San Juan de Villapañada (Principado de Asturias) (0)

Did you know that... San Juan de Villapañada

It is a village belonging to the parish of Villapañada, council of Grado. It is located on a hillside northwest of the council and is made up of several neighborhoods composed in turn by houses or quintanas, such as La Reguera with Cal Ferreiru, Ca Alvarin and Ca Pedru, the neighborhood with Ca Arnibes Ca Manximo El Campo, El Pueblo, La Fuente, El Muñeco, La Braña, El Valle or El Caxon. San Juan de Villapañada owes its historical importance perhaps to its situation in an enclave in full route of the Primitive Way. Although it is known from very old settlements, because of the archaeological remains found such as the tumular necropolis of the Valley of which hardly anything remains, and of long periods in which the area was uninhabited, the oldest documented mention of a donation on Villapañada goes back to the year 1229, in which appears the name of Pedro Roderici, brother hospitable of Leñapañada. It should not be forgotten that San Juan de Villapañada was the seat of one of the two hospitals that in Asturias had the order of San Juan de Jerusalén. Other writings on donations are from the year 1309, but it was in the fifteenth century when San Juan de Villapañada was constituted as jurisdiction, lordship, priory and encomienda of the Knights of San Juan of Jerusalem, also called Knights of Malta. The locality had its own town hall, judge and prison, being governed by a commander who also carried the right of asylum, which San Juan de Villapañada displayed, with determination and rigour. The village was famous for the guilds that lived here, such as the boilermakers or the cattle traders. It was in 1821 that the town became dependent on Grado.

To discover What to see in San Juan de Villapañada?

San Juan de Villapañada has a parish church, yesteryear smaller in size, and next to it the Rectory House, both forming part of what was once the old San Juan monastery and hospital. In the church there are buried commanders-prior of the monastery as well as people from the village. Inside the temple you can see two beautiful carvings, one of the Virgin of Loreto, from the XVII century, and another one of San Roque. In the old school, now a hostel, children from the village and nearby places were taught. Hórreos, breadbaskets, a stone fountain, with a single spout and topped with a triangular pediment, dot a bucolic and beautiful landscape.

Festivities

San Juan de Villapañada celebrates its patron saint San Juan on the last Sunday in August.

Traditions

San Juan de Villapañada has recovered an old tradition, that of Los Aguilandeiros. It is a masquerade in which the young people who tour the villages of the parish participate and each locality represents its characters, from the bear and the master, the maragatos, the vieya or the devil... This tradition, which coincides with the winter solstice, is a rite of passage in which youth gives way to adulthood.

Curiosities

In 1951, San Juan de Villapañada was the setting for part of the shooting of the film Bajo el cielo de Asturias (Under the Sky of Asturias), in which some of the neighbours acted as extras. In other times in the village bron was spoken, which is a guild dialect, supposedly of Celtic origin, introduced in San Juan de Villapañada by the boilermakers and extended to the rest of trades and people who inhabited the place. Some words of this language are still remembered today in the village: Xagós, boilermakers; Caneante, donkey; Moscardo, moustache; Muquileras, noses...​

The Legend

A local legend tells that a cipo, a stone found in a castro that existed in these parts, was the slab that covered the tomb of the queen who ruled in the area. This lady was powerful and worshipped the gods. The Lord punished her idolatry and it is said that when his tomb was discovered in him, quantities of jewels and gold appeared.