This is the fourth building constructed,
which was destroyed by 1910 quake. The
reconstruction of the actual building
began on 1912 by the engineer Luis Lach
under the supervision of Storck. The construction
took 12 to 14 years approximately, it
has a Roman, Arabian and Greco forms,
and it has Italian floors and 32 German
windows made by Oitmanm Ars Vittrea. Among
the representations on the windows are:
Virgen de los Angeles, 15 pictures of
the Holy “Vía Crucis”
and more Marian motives. The bells weigh
900 kilograms and were brought from France
and made by Pascard in Annecy.
At the bottom of the temple, there is
a tower shaped altar, with more than 200
years old. It is wood covered with gold;
this is the place where the Virgin is
venerated. It has 4 cópulas that
form a cross. In the front copula, there
is Marie and baby Jesus, next to it San
Miguel Archangel and 12 little angels
around it. There are also two towers where
the bells are and five exit doors, one
main door, two on the side and two more
as auxiliary doors.
Angels Virgin Legend:
There
is a lot of tradition and legend surrounding
this sacred Virgin. Víctor Lizano,
a Costa Rican writer, describes this extraordinary
story in his book “Tradition’s
Costarricenses” (Costa Rican Traditions).
Our holy Saint was declared as Costa Rican
Queen on 1824, under the leadership of
Juan Mora Fernández (president
at the time).
First
Apparition of the Virgin:
There
was a forest in which people used to pick
up logs. Near the forest a humble, little
girl used to do this simple chore. One
day, in August 2nd, 1635; our little girl
walked and picked up some logs as she
usually do. And then she found a small
stone image of a virgin carrying baby
Jesus in her arms. She took the image
and kept her on a chest at her house.
At
noon, the girl got back to the place and
for her surprise she found again the same
image on the stone. She took it thinking
it was a new one, but she got home and
opened the chest to put it in; the other
image was gone. She was scared but one
more time went to the forest and found
the image one more time. Again she took
her home and found nothing but an empty
chest. Now she decided to take the image
to the priest, telling him about the marvelous
situation around the image.
The
priest, Alonso Sandoval, took the image
and put it away to study it later on.
The next day, the image was not in its
place and for the girl surprise she found
it again standing on the same stone. She
ran and called the priest who came with
more people. They took her back to the
church in a sacred pilgrimage and put
her on the altar. On the next day they
looked for it to study the image and one
more time it was gone. They ran to the
stone and there she was. Since it was
the fifth time, they decided that the
Virgin wanted to stay there, so they began
the construction of a small church while
they could built a worthy temple for her.
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