The Las Layas Shrine is a Roman Catholic minor basilica located within the canyon of the Guáitara River, in Ipiales, Narińo Department, Colombia. The shrine is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary as Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.



Pious believers claim that the Madonna and Child image colorfully displayed on the wall rock formation is 100% natural by divine origin and was supernaturally formed without any human construction. The present church was built in a Gothic style between 1916 and 1949 (33 years.) The name Laja is a Stone slab comes from the name of a type of flat sedimentary rock.



Pius XII granted a Pontifical Decree of coronation to the image as Sancta Virgo de Rupe (English: Holy Virgin of the Rock) on 31st May 1951. He also raised the Marian shrine to the status of a Minor basilica via his decree Templum per Decorum on 30th August 1954. Pope Paul VI granted the Marian title as the Virgin of the Holy Rosary as the Patroness of Ipiales via his decree Tutela Cćlestis Virtutis on 26th April 1965.



It is a popular pilgrimage site for Christians from both Colombia and neighboring Ecuador, due to a Marian apparition that is purported to have taken place here in the 18th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Lajas_Shrine