The route of the mystery of Madrid
That literally tells us our companion, Clara Tahoces , author of the already mythical Guide to magical Madrid and passionate about mystery. From her expert hand we move around the capital, listening to those stories that go beyond objective data. Open your mind and welcome.
We meet in front of the Linares Palace , current house of america , how could it be otherwise. This palace is stigmatized by some alleged psychophonies that in the 90s went around the world.
We sat in front of the Dollhouse and Clara Tahoces She tells me about her experience. Together with a team from the now defunct Parapsychological Association of the Community of Madrid she, she was in charge of investigating the event taking advantage of the last permit granted by the Planning Department in 1991.
We discover THE OTHER Madrid
Result? “The palace was not yet renovated and did not have an electrical installation. all of it contributed 100% at the level of sensations , but not so at the testing level”.
Of 400 photos, 5% have no simple explanation, such as a snapshot that was taken in the middle of the night but, when developed, turned out to appear bright. The recorders installed in the different rooms captured a voice that seemed to say “number six” and in the Marquise's room, sounds that seemed to be three lashes.
Either way, the Association also denied the alleged legend of the Marquis of Linares married, without knowing it at first, with his stepsister and with whom he adopted Raimundita (hence the current name of the terrace where you can eat or order a drink...), supposedly causing EVP.
We move between "supposedly" and "the legend says", a language of past testimonies that have been transmitted for centuries, from gossips to the darkest books of the capital. The other Madrid is written like this.
The Palace of Linares and the supposed psychophonies
Going up Calle Alcalá we ran into the Saint Joseph Parish , “where Lope de Vega sang mass in 1914”, as a plaque says as a sneak-scope.
Its interior is dark, ghostly, full of blackness and without possible passage to the rays of the sun that fell on the street.
It certainly helps to put Clara in the situation to tell us the story: mid-nineteenth century, carnival time, a masquerade party in which a brave young man is attracted to one of the attendees, a countess dressed in black. They end up looking for a place to hide and, coincidentally, the door of the church of San José was open. She finally speaks out to reveal that she is the same one who is there, near the atrium of the church... On a catafalque. And she disappears. At hours the gentleman returns to the church to discard a bad move of the alcohol of the party. A funeral was taking place. That of a countess.
“In every legend there is a trace of reality. But as you count them, they become distorted and it is difficult to distinguish what is true and what is not. This is what happens with The House of the Seven Chimneys ”, Clara tells me as we walk down Calle de las Infantas.
In the King's Square This building is located, current headquarters of the Ministry of Culture. On its roof, this day completely illuminated with a sun about to set, you can distinguish the seven chimneys that give it its name . We are talking here about possible ghostly apparitions of the young Elena, the daughter of a huntsman of King Carlos I.
Facade of the Parish of San José
She lived in this old house with Captain Zapata, her husband, who shortly after getting married had to leave on a mission from which she did not return. Elena fell into a depression from which she did not come out alive (although she commented on the gossip of the Villa that she had been murdered by her father, who committed suicide shortly after).
The point is that a few days after the news of Elena's death, a woman dressed in white appeared on the roof, walking between the chimneys with a torch . And so for several days.
We left the Plaza (personally, giving thanks because the sun was still with us) and went up parallel to the Gran Vía towards the Convent of San Placido.
Crossing Fuencarral on Puebla Street, Clara cannot avoid making a short stop at the Convent of San Juan de Alarcon (Corner with Valverde), “where every year on the same day the incorrupt blessed, Mariana de Jesús, is shown. The nuns who guard her say that her body exhales an apple perfume...”.
Who was going to tell us that in the heart of modern Madrid, Every April 17, the incorrupt body of the co-patron of Madrid It exposed for those who want to see this symbol of mysticism.
The House of the seven chimneys
We relax despite the sound of continuous traffic (the disadvantages of urban paradise) and Clara tells me that since she was little the mystery caught her attention, perhaps she had something to do with it. dracula by Bram Stoker was one of the first readings of it.
Where would you hide in the city? “In **El Parque del Capricho** which I am precisely investigating; It is an authentic open-air museum, full of symbols and with a very curious history. It was the old recreation house of the Duchess of Osuna , (a very peculiar woman) Goya's first patron . She commissioned six paintings from him, "Witch Affairs" , (including the famous 'Coven') which she placed in her work cabinet. The house was pure leisure, with a casino, a dance hall, a navigable river... And a hermit whom she allowed to live on the estate with two conditions: do not cut your hair or nails. When guests came the hermit had orders to go out and scare them . Today the tomb of this character is under a pyramid, one of the many Masonic symbols that flood El Capricho”.
And we continue with the religious imagery in the heart of Malasaña. We finally arrived at San Roque street. It is not to scare the regulars Coconut Bar , but just opposite is the entrance to the unnoticed Convent of San Placido , known for several mysteries.
The best known, the episode of a young novice who began to behave strangely, as if she were possessed to which the Inquisitorial investigation decided to respond with an exorcism ... badly carried out by the confessor himself, since a few days later all the novices behaved in the same way, except for four.
“It would be explainable with an episode of collective hysteria derived from the jealousy of the nuns for the possible relationship with the confessor of the convent, who came to blame himself,” Clara concludes. Here it seems that the reality surpasses the rumors.
We leave here, following San Roque street until we finish at the moon square , leaving behind moon 16 , a building marked by a violent episode and for, supposedly, being the place from which messages from the ummo case ... Said and done.
Ummitas, we go to the epicenter of the ufological gatherings of the capital, the Café Lyon, today converted into the Irish tavern, James Joyce. We cross the center of the city again, this time along the Gran Vía and we stay in Alcala 59.
On the ground floor (today with access only for staff) is the old room where the ' Gatherings of the Merry Whale' , meetings of experts in ufology that dealt mainly with the messages coming from Planet Ummo in the 60s.
“The information is contradictory, the messages received are meaningless... But what is certain is that this coffee was fundamental for discussion on extraterrestrial life and the starting point.
In San Roque street, the legend of the Convent of San Plácido flies over
I can't help it and I ask him why the sculpture of the fallen angel , perhaps the most extinct symbol of the mystery of the city, located in the Retiro Park.
"It's the statue of Luzbel , beautiful light, which represents the most spiritual part of evil (Satan would be the physical), and is a metaphor for that being who steals fire to give it to men. He is bound by the serpent, a symbol of wisdom. And yes, it is exactly 666 meters above the level of evil, it is not a myth ”.
Clara also tells me that there are two curiosities about this statue that are not so well known: stands in the center of a square with five exits and these form a pentagon, "the symbol of venus, 'morning star' ... like Lucifer," she concludes. The second, that there is a reproduction of this statue in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando , where we can appreciate it much more closely.
Luzbel in the Retiro Park
How to hate Madrid knowing these anecdotes and walking them in the thousand and one routes that we can trace between legend and symbol? “Stay and meet him. The magic tradition of Madrid is that... magic”, Clara answers.
Finish off the tour on this terrace of surreal history, with the Puerta de Alcalá behind us , whose boundaries formed an old Inquisition burning area and the Cibeles in front (the 'white goddess' as football tradition dictates, but black for Roman mythology), sums up well what Madrid is.
a visible city , full of great architectures, a living banner of History; an invisible city, crowded with legends, curiosities, symbols... And metaphors of our curious and somewhat gossipy essence, as in those groups of sayings, as in those gossip houses in the Villa.
*Originally published on May 14, 2013 and updated on October 23, 2018
The five exits centered on the sculpture of the Fallen Angel
Puerta de Alcalá, end of the tour