Pena de Penadauga
A mythical rock closely linked to the “Romería de la Santa Isabel” pilgrimage; it is attributed with healing powers in the case of skin, eyesight and bone ailments, by invoking the Saint and carrying out rituals beside and on top of the sacred stone.
Everything in Escuadro is related. The pilgrims, who number into the thousands, with skin (psoriasis, warts, dermatitis), eyesight and bone ailments have to follow a protocol: attend a mass in honour of the Saint, pass under the image when it is brought out in procession and go to Penadauga to wash the sick parts in the water on top of the rock, or rub the affected part of the body against the rock. To complete the therapeutic programme, within one’s possibilities, an animal offering or anything else can be donated to the church and publicly auctioned among those in attendance, in the church atrium.
According to legend, the festival’s origin is related to a woman who used to go to wash herself every day in the nearby parish of Graba. On the way, she would stop to sleep on top of a rock that existed in the place called Penadauga. One day the woman disappeared, but her figure turned into stone was found in the same place. The residents of Graba claimed that the statue was theirs, but although they took it, it always returned to the rock. After a lot of discussion, an agreement was reached: the statue would stay in Escuadro in exchange for a bell. The stone figure in question turned out to be the “Santa Isabel” that is now venerated in the church of the parish of Escuadro, although her outline is marked in the concavity of the rock of Penadauga.
How to get there
From the N-525 or N-640 roads, it can be reached by heading towards the place of the same name (Penadauga), in the parish of Escuadro.
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Pena de Penadauga
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