Francisco Tito Yupanqui carved his first image of the Virgin with no training at all, and the parish priest of Copacabana turned it away from the altar as unfit. The Inca nobleman travelled to Potosí, apprenticed himself to the sculptor Diego Ortiz, and studied a Virgin of the Rosary in the city's Santo Domingo convent as his model. His second attempt, carved from maguey wood in the early 1580s, reached Copacabana on 2 February 1583 and was installed on the shore of Lake Titicaca. No apparition is claimed here — the devotion begins with the carving itself, and with the sculptor's persistence.
Copacabana sits at roughly 3,841 meters on a sheltered bay of Lake Titicaca, in Bolivia's Manco Kapac Province. Pope Pius XI issued the decree for the image's canonical coronation in 1925, naming Our Lady of Copacabana patroness and queen of Bolivia; Pope Pius XII raised her church to the rank of Minor Basilica in 1940. The town is also Bolivia's official border crossing to Peru and the launch point for boats to the Island of the Sun, so pilgrims share its narrow streets with travelers bound for the lake.
The basilica that shelters the image today stands white-walled and tile-domed over the plaza, Franciscan friars caring for it under the Diocese of El Alto. Outside, taxis and buses decorated with flowers line up daily for a priest's blessing of the vehicle and its owners — a custom that intensifies through the August feast month, one layer of Andean practice folded into the Catholic devotion here.
📜 History & Spiritual Significance
Before the Spanish arrived, the site stood at a place the Inca called Qutaqhawaña, a stop where travelers underwent ritual purification before crossing the lake to the Islands of the Sun and the Moon, the centre of Inca creation belief. The Augustinian friars who took charge of the growing Marian devotion in the late sixteenth century built the first chapel here between 1614 and 1618, on a hill that had itself been a site of Inca veneration.
Tito Yupanqui was descended from Inca nobility. His rejected first carving was shut away in the sacristy by the parish priest, Fr. Antonio de Montoro; his second, made after training in Potosí, satisfied the local cofradía — backed by the cacique Alonso Viracocha Inga and carried to Copacabana by the corregidor Jerónimo Marañón, under a license granted by Bishop Alonso Granero. It was installed on 2 February 1583, the feast of Candlemas, which gave the image its secondary title, Our Lady of the Candles of Copacabana.
Pope Pius XI signed the decree for her canonical coronation in 1925; Bishop Augusto Sieffert crowned the image on 1 August 1925 before President Bautista Saavedra, the apostolic nuncio, and bishops and diplomats from three countries, declaring her Queen and Patroness of Bolivia. Pope Pius XII raised her church to Minor Basilica by the decree Bolivianae Ditionis Intra in 1940. The shrine now lies within the Diocese of El Alto, created in 1994 out of the Archdiocese of La Paz. Franciscan friars care for it today, after an earlier period of Augustinian custodianship.
The present basilica, built to replace the Augustinians' first chapel, went up over roughly a decade beginning in the late 1660s. Its white walls and tiled cupolas — a Renaissance plan finished with Andean touches — were the work of the Spanish architect Francisco Jiménez de Sigüenza.
☩ Pilgrimage Sites in Copacabana
Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana
Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Copacabana
The gold-leafed image of the Virgin — known locally as the Virgen Morena — presides over the high altar, dressed in ceremonial robes changed for the shrine's major feasts. The basilica complex also holds the Chapel of the Candles and the walled-up remains of an open-air chapel once used for outdoor worship (both described below).
Chapel of the Candles
Capilla de las Velas
Built into the basilica complex, this votive chapel holds a small image of the Virgin distinct from the one on the high altar, ringed by the candles pilgrims light to carry a petition.
Open Chapel
Capilla Abierta
Attached to the basilica's western exterior, this open-air chapel served Indigenous worshippers for outdoor ceremony in the shrine's early years. Its arches were walled up in later construction; the chapel is visible only from the building's exterior, among the later additions around it.
Calvary Hill
Cerro Calvario
A hill rising about 120 meters above the town, reached by a footpath lined with Stations of the Cross, leads to a summit altar bearing a crucifixion image. Good Friday brings the hill's largest crowd of penitents, some of whom walk the roughly 158 km from La Paz. Along the ascent, vendors sell miniature replicas of houses, cars, and other wished-for possessions, set before the Virgin in hope she grants the real ones within the year, and ritual specialists offer coca-leaf blessings alongside the Catholic devotion. The climb takes about 30 to 45 minutes.
