After a rest, David and I set off to examine Sahagún in more detail. The town has Roman origins and
it was here that Saints Facundo and Primitivo were martyred. The name of the
town is a corruption of Sanctum Facundum”
which became “”Safagún” and
finally “Sahagún” A monastery to the
two saints was founded in the 9th century and destroyed by the Moors
in 873 before being refounded. But Sahagún’s golden age began in 1068 when king
Alfonso VI made it his ecclesiastical and cultural centre.
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| San Lorenzo |
We have already come across Alfonso VI (pictured above from a medieval manuscript) at many
places along the Camino – he was a great promoter of the Camino route and to
encourage pilgrimage and the social and economic development of his kingdom built bridges and encouraged holy men like Santo Domingo de la Calzada to build
up the road.
It had seemed unlikely that Alfonso VI would ever become king of
Castille – he was the second son of Ferdinand I and shouldn’t have inherited
the throne, but his father decided to split his kingdom into three parts; one kingdom for each
of his three sons; Castille, León and Galicia and give the patronage of the
monasteries to his daughters Urraca and Elvira. Alfonso’s older brother, Sancho,
didn’t like this arrangement as he felt that he should have inherited
everything and so on their father’s death, a Game of Thrones type war broke out
between the brothers with Alfonso VI at times having to flee León to the Muslim
principalities to the South and at other times being a refugee in the monastery
at Sahagún. Eventually however Alfonso triumphed, as his younger brother was
killed and his older brother unexpectedly died. Alfonso inherited the lot and
went on to capture Toledo from the Muslims styling himself as “Emperor of All
Spain”.
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| La Virgen Peregrina |
Alfonso was resonsible for opening up Spain to the rest of Europe and instigated major reforms of the church and
his kingdom, inviting the Benedictine monastery of Cluny in Burgundy to guide
these changes and re-establish the monastery in Sahagún which became a major
cultural centre and had a university
faculty up to the 18th century. The town was also granted a charter
by the king who often held court there and it flourished from the influx of
pilgrims.
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| Mudejar pargetting |
Sahagún however, began to decline in the 16th century as
it fell out of favour with the monarchy and a devastating fire in the 19th
century caused enormous damage. Because many of the buildings were built in
brick because there is no stone locally many of the buildings have not
survived, but enough does to hint at the town’s former importance.
David and I went first to the former 13th
century Franciscan Convent of La Virgen Peregrina, which is on a hill above the
town. The convent has recently been restored as a museum and gallery and had
fine surviving Mudéjar polychromatic plasterwork or
pargetting that is really worth seeing in the 15th century chapel of
Los Sandoval. The pargetting features beautifully elaborate geometric and
vegetal motifs. Another significant feature of a visit to the convent is that
you can pick up a certificate stating that you have reached the half way point
of the Camino. I think this is a great idea by Sahagún town council and I will
certainly be proudly framing mine and hanging it on the wall back home in my
study!
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Halfway to Santiago
& certified! |
We moved on to the Museum of the Benedictine
Convent of Madres Benedictinas de la
Santa Cruz. We went into the entrance hall and rang a bell following the
instructions in Spanish on a handwritten note pinned to the doorframe. Suddenly
a hatch in the wall slid back and we were scrutinised by a fierce looking nun,
who for €2 each, gave us tickets before sliding the hatch back. Just when we
had given up, another door opened and we were ushered in where the nun started
a recorded narration in English, demonstrated that we should let ourselves out
at the end and disappeared.
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| Tomb of Alfonso VI |
The narration was rather monotonous - "...in case two, number one is a 16th century relic of St. Bernard, number two is a
17th century monstrance" etc etc etc! However, there was an
interesting Roman bathtub, an incredibly ornate 1711 Baroque altarpiece in a
style known as “Chirruguesque” and the thing I really wanted to see - the tomb
of Alfonso VI who was originally buried in the Monastery of Santos Facundo y
Primitivo, but when that was destroyed, now lies here in a plain 20th
century sarcophagus with four of his six wives. I was taking too long standing
in front of the tomb at the end of the narration and a nun appeared from a side
door and looked at me, so I dutifully thanked her and quickly scuttled off, letting
myself out, suitably rebuked!
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| San Lorenzo |
After this, David and I wandered through the town.
We took in the lovely San Benito Arch, built by Felipe Berrojo in 1662. We
examined the nearby 13th century church of San Lorenzo with it’s triple
Mudéjar apses and pyramid -shaped tower, which somehow still manages to look
light despite its great dimensions. We walked across town and examined the
ornate Mudéjar brickwork on the 12th Century church of San Tirso,
which is apparently considered one of the finest examples of Mudéjar
architecture on the Iberian Peninsula. The brickwork glowed in the late
afternoon sunshine which accentuated the geometric designs and threw them into
relief.
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| Arco San Benito |
As well as the tomb of Alfonso VI, I had hoped to see the chest
containing the remains of Saints Facundo and Primitivo in the 17th
Century church of San Juan, however it was closed, so David and I made our way
down to the Plaza Mayor, where we had a drink and a snack and watched young
children playing in the square as their parents chatted amongst themselves.
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| San Tirso |
Matthew and Heather joined us, refreshed from their rest in the hotel
and we walked over to our albergue for dinner, stopping for quite a while at
the 19th century clock tower of the Monastery of Saints Primitivo
and Facundo to watch two kestrels wheeling around the tower, where they were
obviously nesting. We agreed that some of those reclining metal couches from
the Virgen del Puente would have been ideal, so we could lie back and watch the
kestrels more comfortably!
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| San Juan |
Dinner at the albergue was excellent and included a starter of Pardina (brown)
lentil stew; the lentils are widely grown locally. After Matthew and Heather had gone,
the hospitalero returned with our laundry which he had tumble dried but was
still very damp. We pointed this out and he took it away and put it in the tumble
drier again. It was returned just as damp! We gave up and took it back to our
cold dormitory – you must learn to accept all things on the Camino!
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| Monastery of Saints Facundo & Primitivo |
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