The scarcity of documentary and archaeological information, and the wide historiographical gap surrounding the Visigothic period in our region, have meant that there has been no more thorough and extensive study of these peoples, who came from central and northern Europe after the abandonment, crisis and eventual disappearance of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. This lack of references relating to our way leads us to set out all the facts and clues that link these peoples, who inhabited the peninsula from the mid-5th century to the early 8th century, with the later foundation and consolidation of our Monastery of Guadalupe in the 14th century.
Our pilgrimage route takes its name from the period of the main religious building still standing in our region, the Visigothic basilica of Santa Lucía del Trampal in Alcuéscar. We all know that the current patron saint of our region is the Virgin of Guadalupe, but it was not always so. In pre-Roman times, the goddess Ataecina, represented in the form of a goat, was worshipped in this area. Numerous inscriptions dedicated to this goddess have been found in the region, and half of all those known were found here, at Santa Lucía del Trampal.
We do not know what brought pilgrims to these places in ancient times, although given the vengeful nature of the goddess it may well have been to ask for punishment for some theft, as on the marble plaque in the Mérida museum invoking the goddess’s punishment on a thief, and as one of the inscriptions at Santa Lucía seems to suggest.
Like Guadalupe, the basilica has the peculiarity of being a shrine that is hard to reach, perhaps seeking the mysticism of what lies hidden among the branches of deep forests, emphasising the sacred character of these divinities, in whom their faithful would find, through a kind of initiatory pilgrimage, the reasons for their spiritual quest.
This way could not be understood without the legacy left by these Visigothic peoples from the north: they brought written law for the functioning of existing communities; they were not warriors, but they were influential; yet they made mistakes and had to disappear, leaving their mark along our way in the form of highly symbolic architectural structures, archaeological remains, various writings and legends.
Language: Spanish