The Monument to the Virgin of La Antigua was built in 1903 at the initiative of the Colegio de la Compañía de Jesús de Orduña and inaugurated on October 16, 1904, being one of the first reinforced concrete buildings and the first accessible monument executed in Spain with this innovative technique.
The purpose of the work was to commemorate the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and symbolizes the appearance of the Virgin with the Child on the mulberry tree of La Antigua, standing as a landmark in the landscape, a symbol of popular devotion to the Virgin of Orduña , in relation to the forms of popular Catholic religiosity characteristic of the final decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th.
The complex, inspired by the tradition that tells how the Virgin appeared on the branches of the mulberry tree that still grows next to the sanctuary, consists of a base with a small chapel, a trunk that contains a staircase, the top of the tree and above it the figure of the Virgin, at whose feet a viewpoint was set up. It is a reinforced concrete structure about 25 meters high made up of 4 bodies. The monument has a reinforced concrete foundation shoe set directly on the rock and hidden under the pedestal of the monument. On this foundation sits a die, which would be the trunk of the tree with a spiral staircase from which emerges the central reinforced concrete pillar and the resistant exterior wall of the staircase, made of cylindrical concrete screen and perimeter screen to support the monument that gives public access to the upper elements. Above is the top of the tree, with a room 10 meters in diameter and 4.90 meters in height, with 6 windows, and above, on the upper level, is the rotunda of the image of the Virgin from which leads to the balcony with views of the Arrastaria valley and the city of Orduña.
The set ends with the image of the Virgin with the Child and the crown. A cement coating reproduces the natural qualities of the tree and the details of the Marian sculpture. At the foot of the monument in the back is the chapel, which was inaugurated on October 5, 1946. The design and construction of the monument to the Virgin of La Antigua was carried out by Mr. Claudio Durán y Ventosa, a Barcelona architect who was familiar with the innovative technique of reinforced concrete. Its construction was a milestone in the history of architecture, both for its composition and its execution. The monument is configured as a sculptural group that could be framed within a modernist aesthetic, executed in a monumental and unique environment, made of reinforced concrete using the modeling technique, taking advantage of the plastic character of the concrete mortar on metal mesh.
The monument to the Virgin of La Antigua is the first visitable monumental construction made entirely of reinforced concrete, both at a structural level and in the finishes. Its design and execution in less than a year, in an enclave of difficult access at 933 meters of altitude and with the means of more than a century ago, makes its construction an unprecedented milestone in the history of architecture. The imposing presence of the monument of the Virgin of La Antigua in a privileged location in the Natural Monument of Monte Santiago, makes it a landscape reference, a landmark visible from a wide territory. The construction of the Monument, which arises from the will and popular initiative, reveals its social and symbolic importance, which has been maintained without interruption from its origins to the present day, converted into a meeting and cooperation point between neighboring towns, which continue to maintain the tradition of the ascension to the monument on Santiago's Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Eve.
