You are driving through the Costa Blanca countryside when a tiny whitewashed building appears beside the road.
It has a cross, perhaps a bell, and looks unmistakably like a church. But there is no village around it, no regular congregation arriving for Sunday Mass and sometimes barely enough room inside for a handful of people.
Chances are you have found an ermita.
These little chapels are scattered across the Costa Blanca, from mountain villages and farmland to the edges of towns that have long since expanded around them. Some have stood for centuries, and many still spring back to life once a year when an entire community heads out to celebrate a saint’s day.
What exactly is an ermita?
Ermita usually translates as hermitage, although that English word can give slightly the wrong impression.
Some ermitas did have links with hermits or religious communities. Others were simply small chapels built away from the main parish church.
You might find one beside an old road, on farmland, at a spring, on a hilltop or in a tiny settlement.
They could provide a place of worship for rural families who lived a considerable distance from the parish church, or become associated with devotion to a particular saint, Virgin or religious image.
So an ermita is not simply a miniature church that somebody inexplicably built in a field.
Its location often tells part of the story.
Why build a chapel in the middle of nowhere?
Because what looks like nowhere today might once have been somewhere important.
Old paths connected farms, villages, wells, mills and agricultural communities long before modern roads appeared. People lived and worked across the countryside rather than exclusively in towns.
A chapel could serve people living far from the parish church.
Others developed around a particular local devotion or a place that communities considered significant. Some became destinations in their own right, with residents travelling out to them on particular religious feast days.
As towns expanded and roads changed, the surrounding landscape sometimes disappeared while the ermita remained.
That can leave a centuries-old chapel sitting beside a roundabout, housing estate or busy road looking thoroughly confused about how it got there.
Usually, the road is the newcomer.
Ermita, santuario or capilla?
Spanish has several words for small religious buildings, and they are not completely interchangeable.
An ermita is generally a small chapel or hermitage, often separate from a main parish church.
A capilla is a chapel and can form part of a larger church, hospital, school or other building as well as standing independently.
A santuario is a sanctuary, usually a religious site associated with particular devotion or pilgrimage.
And then there are monasterios and conventos, monasteries and convents, which are different again.
Local usage and history can blur those neat definitions, so the name attached to the building itself is normally the safest guide.
Why do people walk to them during fiestas?
This is where the romería comes in.
A romería is a pilgrimage or procession to a religious site, often an ermita or santuario outside the main town.
It may involve carrying an image of a saint or the Virgin, walking a traditional route and holding a religious service at the destination.
But anyone imagining a relentlessly solemn affair may be surprised.
Many romerías also include food, music, family gatherings and a day spent outdoors. The religious and social parts of the tradition have grown together over generations.
That is why you can encounter an otherwise quiet country chapel surrounded by hundreds of people during its annual fiesta.
Alicante has a rather spectacular example
The scale varies enormously, from a handful of neighbours walking to a rural ermita to one of Alicante’s biggest annual events.
The Romería de la Santa Faz takes people from Alicante city to the Monastery of the Santa Faz, almost eight kilometres away.
Its origins date to 1489, when residents took part in a procession during a severe drought. The annual tradition has continued for more than five centuries.
In April 2026, Alicante City Council estimated that around 330,000 people took part.
Santa Faz is far larger than the typical village romería, but the basic idea helps explain many smaller celebrations across the province: people leave the town and make their way to a religious place beyond it.
Why are some only open once or twice a year?
An isolated ermita may no longer need to function as an everyday place of worship.
Instead, its big moment can come on the feast day of the saint or Virgin associated with it.
Residents may walk there in procession, celebrate Mass, bring food and spend part of the day together before returning home.
That annual event can keep the connection between the chapel and the community alive even when the building remains closed for much of the year.
It also explains why peering through the door of an apparently forgotten ermita in February tells you very little about how important it might become during the local fiestas.
And what are roadside shrines?
Not every religious feature beside a road is an ermita.
You may also encounter small niches containing religious images, crosses and other shrines that are far too small to enter.
Some mark places of local devotion. Others may commemorate an event or person.
Modern roadside memorials to people who died in accidents are another category again and should not automatically be confused with historic religious shrines.
The Costa Blanca countryside contains layers of all of them.
Look at the name
If you spot an ermita, its name can provide the first clue to its story.
Ermita de San Antonio, Ermita de Santa Lucía or Ermita de San Sebastián immediately tells you which saint has traditionally been associated with it.
From there, look at the local fiesta calendar.
A building that appears almost forgotten during the rest of the year may turn out to be the destination for a romería that local families have celebrated for generations.
And that is perhaps the most interesting thing about these little chapels.
They are not necessarily abandoned churches stranded beside modern roads.
Often, they are fixed points in a landscape that has changed around them.
Bridging the Gap’s recap
- An ermita is a small chapel or hermitage, often located away from the main parish church.
- Many served rural populations or developed around devotion to a particular saint or Virgin.
- An apparently isolated chapel may once have stood beside an important old route or farming community.
- A capilla is a chapel, while a santuario is generally a sanctuary or pilgrimage site.
- A romería is a pilgrimage or procession, often from a town to an ermita or sanctuary.
- Romerías frequently combine religious traditions with food, music and community gatherings.
- Alicante’s enormous Santa Faz pilgrimage dates back more than five centuries.
- Some rural ermitas remain quiet for most of the year but become the centre of local celebrations on their annual feast day.
