disappeared mysteriously, some say by the devil himself. In the place where the accident happened, they placed a cross in order that the passers remember and removed the consequence of such ugly act. The cross had seven arms, like seven were the young people who wanted to make fun of their compatriot. One of them disappeared, and, strangely coinciding, the cross also lost one of his arms. Canillo is the place of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Meritxell. According to legend, a shepherd found the image of the Virgin on a winter day under some flowering roses and decided to take it home. The image, however, returned three times to the same place where it had been found. Finally, the Andorrans decided to build a chapel there. In 1873, the General Council of the Valleys declared her the patron saint of the country and on 8 September 1921 it was declared the National Holiday of the Principality. The original sanctuary was of Romanesque style and was completely restored in the 17th century. In 1972, the sanctuary burned down, being completely destroyed along with the Romanesque statue of the Virgin. The construction of a new sanctuary was entrusted to the Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill Levi. The new building was inaugurated in 1976. Inside it is still revered a replica of the Romanesque carving statue of the Virgin that was destroyed in the fire. The sanctuary was declared a Minor basilica on 13 May 2014 by Pope Francis and joined the Marian Route (Ruta Mariana), a cultural-religious nature route, together with Our Lady of the Pillar, Our Lady of Torreciudad, Our Lady of Montserrat and Our Lady of Lourdes. Events and festivities One of the earliest celebrations in Canillo during January is Sant Antoni, in which the traditional markets are celebrated and vianda is distributed, which is a mountain soup. The crema del mai (burning of mai) is celebrated to left behind the hard winter: traditionally a spruce fir tree was burned and people in town sang and danced around it until the flames consumed it. The tree is still burning up nowadays, one of those used as a decoration on the public road during Christmas, and theater groups encourage the party for the little ones. Another very deeply rooted festival is the Carnival, also known as the Harlequin Festival where the typical costume is that of harlequin, which is made