The Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Agua Santa is the spiritual heart of Baños, a twin-towered neo-Gothic church on the main plaza. Inside, it has one of the most unusual collections of folk paintings in Ecuador — room after room of naive murals depicting local miracles attributed to the Virgen del Agua Santa, the town's patron and protector from the ever-present threat of Tungurahua volcano above. The paintings record floods stopped, accidents survived, eruptions deflected, and a variety of other catastrophes averted.
The Virgin is credited specifically with protecting Baños from volcanic destruction despite the town sitting directly in a potential eruption path. This gives the murals a particular vividness — these are not abstract acts of faith but documented local events, many within living memory. In October, the town's annual fiesta in her honour brings crowds of pilgrims from across Ecuador.