Mare de Déu del Vinyet, sanctuary in Sitges, Spain

Mare de Déu del Vinyet is a sanctuary in Sitges with three naves, the side ones lower, and a very projecting semicircular apse. Its symmetrical facade has a round-arched doorway framed by four Doric-inspired columns, a triangular pediment and a small triumphal arch with a copy of the Virgin by Pere Jou. The interior has four bays, ribbed vaults and a rectangular apse.

The hermitage is documented from 1174, when it already housed the venerated image of the Mare de Déu del Vinyet, carved in the 12th or 13th century. The present church was begun in 1727 and blessed on 2 August 1733; a 1552 inscription survives on the side door. The facade gained its four columns in 1886 and the bell tower was reformed in 1872. On 21 July 1936 the sanctuary was looted and its imagery destroyed; the Virgin was buried to save it, and the sculptor Pere Jou later made the replacement now in the church.

The feast of the Mare de Déu del Vinyet is held on 5 August, with masses and events through the day ending in a small fireworks display. The name comes from the vineyards that once covered these fields. In the Porxo dels Poetes, ceramic panels reproduce poems by Trinitat Catasús, Rita Benaprès, J. A. Ricard i Forment, David Jou and Salvador Soler i Forment.

The sanctuary stands in the urbanised Vinyet area, reached by the roads that once linked Sitges with La Geltrú and with Ribes and Vilafranca del Penedès. The square beside the church was laid out in 1886 under Jaume Sunyer i Juncosa and opened on 5 August 1887. The Porxo dels Poetes, on the left flank, shelters the votive candles and keeps smoke out of the nave.

Look for the stuffed penguin given as a votive offering in 1865 by the Sitges scientist Bartomeu Puig de Galup, who credited the Virgin of the Vinyet with saving his life during a storm at Cape Hornor. Puig de Galup took part in the Spanish government's Pacific Scientific Commission of 1862-1866.