Zikuñaga hermitage

A place of worship and pilgrimage

Built in 1529, this was a place of worship and pilgrimage for many of the people from Hernani. It housed the original figure of the Virgin of Zikuñaga, which was stolen in 1979.

Five years earlier, the paper mill of the same name bought the land where it was located from the Bishopric. This was very controversial in the town and agreement was reached move the hermitage to another location.

On 10 September 1985 the last mass was celebrated in the hermitage and it was finally demolished in 1987, with the commitment to rebuild it and relocate it elsewhere. For the time that the neighbourhood was without a hermitage, the stones of the façade were kept in the paper mill company itself and they were subsequently used to rebuild the current façade.

After 35 years, in March 2022, the construction of the hermitage, which was undertaken in collaboration between the Zikuñaga neighbourhood association, the Town Council and the company, was completed and it reopened.

It is well worth a visit, as is the walk to it from Hernani.