VISIT

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Nestled on top of the north ridge of the Las Nieves ravine, the hermitage of Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación is the first religious construction on the eastern side of the island of La Palma. After the conquest and the first settlers established in the surroundings of this ravine, a primitive temple was built that then functioned as a makeshift parish, until the center of the city was moved to the edge of the Los Dolores ravine.

Among the oldest preserved architectural elements, it is worth mentioning the Gothic main arch, made in reddish tuff by Hernando Luján, which separates the main chapel from the nave of the temple, with capitals decorated with candina leaves; a bat carved on the side of the Gospel warns the faithful of the need to be vigilant in the face of the Devil's threats.

The most notable of its sculptural heritage is the Flemish group of the Virgin of the Incarnation and the Archangel San Gabriel, which presides over the main niche of the main altarpiece, dated around 1522-1532, the image of San Lázaro, protector of leprosy patients housed in the Carías Caves, the Santa Lucía candlestick, a work attributable to Bernardo Manuel de Silva, which still has his collection of silver votive offerings, the classicist Crucified of Father Manuel Díaz and, due to its rarity, since it is the only that exists in the Canary Islands, that of the Franciscan martyr San Pedro Bautista, dated between 1705-1712. From the Convent of Santa Catalina de Siena is the processional organ, preserved under the choir, probably a Sevillian work from the first third of the 17th century.