Warfhuizen

Warfhuizen (Gronings: Waarfhoezen) is a village in province of Groningen, located in the northern part of the Netherlands.

Warfhuizen consists of two man-made mounds, called wierden, designed to escape the floodwaters of the Wadden, which flooded the whole region several times a year before dykes had been coed.

The church is especially known for its statue of the Mother of Sorrows, sculpted by one of the renowned procession-sculptors of Seville, Miguel Bejarano Moreno.

It is because of this very Andalusian image that some Spaniards living in the Netherlands use Warfhuizen as a place of (unofficial) pilgrimage.

In the last years their habit spread to all Catholics in the region and even beyond: Warfhuizen became the northernmost Marian sanctuary of continental Europe.

"Our Lady the Garden Enclosed", statue in the hermitage church of Warfhuizen.