The origins of patronage to this basilica can be traced back to the devotion brought by the newly arrived Occitan settlers from Le Puy-En-Velay, who came to Estella in the second half of the 11^th C., following the warmth of the Way to Santiago.

According to tradition, the Virgin appeared before some shepherds from Abárzuza as they tended their flocks. Notwithstanding, the first documentary mention that we have of this temple dates back to 1171. Three years later, in 1174, the Bishop of Pamplona placed the church in the hands of the Brotherhood of the Sixty or Santiago and entrusted them with rebuilding the temple.

From the 13^th C. onwards, the basilica of the Puy enjoyed the support of the kings of Navarre, who granted it an array of gifts, tithes and assets, including those of the dyeing mill which was run by the Jewish community on the River Ega.

From its earliest centuries, it still conserves the Gothic image of the Virgin (14t^th C.) and the excellent paintings in the International Gothic style that decorate the coffer it was kept in.

It is here that, upon the orders of the Carlist General Maroto, those Carlist commanders who opposed any negotiations that would lead to the Abrazo de Vergara convention (1839), were executed by shooting. And later, during the second Carlist war, in 1874, the pretender to the throne Carlos VII gifted the basilica with his personal sabre as a symbol of the continuity of the Carlist cause. The sabre is today kept among the items belonging to the Virgin´s treasure.

In light of the pitiful state of the Baroque building of the church, it was agreed that a new temple would be erected. In 1929, the architect Víctor Eusa designed the current edifice in an eclectic and neo-Gothic style, for which building was completed in 1951.