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WHAT TO KNOW about Andujar 3/4

 

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Toponymic of Andujar

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Flag

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Illustrious citizen

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Anthem

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Popular legends

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Demonym

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Brief Andujar history

Popular legends

What to know about Andujar

Leyendas
Egilona legend

Altozano Dean Perez de Vargas

In this place was the old Muslim Alcazar that guarded the city from the ninth century to the s. XIII. An urban place, crowned by battlements and towers to remember Egilona, ​​the daughter of Don Rodrigo who took refuge in the city of Andujar.

 

Abdelazis, son of the victorious and conquering Muza, falls in love with Egilona, ​​renouncing his Muslim religion to marry the Christian. Betrayed Abdelazis by his family, he is beheaded for denying his religious condition. Egilona suffers for her lost love and as a result of this pain dies as well.

Friends of the Patrimony of Andújar Association.

Jewish Levi legend

Serpiente Street

 

This street, located in the heart of the Jewish quarter, was named after a legend received by Carlos de Torres Laguna, in his book Legends and Iliturgitanas Traditions, published in 1966.

 

Legend has it that Levi, a rich Jewish merchant of the thirteenth century who lived in the Jewish quarter, to end the love that his daughter Rebeca and the Christian knight Juan Robledo professed, that had been built in the courtyard of his house store, next to his home, an underground dependency, where to deposit a terrifying serpent with the intention of killing his beautiful daughter if he did not cease in his attitude.

 

After arriving Rebeca to his storehouse, he proposed for the last time that he renounces his love for Juan Robledo a change of the riches that he treasured there. By refusing, the disturbed father grabbed her from the branch and threw her into the macabre chamber to end her life.

 

Juan Robledo, for the absence of his beloved to his appointment and fearing the worst, went quickly to the storehouse of the Jew Levi. Violating the door, he reached the chamber whose trapdoor was open, observing incredulously Levi strangled by the serpent, and at the opposite end of his beautiful beloved intact, invoking God. Without hesitation and weapon in hand saved the cache for the death of a certain blow to the terrible animal.

 

Juan Robledo and the beautiful Rebecca end up joining in the marriage, and the street, baptized since then, by the people of Andujar, as of the Serpent.

Friends of the Patrimony of Andújar Association.

Don Gome's Children's Palace legend

Maestra Street

 

House that has been the object of more than one historical speculation, because around it would emerge certain urban legends that still remain alive. Nothing is true about it, although as a fictional story it is attractive.

 

The legend tries to explain the great mystery that for centuries caused the facade to be bricked, there was no door, the family kept it closed, in fact, the current one was opened after the purchase of the palace by the Andujar City Council and with the permission of His Majesty King Juan Carlos I.

 

In one of the legends, the events take place in the time of King Pedro I of Castile, called El Cruel. According to this version, our distinguished Don Gome was in charge of the army that fought against the Moors at the Battle of Hardon, a place located between Arjona and Andujar on a hill called “Cerro de la Matanza” from that moment. In this arduous struggle and in spite of his great courage, Don Gome would lose his honor for the rest of his days. According to the legend, the brave captain confronted the Moors in a terrible battle that lasted more than a day. Although Don Gome was in the most disadvantaged position, his courage and good work in the war allowed him to win the battle, but as the name of the mountain reminds us, practically no one was left standing. In this terrible battle, almost all the contenders of both sides died. When appearing before the king with the troops so depleted, the monarch forgot the victory achieved and enraged, punishing Don Gome to enter and leave through the service door. To ensure the fulfillment of his punishment, the king ordered the door tapped and put a guard watching it day and night.

Don Gome spent the rest of his life fighting countless battles, winning numerous victories in the hope of achieving real forgiveness and restoring his lost honor. However, this Cruel king never forgave the brave Don Gome who died without seeing his honor clean. After the death of Don Gome, King Cruel understood the injustice committed and asked his children to reopen the door, but they refused to follow the royal mandate. Deeply hurt, the sons of Don Gome assured the king that if his father had not entered through that door nobody would do it again. The proud king came to Andujar with his soldiers with the intention of opening it by force, but the grief that Don Gome had carried throughout his life fell on the plain town of Andujar and many lineages that took it as theirs and decided to support the "Children of Don Gome" (where the name of the palace comes from) against the king, who feared losing the support of Andujar, strategic for his geographical position, opted not to open the door, but withdrew his guard. After this, the children of Don Gome decided to put two athletes who day and night would guard the door in the coming centuries so that nobody could ever enter through the front door, since Don Gome de Cardenas could not do it. (Currently, direct access to the palace from the front is still closed as tradition dictates).

Friends of the Patrimony of Andújar Association.

House of Comedies legend

Spain Square (Plaza de España)

 

On this building there is a legend that tells us why this building ceased to have the function of House of Comedies and became what we know today City Hall, although in honor of the truth part of this legend is history and this is reflected in the municipal historical archives.

 

Legend has it that in the Convent of the closing nuns of the Trinitarian Mothers, (convent that is still preserved), her superior Sister Lucía Iañez was a person who had visions or clairvoyances that then happened, and that on December 8 when They processed the Immaculate Conception, had a vision in which they saw many people die. He got very scared and quickly told the local authorities at the time. Indeed what she predicted was what happened the following year, we talked about 1680, a plague outbreak, which as we all know happened in many cities. The fact is that the measures they took were very radical, closed the Casa de Comedias, as they thought that the blame for that illness and those deaths were from the building, and since then no further representation was made. They blamed the building because they thought it was the outside people, the comedians and actors, who had come to the city sick and had infected its inhabitants. Another measure taken and is what is recorded in the municipal historical file, is the vow or promise that the authorities at that time made for people to heal, they committed themselves to every year when they process the Immaculate Conception they would attend in full corporation, and as anecdote this promise is maintained in our days.

Friends of the Patrimony of Andújar Association.

Centennial olive tree

Andalucia Avenue

 

In a land that lives from ancestors and is surrounded by these beautiful trees, it is fair to pay a small tribute. More if possible when this beautiful olive tree has its own legend.

 

With more than 500 years, this olive tree that comes from a farmhouse of La Higuera, and that grew next to a fountain, houses a beautiful and tragic love story. They say that in times of bandits, a romance arose between a bandit and a girl from this area. Next to the source of the farmhouse and under its vigorous branches the girl and the bandit were loved. The bandit waited every night anxious for his appointment, hiding in the hollow that has the trunk of this olive tree, until checking that he was not in danger when his beloved appeared. Finally he was discovered and executed, and love history truncated.

Friends of the Patrimony of Andújar Association.

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