Farmhouse of the Friar
Someone whistles a tune from a western . One of many that he composed Ennio Morricone . But not just any, but the main theme of The dead had a price .
The whistle merges with the east wind, the one that is capable of producing so many headaches, and, in the background, the brownish nature, steppe and naked does not try to hide the abandonment of the historic building that brings us here: the farmhouse of the friar.
Built by the Dominican friars in the century XVIII , owes its name to these. The confiscation of Mendizábal left the farm in private hands. The environment could not be more suggestive.
El Cortijo del Fraile: crime is still in Almería
The Farmhouse of the Friar is, without a doubt, the most universal of all those in our country, since no other has reached so many corners of the world through the screen. It has been the setting for some of the most fabulous westerns ever filmed.
Among them, the Dollar Trilogy: For a Fistful of Dollars, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and the aforementioned The dead had a price , directed by Sergio Leone. All starring Clint Eastwood , of whom it is said that his pale light eyes could not withstand the fierce Almeria sun, forcing him to keep them half closed. And from there, his legendary look of the toughest guy in the american west.
Interestingly, stranger, that far west is actually to the east. More specifically, in Almeria . Inside of the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park this building is located which, despite its state and the passage of time, is the best representation of a stately farmhouse in this area and one of the Spanish monuments that have reached more homes on the planet thanks to film and television.
There are many actors who passed through this inhospitable place and many films that have taken him around the world.
Despite this, the history or fame of the Farmhouse of the Friar It is not due to the cinema, but to an event that occurred long before the directors put their interest in this enclave, on July 22, 1928.
A sunset at Cortijo del Fraile
A fact known as “The Crime of Nijar”. That day the arranged wedding between Francisca Canadas Morales , the small and lame daughter of the manager of the Cortijo del Fraile, and Casimiro Perez Pinos , a modest day laborer. But said link was never celebrated and, instead, they made an appearance flight, revenge, honor and blood.
At that time, and following the wedding customs of the Níjar fields, weddings were celebrated at night. And Francisca's, known as “Paquita la Coja” , and Casimiro, would happen at three in the morning in the Fernan Perez Church, a district near the farmhouse where the bride lived.
But the reality was different and Paquita, defying the customs of the time, revealed herself and that same night she eloped with the man she was really in love with, her first cousin Francisco “Curro” Montes.
Church of Fernan Perez
But her escape, on horseback, did not go very far, as they were discovered by José Pérez -brother of Casimiro- and his wife Carmen Cañadas - Francisca's sister -, and, understanding what they wanted, they went after them, since dishonor and betrayal, in those days, were paid dearly.
They tried to strangle her and she managed to save herself from it by playing dead. And so they found her, half dead, at a time when she must have already been married, and, a few meters away, the Corpse of Curro Montes , killed by several shots at close range.
Today, a lime cross painted on a balate marks the exact spot where José killed Francisco, in the neighboring neighborhood of Los Martínez, in front of the Capellanía farmhouse.
Inma Cuesta on the set of 'The Bride' based on 'Bodas de sangre'
Much to the chagrin of his protagonists, the Nijar Crime he became one of the best known of the black chronicle of the Spanish twentieth century. And the Cortijo del Fraile is the symbol of that rural drama typical of deep Spain.
The press covered the event with a halo of mystery; that crime that was a faithful reflection of the harsh living conditions of its protagonists and n an arid environment isolated from other population centers, but also from intense feelings and passions. What seemed like an honor killing was more like money. Francisca was the heir to her father's farmhouse and if she married Casimiro, everything would remain in the family: two sisters for two brothers.
When Francisca undertook that unexpected flight, she would never have imagined that the wedding from which she was escaping would write her story in the pages of national literature with the blood of her true love.
She was a feminine figure and silenced during the Franco regime, Carmen de Burgos, born in the neighboring town of Rodalquilar and the first woman to be a newspaper editor and war correspondent in Spain, who, signing as Colombian , she became the first to publish, in 1931, a work inspired by that real event that occurred in 1928.
With dagger of carnations , the writer gave a new look to the story, leaving the ending open and stripping it of the tragedy. In this way, Colombine presents a story with a feminist reading and an ending in which the protagonists are thrown into a better future; since the work was the result of the author's commitment as a pioneering activist in defense of women's rights and her romantic story ended with the escape of a woman who chooses her own destiny against social norms.
Girlfriend
In 1933, Federico Garcia Lorca published Blood Wedding , turning Paca Cañadas's escape from the man she loved, on the eve of her arranged wedding to another, into one of the masterpieces of 20th-century Spanish theater. In the famous Lorca tragedy, Francisca is the bride, Casimiro, the groom, and Francisco Montes is Leonardo.
In that hot summer of 1928, Federico discovered in the event pages the chronicle of that tragedy that had occurred two days earlier in the Níjar countryside. "The press, how wonderful! Read this news! It is a difficult drama to invent" , he came to comment to his friends.
And he, like Carmen de Burgos, also ended up reinventing it. This time, in a theatrical key, changing the characters for more archetypal ones -the Mother, the Girlfriend, the Boyfriend,...-, the shots of the brother-in-law for a final knife duel between the Boyfriend and Leandro and replacing that farmhouse with a cave house Granada, where the Bride lives. Blood Wedding it allowed Lorca to display his many artistic talents and express his deepest concerns.
The Fraile farmhouse is currently in a dilapidated state
Despite its beauty and having housed such inspiring characters and having been a film set, Cortijo del Fraile only had a halo visible to a few. Halfway between the districts of Rodalquilar and Los Albaricoques, its dilapidated and neglected condition It seems to indicate that no one has bothered about it for decades, despite the fact that in 2010 it was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest with the typology of “ Historic place ”.
A year later, some walls collapsed and the building suffered serious damage. The risk that everything could collapse at any moment is very real and a sign prohibits entry to the building.
"The surroundings were sad...; dry farmhouse in the middle of the deserted area between the flat and bare hills, with no other flora than firewood, palm trees and atochas" . This is how Carmen de Burgos described the farm in her work. Now, even the iconic palm tree that presided over the main facade of the building has disappeared, a victim of the voracious red palm weevil and the negligence of its owners.
Today, the protagonists of the crime that began in the Cortijo del Fraile have already died and the witnesses and descendants of the tragedy do not talk about it. Silence has reigned, since then, both in people and in places. Nevertheless , life goes on even if we are torn from it and the farmhouse is now there, waiting for the curious traveler and for poetic justice to be done with its architectural value and unique history.
In the middle of nowhere, the farmhouse of the friar stands in ruins