Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Contrueces, Religious sanctuary in Contrueces district, Gijón, Spain

The Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Contrueces is a Catholic church in the Contrueces neighbourhood, in the south of Gijón's urban area, on the Carretera del Obispo, the old royal road to Oviedo. It stands on a hill with wide views over the city, on land owned by the Claretian missionaries since 1947. The present church, in Herrerian style, has a single nave and a dome, and is enclosed by fortress-like walls.

A document signed on 28 August 905 at Cortuloces, a suburb of Gijón, records the church of Santa María de Contrueces among donations confirmed by King Alfonso III and Queen Jimena. The parchment, in Visigothic script, is kept in the Regional Archive of Galicia in A Coruña; scholars dispute its authenticity. No news survives from the 12th to the 16th century.

The Virgin of Contrueces was long regarded by many residents of Gijón as the city's patron. In 1636 locals asked to hold a fair beside the sanctuary to encourage devotion and trade in horses, cattle and mules. Many still come on the Sunday after the feast of the Virgin of Begoña.

The sanctuary stands on a hilltop in the Contrueces neighbourhood, on the Carretera del Obispo, the old royal road from Gijón to Oviedo, with views over much of the city. The grounds have belonged to the Claretian missionaries since 1947. About 50 m opposite stands the palace that once served as asylum, seminary and school, now a Claretian primary school.

A revered image of the Virgin mysteriously disappeared for two weeks in 1970 and was later returned anonymously. This unusual incident remains one of the most puzzling episodes in the sanctuary's history.