is also called Saint Blas' cave, with both names in use.

Prehistory

Various archaeological excavations have proved that the cave was a place of worship long before the Guanches placed the statue of the Virgin in it.Arquitectura canaria precolonial
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612085142/http://elguanche.net/Benchomo/arquitecturacanariapre8.htm# , date=2010-06-12 in ''elguanche.net''. According to recent excavations, the layers of ashes found there and subjected to

carbon-14 dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

indicate an age of more than 3000 years. In this cave a permanent fire had been maintained, such as in the vestal temples of Antique Rome. This sacred character held from very ancient times would explain that after the conquest the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands placed the Virgin precisely in this cave and nowhere else.

References

Guanche Achbinico Achbinico Achbinico Cave churches Tenerife Catholic Church in the Canary Islands Religious buildings and structures in the Canary Islands

Situation and presentation

History

Prehistory

See also

References