Calzadilla de los Hermanillos (León) (0)

Did you know that... Calzadilla de los Hermanillos

It is located between the rivers Esla and Cea, in Tierra de Campos, in the middle of the Jacobean route to the southeast of León, through which the Via Trajana already passed, the route that linked Bordeaux with Astorga. Today we know that Calzadilla de los Hermanillos was founded back in the year 1100, when several surrounding villages already had several years of history, but its origin dates back to Roman times. In the place there was a fountain where the Roman troops used to camp, which gave rise to a more or less stable settlement. In the Middle Ages, the village was gradually formed around the Way of Saint James, which passed through there, and it was reached by the brother monks benitos, hermanillos, from the nearby monastery of Sahagún, who built a hermitage dedicated to the Virgin of Sorrows and attended to pilgrims by providing lodging and hospitality. Nowadays, the tranquillity of the village has turned it into a place of residence for summer and weekends.

What to see in Calzadilla de los Hermanillos?

In Calzadilla de los Hermanillos, the hermitage of the Virgen de los Dolores is located in the centre of the village and houses the image of its patron saint, Our Lady of Sorrows, which may date from the early 16th century. The hermitage, with structural bases inherited from the Romanesque period, was restored in the 16th century undergoing later reforms. The parish church of San Bartolomé was rebuilt in the Middle Ages and strongly restored in the 16th and 18th centuries. Inside, a beautiful altarpiece adorns the altar exhibiting a 15th century carving of Calvary and a figure of Saint Bartholomew, patron saint of the village. Next to the church you can admire a small park, with an exhibition of archaeological remains of Roman times which shows some of the ingenuity used in the Roman roads. In addition, a building near the church known as La panera (The Breadbasket) served in its time as an alhóndiga, a place where cereal grains were distributed and lent.

To discover

In the middle of the Jacobean route, on the outskirts of the village, a wide stretch of the Roman road is preserved. And for peaceful meetings and enjoyment of nature, Calzadilla de los Hermanillos offers us a fountain or old washing place with three piles, the last two to soap the clothes and the first one to clarify it, and two spouts where people, still in these times, go with their botijos for fresh water and the Fountain of the Pilgrims, traditionally known as the Pelegrin with swings, tables, barbecues...

Festivities

Calzadilla de los Hermanillos celebrates its festivities in honour of its patron saints, the Virgen de los Dolores on Viernes de Dolores and San Bartolomé on 24 August.

Traditions

In the parish church of San Bartolomé there is a kind of 19th century altar known as the Monument, which is made up of three serge, cloth, painted representing the Last Supper and which, according to tradition, are unrolled during Holy Week.

Curiosities

Before the arrival of the little brothers, friars, it is very likely that there was a Visigothic or Mozarabic temple in Calzadilla and that it was razed to the ground by the Arab leader Almanzor in his eagerness to conquer Christian territories of León and Galicia and it is said that the church of Calzadilla de los Hermanillos was built on top of the pile of rubble, which very possibly was also dedicated to San Bartolomé.

The Legend

Legend has it that the beautiful carving of the Virgen de los Dolores that is in the hermitage of the same name, was found by some shepherds between Bercianos and Calzadilla originating a great dispute for who of the two villages belonged. To solve it they decided to place the image in a cart and let them be the oxen, which according to the direction they took, decided, and the animals went to Calzadilla de los Hermanillos.