El Palmar de Troya is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in south-west

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in the

province of Seville The Province of Seville () is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It borders the provinces of Málaga and Cádiz in the south, Huelva in the west, Badajoz in the north and Córdoba in the ...

, in the autonomous community of

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

. In 2018, it became the province's 106th

after it seceded from

Utrera Utrera () is a municipality in south-west Spain. It is in the province of Seville, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. As of 2018 it has a population of 52,617. The town is of great historical interest. It was occupied by Muslims in the 8t ...

. As of 2019 it has a population of 2,340.

History

Although there are historical data from

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingd ...

and from the 13th century, when it belonged to the Moorish Band, the current settlement is mainly due to the relatives of the Republican prisoners who, after the

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, built the Torre del Águila reservoir. It was part of the municipality of

until 2018, from which, after a secession process, it became independent on 3 October 2018.

Palmarian Christian Church

Nowadays, the municipality is particularly known for the

Palmarian Christian Church The Palmarian Catholic ChurchPalmarian Church. (2023)Who Are We? Palmarian Church (), officially registered as the Palmarian Christian Church, is an Independent Catholic traditionalist conclavist sect headquartered in El Palmar de Troya, Andal ...

, a schismatic

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

sect A sect is a subgroup of a religion, religious, politics, political, or philosophy, philosophical belief system, typically emerging as an offshoot of a larger organization. Originally, the term referred specifically to religious groups that had s ...

founded by

Clemente Domínguez y Gómez Antipope Gregory XVII (; ; born Clemente Domínguez y Gómez; 23 May 1946 – 21 March 2005), also known by the religious name Fernando María de la Santa Faz, was the first Pope of the Palmarian Catholic Church, who in this capacity, claimed ...

, known as "Pope Gregory XVII" in the Palmarian Christian faith since 6 August 1978 as a result of alleged apparitions of the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

(

Our Lady of Palmar Our Lady of Palmar (), known formally as Our Crowned Mother of Palmar (), is a Palmarian Christian title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with an alleged Marian apparition in the Spanish village of El Palmar de Troya in 1968. The apparition ...

) and of

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

on the site from the 1960s. He later asserted the claim to be the rightful pope of the Catholic Church, instead of the elected Cardinal Albino Luciani, who took the name of

John Paul I Pope John Paul I (born Albino Luciani; 17 October 1912 – 28 September 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal h ...

. The Church is based at the

Cathedral-Basilica of Our Crowned Mother of Palmar The Cathedral-Basilica of Our Crowned Mother of Palmar () is a basilica church in El Palmar de Troya, Spain. The church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Palmar, serves as the only cathedral and 'mother church' for the ...

References

Municipalities of the Province of Seville Visions of Jesus and Mary Palmarian Catholic Church {{Andalusia-geo-stub