3.11
Legend has it that a shepherd Colomera (Granada), Juan Alonso Rivas, tending their cattle, goats and sheep in the hills of Sierra Morena near the summit of the Head. It was simple and fervent Christian, maybe something in years and was suffering from ankylosis or total paralysis on his left arm.
They started calling your attention to the lights he could see at night on the mountain near where he had his herd to which is added the tolling of a bell. Finally, doubt and wanted to leave on the night of 11 to 12 August 1227 resolved to reach the summit.
In their natural fear followed by a look of wonder and joy, because in the hollow formed by two huge blocks of granite, found a small image of the Virgin, before whom the shepherd knelt and prayed aloud during discussions with Ms. .
The Holy Image expressed his desire to build a temple there and sent him to the city, to announce the event and show everyone the recovery of movement in his arm and thus give credence to his words. He descended into the city and announced the event they had no choice but to believe the testimony of his arm healed.
The temple was finally built between 1287 and 1304 in Hill Head. Heavily renovated in the late sixteenth century.
Civil war
Siege of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Head
During the Spanish Civil War was the refuge of national (in the province of Jaén not seconded the uprising), where 200 civil guards in the province and their families resisted the siege for nine months of the Republicans. Until finally the May 1, 1937 with the Sanctuary reduced to rubble fell mortally wounded Captain Santiago Cortes. The moral decay and finally the sanctuary is taken by soldiers of the Republic. 
The end result of the strength of his sanctuary was reduced to rubble, the loss of its artistic richness and the original image of the Virgen de la Cabeza. The facts were brought to the cinema in 1949: The Sanctuary does not surrender, one of the movies that were created to promote the scheme.
