Explore Veracruz
Catemaco is an important place of pilgrimage for Catholics as well as followers of shamanism. The focus for pilgrims (and the festival held here on July 15–16) is the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen on the zócalo, one of the prettiest churches in Veracruz, with beautifully painted walls and ceilings, stained glass and a striking dome. They come to venerate its miraculous statue of the Virgin of Carmen, who is said to have appeared to a fisherman in 1714 in a narrow grotto known as El Tegal, roughly twenty minutes’ walk around the lakeshore towards Playa Azul.
