{"id":4712,"date":"2022-09-02T04:58:39","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T02:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/?p=4712"},"modified":"2022-09-02T05:06:56","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T03:06:56","slug":"atalaya-cradle-of-religious-tourism-and-the-largest-pilgrimage-in-panama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/2022\/09\/02\/atalaya-cradle-of-religious-tourism-and-the-largest-pilgrimage-in-panama\/","title":{"rendered":"Atalaya, Cradle of Religious Tourism and the Largest Pilgrimage in Panama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Atalaya is the smallest of the districts in the\nprovince of Veraguas. About the origins of its foundation, there are various\ndates that establish it in the years of 1569, 1614 or 1780, while its founders\ninclude Alvaro Carvajal, Mart\u00edn Delgado and Fray Francisco Gaspar Rodriguez y Valderas,\namong others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ancient\nIndigenous People<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to what was written\nby Dr.  Alfredo Castillero Calvo in his work entitled:\n“Conquest, Evangelization and Resistance”, the oldest references to\nthe population date back to when it was defined as an indigenous town in the\nVeraguas region, barely populated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bishop Pedro Mega in his work: \u201cThe Church of Our Father Jesus Nazarene of\nAtalaya\u201d points out that the name Atalaya was given by the Spanish because the\ntown is on a hill, from where you can watch the surroundings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Great\nPilgrimage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there is a place in Panama\nwhere religious tourism is a way of living, generating experiences and moving\nthe regional economy, it is in Atalaya. Every year more than 200,000 people\ngather in the largest procession in Panama, the “Fiesta in Honor of Jesus Nazareno”\nin Atalaya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every First Sunday of Lent the town receives thousands\nof visitors who pack the Minor Basilica of Atalaya to thank Jesus Nazarene for\nthe miracles granted; from financial aid to highly fatal diseases. Most do it\nby walking long distances to pay for miracles or make petitions to the Christ,\nfrom other provinces, even from Panama City, more than 250 kilometers away. It\nis easy to identify many pilgrims on their way to Atalaya by the particular\npurple tunic they wear when walking along the avenues, mainly the Panamerican\nhighway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Christ\nthat Attracts Thousands of Visitors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus Nazareno of Atalaya,\npopularly known as El Nazareno, is the image by which pilgrims from all over\nthe country, as well as from abroad, gather to venerate it from Ash Wednesday\n(the day after carnival) until Palm Sunday when it ends with the largest\nprocession in Panama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although there is no exact\ndate on the beginning of the devotion to the Atalaya Christ, it is known that\nas early as 1730 the town was visited by pilgrims from Villa de Los Santos,\nMontijo, Las Palmas, La Mesa, Santiago and San Francisco. At that time, the\nimage of the Christ was venerated in a small hut or chapel built with wood and\nleaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was thus, according to the\ndocuments, that this place in the province of Veraguas became, from the end of\nthe 17th century by the work and grace of the Nazarene, a true center of\nreligiosity and a refuge of peace for the Catholics of Panama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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History of\nthe Christ of Atalaya<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Atalaya Magazine, Land\nof Pilgrims, Juan Manuel Guevara indicates that the image of Jesus Nazareno in\nAtalaya, in a ranch, dates back to 1730, when the fervent devotion of that town\nand others from the interior already existed. A document signed in 1752 by the\nsteward Jose Nu\u00f1ez de Arco cites the pilgrimages from the towns of Montijo, Las\nPalmas, Ducal City of Veraguas, Villa de Los Santos, Las Tablas, among others,\nto venerate Jesus Nazareno during that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the book by Monsignor Pedro Mega and\ntestimonies collected by the priest Juan Jose Canovas in 1912, one of the\nprobable theories about the arrival of the image and devotion to the Nazarene\nis related. Due to the quarrels between the indigenous chiefs and the Spanish,\na war between both groups was registered. The Spanish promised that if they won\nthe war, they would donate an image of Jesus Nazareno to the aborigines. And so\nit happened, the Spaniards won, took the image, and gave it to the indigenous\npeople, who built a ranch and began the devotion to the Miraculous Christ, to\nthis day. In 1964, the Atalaya temple was declared a Minor Basilica and it is\nthe second one that exists in the entire country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before all the history and pilgrimage, thousands of\npeople visit this beautiful town to visit the Basilica, the rest of the year\noutside the pilgrimage season, for its peace, the surrounding nature and the\nwarmth of its citizens who welcome all visitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atalaya is the smallest of the districts in the province of Veraguas. About the origins of its foundation, there are various dates that establish it in the years of 1569, 1614 or 1780, while its founders include Alvaro Carvajal, Mart\u00edn Delgado and Fray Francisco Gaspar Rodriguez y Valderas, among others. Ancient Indigenous People According to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4712"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4722,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712\/revisions\/4722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}