Sabana Grande
1953 apparitions at the well made 'Town of Prodigies'—Church ruled negative twice but pilgrims still come. Susúa Forest bridges dry Guánica to wet Maricao; sugar mills went National Register.
Sabana Grande exists because a great plain exists—the valley that gives the town its name extends westward toward San Germán and Hormigueros, fertile alluvial flatlands that Spanish settlers recognized as ideal for sugar cultivation. Separated from San Germán around 1808-1813, the municipality carried its Taíno-derived topography into official status: sabana means savanna or plain.
The town might have remained quietly agricultural if not for what happened at the well. In April 1953, three children collecting water—Juan Angel Collado and sisters Ramonita and Isidra Belen—reported seeing a young woman in white robes and blue veil, carrying a rosary, levitating above the ground. She identified herself as the Virgin of the Rosary and appeared for 33 consecutive days. Hundreds of thousands packed the nearby sugar cane fields; reports of miraculous healings circulated; Sabana Grande became 'El Pueblo de los Prodigios'—Town of Prodigies.
Two ecclesial investigations—Ponce in 1953, Mayagüez in 1986—ruled 'uniformly negative' on the apparitions' authenticity. It didn't matter. A chapel and sanctuary rose at the site; stained glass windows and a small museum preserve the testimonies. Faith persists independent of official sanction, and pilgrims still arrive.
Beyond the shrine, Sabana Grande occupies an ecological gradient. The Susúa State Forest in its northern foothills represents transitional terrain between the Guánica dry forest to the south and the Maricao rainforest to the north. Hacienda San Francisco, a historic sugar mill complex, sits on the National Register. Coffee, plantains, and livestock have replaced sugar. By 2026, the Town of Prodigies tests whether unofficial Marian devotion sustains religious tourism alongside the forests that bracket it.