Santuario de La Virgen de Ocotlán

The Sanctuary of the Virgin of Ocotlán is another “must see” and is an easy 20-minute walk from the heart of town. Wear good walking shoes since you must climb a long flight of steps to visit this very holy shrine, built on the site where, so the story goes, the Virgin appeared in 1541 to a very poor Indian, Juan Diego Bernardino—and told him to take water from a stream that had miraculously appeared to cure his people who were ill. She asked him to send monks into the forest, and when they split open one of the pine trees, they found secreted within it a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, which is now in the church. Since then, many miracles have been attributed to the Virgin of Ocotlán. Within the sanctuary, which was built in the 18^th century in an ornate, baroque style that resembles a wedding cake, are scenes depicting the sequence of the events following the appearance of the Virgin.