Santuario del Socavon is a religious temple of special devotion for the inhabitants of Oruro, where the Candlemas's Virgin is worshipped. She is the local patron of the miners and receives the name of Virgin of the Mineshaft. It is an extraordinary image, painted on some clay bricks that were probably part of an interior wall during the end of the fifteenth century. The splendid Carnival is carried out in her honor.
The place in which Santuario del Socavon is located was an old Uru ritual center, a pre-colombinan town that reached a remarkable development in the elaboration of ceramic. The temple, built in 1781, was initially named as Church of Nuestra Senora de Copacabana. The faithful people worshipped the Virgin of La Candelaria: patron saint of the miners. The Sanctuary is assisted at the moment by the religious order of the Servants of Maria.
In the museum located under the hill Pie de Gallo, "Santuario del Socavon" or Mineshaft Sanctuary, visitors can appreciate the work inside a silver mine, with a perfect recreation of the atmosphere of colonial times.
