The Santa Eulalia Association wants to dig the well of the Merida Basilica for the jubilee year

. The jubilee year of Eulalia has already begun for the Association of the Virgin and Martyr Santa Eulalia. In the kitchen, a hundred events will be held in the Basilica between December 10, 2023 and the same date in 2024. There is a clear commitment to improving the surroundings of the temple. The mayor, Antonio Rodríguez Osuna, has promised to have the square ready for the date. They have already taken the first steps with the purchase and subsequent transfer of the local Maderas Moreno –next to the train station–, to the parish and the brotherhoods to keep the land of the atrium and build the square in exchange.

It will be the most relevant work, but there are other minor ones within the temple that the association also proposes. The list includes exterior lighting of the temple, perpetual flame in the martyrdom tomb, restoration of the plinth, excavation of the well to extract the water and search for the relics of Santa Eulalia, restoration of the chapel, rehabilitation of the crypt, new parish building and a large mural on Santa Eulalia next to the Freulas.

Association, parish and City Council work to attract groups of pilgrims from parishes in Spain, Portugal and Italy linked to the figure of Santa Eulalia.

Luis Miguel González, president of Santa Eulalia, believes that it will help devotees get to know the northern part of the Basilica better, an environment practically unknown even to the residents of Mérida.

Although the Eulaliense jubilee year has a Christian dimension, they hope that some events transcend the parish community of Mérida due to the volume of faithful that will pass through the city. They seek to involve young people and enhance the historical dimension of Mérida as the cradle of Christianity.

Osuna wants the Eulaliense year to serve to rescue the symbolism of Santa Eulalia and the Christian celebrations that were formed in the city in the early years of the colony. “The first Christian community recognized by the Catholic Church in the Iberian Peninsula was that of Mérida in the year 255, there is no previous one, that is why Mérida is the cradle of Christianity”, sentences the mayor. He clarifies that the scientific committee is made up of historians and archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology, the Roman Museum and the Consortium, so there is support and historical rigor from all the speakers who will speak about the Christian community two thousand years ago.

Luis Miguel González insists that they have also designed the program of activities with the intention of promoting the figure of Santa Eulalia as one of the first martyrs of Christianity. They want to signpost some pilgrim paths that pass through Mérida and thus remember the routes that devotees followed long before Santiago became popular.

Among the protocol acts, the association hopes that the official inauguration will be presided over by the nuncio of the Holy See, a figure similar to that of a Vatican ambassador. They have also already sent invitations to the Royal House.