According to legend, the Black Madonna of Lord appeared on her mountain in the 10th century. Here is a summary of the story as it was recorded in 1868.(*2)
The Most Holy Mother of God was found on an estate called La Mola by the landlord’s ox and cowherd. In a remote part of the estate the cowherd had found a very special area. It had good grass for the cattle, fertile ground, and a spring that never ran dry, not even during years of drought. So he obtained permission from the landlord to fence in a little plot and grow a garden there.
One day while pasturing the herd in his favorite place, he observed an ox that had gone off by himself to the spring. It was bellowing and running around the spring excitedly, then stood still, continued to moo, and finally began to strike the ground above the spring with its hoofs and its horns. This happened three days in a row, until the cowherd could figure out what was going on. By then the ox had moved enough earth that the cowherd could hear stones falling into a crevice under his feet. When he looked closely, he realized that there was a little grotto or niche in the ground on the bottom of which ran water from the spring. Now the ox knelt down and eagerly peered into the hole he had just uncovered. When the ox herd checked to see what was holding the animal in such rapt attention, he too fell to his knees, for he beheld in the far corner of the underground grotto a beautiful, dark-skinned, and crowned statue of the Virgin Mary. It was perfectly preserved in spite of emerging from such a wet and dirty place.
Overjoyed the cowherd ran to show this treasure to his landlord and then both hurried to the nearest church authority, the prior of a monastery. The priest organized a solemn procession so as to properly receive this apparent gift from Heaven. He set up an altar next to the spring and when he lifted the Dark Mother onto it everybody cried for joy.

A small community of hermits takes care of this Black Madonna and her sanctuary. Here’s a summary of what their website says about the history of the place and its Queen from the time of her discovery until today:(*3)

987 and 992 The first documents written in Latin on sheep skin parchments mention a chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Lord, high up on her mesa. The document is still preserved in the archives of the local bishop. (As Christians began to re-conquer territories from the Muslims, who had occupied Spain in the 8th century, they liked to build chapels in highly visible places to “mark their turf” so to say.)

1202 Armengol Gomes and his wife Adelaycis present Mount del Hort to the Most Holy Virgin and the first real church is built.

1450 The second church is built.

1587 -1634 The sanctuary is a Dominican convent.

1636 The holy image cries tears for quite a while in the presence of many witnesses.

1637 The “miracle of El Verger” takes place, where a goatherd falls down a very steep cliff on Mount Lord without suffering a scratch, because on his way down he invokes the Virgin and she turns his deadly fall into a gentle flight with a soft landing.

1695 The church is renovated to such an extent that it is called “the new house.”

1785 The foundation for the modern church is laid.

1811 The government takes control of the sanctuary.

1812 The Spanish army uses the sanctuary as a prison camp for French prisoners.

1823 A militia burns down part of the sanctuary, but the Black Madonna is not harmed.

1824 During a frightening drought the Virgin of Lord, in response to her devotees’ pleas, causes a sudden and amazing rain.

1835 Carlist troops turn the sanctuary into a military hospital and little later General Mina occupies it.

1836 Coronal Niubó burns the sanctuary down completely.

1837 A very reduced chapel is improvised and part of the ruined house rebuilt.

1840 Another general orders everything destroyed again so that not one wall remains standing. The Madonna is moved to the parish church in Morunys, a nearby village where her cult revives.

1854 She protects that village and its surroundings from the cholera.

1863 A devotee offers the Virgin a precious crown and forms an association to try to rebuild her sanctuary.

1866 The grounds of the sanctuary are bought back from the government.

1870 The new church is solemnly inaugurated with a huge and very emotional crowd of believers.

1881-83 French Trappists live in the sanctuary because they are persecuted in their homeland.

1896 Another fire gravely damages the sanctuary, this time by accident. The Black Madonna is rescued by three neighbors who run for miles up the steep mountain to save her.