THE GUIDE - The Rough Guide to Bolivia - page 154

Copacabana's imposing Catedral looks out over Plaza 2 de Febrero. Known as the “Moorish
Cathedral”, it shows clear mudéjar influences, with whitewashed stone walls and domes dec-
orated with deep-blue azulejo tiles. Built between 1589 and 1669 by the Augustinian order
(and funded partly by looted gold and silver offerings from local pre-Christian shrines) to
house the miraculous Virgen de Copacabana, it has since been extensively modified.
Between the plaza and the cathedral is a broad walled courtyard with a minor chapel at
each corner - a layout very similar to that of pre-conquest indigenous ceremonial centres.
Inside the bright vaulted interior a door beside the massive gold altarpiece leads upstairs to
a small chapel housing the Virgen de Copacabana herself. A slight image with an Andean
face, the Virgin wears lavish robes embroidered with gold and silver thread, and is crowned
with a golden halo; at her feet is a wide silver crescent moon - a traditional Andean symbol
of female divinity. Encased in glass, the statue is only taken out during fiestas: locals believe
moving her at any other time could trigger catastrophic floods. A small museum inside the
compound has a collection of colonial religious art and sculpture, but is only open to groups
of four or more. To the left of the Cathedral is the Capilla de Velas , a side chapel where sup-
plicants come to light candles.
THE LADY OF THE LAKE
The speed with which the Virgen de Copacabana emerged as the most revered religious
image in the Altiplano after the Spanish conquest suggests that her cult was simply a con-
tinuation of previous, pre-Christian religious traditions associated with Lago Titicaca. Im-
mediately after the conquest the Inca temples around the lake were looted by Spanish
treasure-seekers, and their shrines and idols destroyed. These included, at Copacabana, a
large female idol with a fish's tail - probably a representation of the lake as a goddess.
The town was refounded in 1573 as the parish of Santa Ana de Copacabana, but a series of
devastating early frosts swiftly ensued, convincing locals of the need for a new supernatur-
al protector. Santa Ana was abandoned and the town rededicated in honour of the Virgen
de la Candelaria , one of the most popular representations of the Virgin Mary during the
Spanish conquest of the Americas.
A locally born man, Francisco Inca Yupanqui , grandson of the Inca Huayna Capac
(himself the father of Atahualpa, whose capture by the Spanish led to the fall of the Inca
empire), began fashioning an image of the Virgin. After his first crude efforts were rejec-
ted by the Spanish priests he went to Potosí to study sculpture, eventually returning with
the figure that graces the church today, the Virgen de Copacabana , who was immediately
credited with a series of miracles. The town quickly became the most important Catholic
pilgrimage destination in the southern Andes, and after independence, the Virgin was also
proclaimed the religious patron of Bolivia.