🕯️ Annual Feast Days & Celebrations
Feast of Our Lady of Copacabana — 5 August
5 August marks the anniversary of the 1925 coronation and is the shrine's principal pilgrimage day. Solemn Masses begin the day before, and tens of thousands of pilgrims arrive from across Bolivia and neighboring Peru, filling the plaza before the basilica. Bolivia's Independence Day falls the next day, 6 August, and the town's festive atmosphere commonly runs through both dates, though the religious feast itself is kept on the 5th.
Candlemas — 2 February
2 February, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, marks the anniversary of the image's 1583 installation and gives the Virgin her secondary title, Our Lady of the Candles. The basilica keeps it as a solemn liturgical feast, drawing fewer pilgrims than August but carrying equal weight in the shrine's own calendar.
🛏️ Where to Stay
Hotel Rosario Lago Titicaca ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Lakefront hotel with a garden terrace and a restaurant serving trout and Bolivian wine, part of the La Paz-based Hoteles Rosario group, about a 10-minute walk from the basilica. Website ∙ Reserve this hotel
Hotel Utama ⭐⭐⭐ — Long-established hotel near the town center with lake-view rooms and private hot-water bathrooms, useful at Copacabana's altitude. Reserve this hotel
Hostal Las Olas (guesthouse) — Individually designed, domed rooms on the waterfront promenade with lake views, about a 10-minute walk from the basilica. Reserve this hotel
Hotel La Cúpula (boutique hotel) — Hillside property above the town, a short walk from Cerro Calvario, with three white domed roofs, a garden, and BBQ facilities; some rooms include a kitchenette or fireplace. Reserve this hotel
🚗 Getting There
By Air: El Alto International Airport (LPB), serving La Paz, is the nearest international gateway — one of the highest-altitude airports in the world. From there, Copacabana is roughly 160 km away by road.
By Bus: Frequent buses run from La Paz's inter-city terminal and from El Alto to Copacabana, a journey of around three hours that includes a crossing of the Strait of Tiquina, where vehicles cross the lake on barges while passengers cross separately by boat.
By Car: The route from La Paz runs north through El Alto and along the shore of Lake Titicaca, crossing the Strait of Tiquina by vehicle barge before continuing to Copacabana.
📚 Further Reading
Books:
Fr. Michael E. Gaitley, 33 Days to Morning Glory — A do-it-yourself retreat preparing for Marian consecration, useful context for a shrine dedicated to Our Lady under her title as Bolivia's crowned patroness.
St. Louis de Montfort, Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary — The classic text underlying the Marian-consecration devotion at the heart of shrines like Copacabana, in a day-by-day translation by Scott L. Smith.
Online Resources:
Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana — Wikipedia — Overview of the basilica's history, architecture, and canonical status.
Diocese of El Alto prepares the close of the coronation centenary — CEB.bo — Bolivian Bishops' Conference coverage of the 2026 centenary of the 1925 coronation.
🎥 Recommended Videos
Inside Bolivia's Most Sacred Marian Shrine — A walkthrough profile of the basilica from Catholic Shrine Basilica.
Mosaic of Bolivian "Our Lady of Copacabana" Inaugurated in the Vatican Gardens — Rome Reports covers the Vatican tribute to the Bolivian devotion.
50,000 Devotees Gather on the Shores of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia for Patron Saint — AP Archive footage of the August pilgrimage at the shrine.
🔗 Useful Links
Diocese of El Alto — GCatholic — Reference profile of the diocese, including its patronal ties to Our Lady of Copacabana and the basilica's status.
🧭 Nearby Pilgrimage Destinations
Copacabana sits on Lake Titicaca's Bolivian shore with no other Destinationes-covered pilgrimage site within reach — geographically isolated in this folder's current coverage.
🪶 Closing Reflection
"Mother of the Saviour, Our Mother, you, Queen of Bolivia, from the height of your Shrine in Copacabana, attend to the prayers and the needs of your children."