In the center of the gilded altar at El Convento de la Popa is the image of La Virgin de la Candelaria. She is shown as a Black Madonna holding a dark skinned baby Jesus and a candle in her other hand. The image is patterned after a statue appearing on a beach in 1594 in Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. This shrine was visited by Pope John Paul II in 1986. An annual pilgrimage is held on February 2, the feast day of the Virgin of Candelaria.
