Thus read part of Martín Hernández's long article, published on 8 August 1936 in El Norte de Castilla, the day following a series of mobilisations and rituals held in the Castilian rebel heartland of Valladolid with, according to the newspaper, thousands of citizens participating. The cathedral was filled with people and the great majority of them, unable to enter the temple, remained in the adjacent streets. On 3 August the statue and dwelling in Zaragoza of Nuestra Señora del Pilar had been bombed by a plane belonging to the Catalan Generalitat. ‘Miraculously’ no great damage had been done. In the interior of the cathedral of Valladolid a few days later, the local authorities – the civil governor, the mayor and the president of the diputación (local council), all headed by Major General Andrés Saliquet – presided over the solemn act in homage to the Virgen del Pilar in an act of reparation.