EL POCITO

Despite its petite size, El Pocito (poh-SEE-toh, The Little Well) is San Juan’s most endearing and not-to-be-missed pilgrimage stop. From the basilica-front, walk west along Moreno three blocks (passing the larger but less notable Chapel of the Retablo of the Virgin on the right at block two), west to the chapel yard, at the north-side corner of Primavera. The chapel, officially La Capilla del Primer Milagro (The Chapel of the First Miracle), shelters El Pocito, where the Virgin worked her wonder in 1623.

The story began when the seven-year-old daughter of an itinerant circus master died from a fall from a trapeze. The next day, the people were about to bury her, when Ana Lucía, an indigenous woman who for many years had been the custodian of the chapel and its humble cane figurine of the Virgin of Immaculate Conception, placed the Virgin on the girl’s breast, and she amazingly came to life. The girl left with her father and his circus troupe, Ana Lucía lived on for 20 more years, finally passing away at age 110, and ever-increasing multitudes of pilgrims came to visit the Virgin year after year.

Be sure to visit the room, the former hospital, outside, to the north of the chapel, where wall pictures dramatize the Virgin’s story and the modest belongings—knitted booties, caps, dresses, gloves—of children whose parents asked the Virgin to protect them decorate the walls.