Case file · Sacred site
María Lionza statue and the Sorte cult
Alejandro Colina's statue of María Lionza riding a tapir was put up in Caracas in 1951; the spirit queen is the centre of a Venezuelan religion whose main shrine is Mount Sorte, Yaracuy.
1951 CE · 10.49, -66.89 · status: account
The account
Devotees at Sorte enter trance to be possessed by 'courts' of spirits: Indigenous chiefs such as Guaicaipuro, the Afro-Venezuelan Negro Felipe and, in recent decades, Vikings and malandros. The statue cracked in 2004 and was restored.