The church where the Virgin de los Reyes rests for a month

A heavy weight of history rests upon the stones of the Parroquia Matriz de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción. Construction began in 1767 and took fifty-three years to complete, finishing in 1820. It serves as the spiritual heart of Valverde and the entire island of El Hierro, built in a peculiar baroque style with a classicist taste.

The walls are thick and the interior is divided into three naves. Inside, pillars with simple capitals support a ceiling of pine wood, featuring mudéjar patterns on the ties. A pulpit of wood is located on one of the pillars, while the nave holds a sacred Christ, a figure considered the finest baroque work on the island.

On the exterior, the tower rises with an octagonal belfry. A small dome sits atop it, holding an image of the Virgin of the Concepción. This is where the island's story pauses every four years. After a month-long pilgrimage across every corner of the land, the Virgin de los Reyes arrives here. She stays in this sanctuary for nearly a month, a silent queen in a house of stone.

The exterior features a facade with a central arch of masonry, over which the tower rises. On the side facades, stone buttresses were added later to reinforce the walls. It remains a declared Bien de Interés Cultural.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons