Virgin of El Puig de França

This image of the seated Virgin is, like the altarpiece of the Passion by Bernat Saulet, a reflection of the activity of the sculptors specialised in carving alabaster who worked in Sant Joan de les Abadesses. It is from Ogassa, very close to Sant Joan. To be precise, from the church of Sant Martí in Ogassa, where it was venerated as the Virgin of El Puig de França and where there is now an exact replica of it. The Dominican friar Narcís Camós, in his well-known work 'Jardín de María plantado en el Principado de Cataluña' (1657), makes an inventory of the spread of the Marian cult in Catalonia and includes a legend about the origin of this image according to which it was brought here by some French pilgrims. This legend openly contradicts the stylistic evidence that, as we have said, allows us to consider it as one of the pieces produced by the workshop of Sant Joan de les Abadesses during the second quarter of the 14th century.