Santa María Amialtepec, Oaxaca: a town near Juquila

Town 9 km northeast of Juquila

The mountain village where the Virgin of Juquila was first venerated and came through the fire of 1633, now a quiet stop for pilgrims.

Santa María Amialtepec is a small village in the hills about 9 kilometers before Juquila, on the road in from the Oaxaca side, and it is where the story of the Virgin of Juquila begins. According to tradition, in the 16th century the Dominican friar Jordán de Santa Catalina gave a small carved image of the Immaculate Conception to a devout local man from Amialtepec, who kept it in his thatched house. Word of favors granted spread to the surrounding villages, and pilgrims began to come.

The parish priest later moved the image into the village church. In 1633, a fire set to clear the dry hillsides spread into the village and burned houses and church alike, but the little figure was found on the ashes with its clothes intact and only lightly smoked. The news drew crowds from all over Oaxaca. The image was eventually taken to Juquila, and after years of back and forth between the two villages, a bishop's order in 1719 settled it there for good.

Today Amialtepec is a quiet place compared with the bustle of Juquila. Many pilgrims stop at its church on the way to the sanctuary to pray where the devotion was born, and the mountain setting makes it a calm place to pause.

What to see and do

Visit the village church, where the devotion to the Virgin of Juquila began.
Learn the story of the 1633 fire that made the image famous.
Take in the mountain views on the road between Amialtepec and Juquila.
Stop here on the way to the sanctuary, as many pilgrims do.

Getting there

Amialtepec is roughly 9 kilometers from Juquila, about 20 minutes by car or taxi on the road toward the Oaxaca highway. Closer to Juquila on the same approach, many pilgrims also stop at El Pedimento, the chapel where people mold clay figures of their wishes; it reopened in December 2024 after years closed by a dispute between Juquila and Santiago Yaitepec, so ask locally about its current status.

9 km northeast of Juquila

Directions from Juquila on Google Maps

Distances are in a straight line; the road is usually longer.