ruta turística de arrigorriaga el secreto de las piedras rojas
- 1
- Euskara
- 2
- Mythology
- 3
- Battle of Padura
- 4
- General Assembly
- 5
- Carlist Wars
- 6
- Economy
- 7
- Emigration
- 8
- Basque Sports
The Battle of Padura
Legend has it that the stone sarcophagus in the porch of the church contains the mortal remains of Ordoño, Prince of León. The tomb is taken by some as proof that the terrible and legendary Battle of Padura actually took place. This battle continues to be seen as one of the first epic landmarks in the history of the Basque Country.
In fact the sarcophagus is just a plain 14th century tomb and there was probably no such battle. But the legend is so old and has influenced so many people over the centuries that it is still worth telling. The earliest accounts of the battle were written in 1340, by which time the story was already old and widely known. Since then many writers and chroniclers have left us their versions of the events that resulted in a great battle being fought here, and of the consequences of its unexpected outcome. Through their words we can enter the dark world of this legend and learn what is said to have happened in Arrigorriaga one day in June, in the year 888.
The first kings of Asturias and León
Ever since the times of the first kings of Asturias and León, the land of Vizcaya had been obliged to pay an annual tribute consisting of a horse, a cow and an ox, all of which had to be white, because that made them more valuable.
Every year, representatives of Vizcaya travelled to Oviedo to pay their tribute, and their humiliation was compounded by the cow-herders who sang the traditional verses that accompanied the tribute from valley to valley through the high peaks of the Asturian mountains.
It is said that in the 9th century the daughter of the king of Scotland was forced to flee her country following the death of her father, and ended up in what today is Mundaka. She arrived accompanied by many of her people on several ships. It was a stormy day, but eventually they found a spot where the waters were clear, at which the sailors cried out “aca munda” meaning “clear water”. And that is why the place is now called Mundaca. The princess liked the place and its people so much that she decided to stay and live amongst them.
One night the snake demon Culebro, known in Vizcaya as “Lord of the House” ravished the princess in a dream and, as recounted by Lope Garcia de Salazar “...the princess fell pregnant and bore a son who was fair of face and sturdy of body, whom she called Jaun Zurian, which means “the fair one””
Jaun Zuria was not yet thirty years old when King Alfonso III of Asturias and León, known as “Alfonso the Great”, sent his son Ordoño on a raid into the lands of Vizcaya. He advanced as far as Bakio, felling all who stood before him. The people of Vizcaya met in Guernica, as was their custom, and there, after a long debate, they resolved to tell Ordoño that they would never again pay the annual tribute, and decided “to go and do battle with him and kill him, or all die in the attempt”. The prince of Asturias and León replied that he would fight no one who was not a king or of royal blood. The people of Vizcaya resolved to petition Jaun Zuria, since he was the grandson of the king of Scotland. Jaun Zuria deemed their cause to be just and agreed to lead the fight.
Jaun Zuria
Bonfires were lit and horns were sounded on the peaks of the beacon hills; in every town and village in Vizcaya men and women, old and young, hastened to sharpen weapons, raise barricades and store up food and water. When everything was ready, Jaun Zuria marched out at the head of his troops, who included Don Sancho Eztiguiz, Lord of Durango, and his men, to meet the armies of the prince of León. They clashed in the valley of Padura where.. “with fierce battle and much determination and at the cost of many lives on both sides, the army of León was beaten and the king’s son was slain along with many of his men.”
“... and because so much blood was shed in Padura, that place was named thereafter Arrigorriaga, which in Basque means bloodstained rock, and so it is still called today. And Jaun Zuria they took to be Lord of Vizcaya”
Nowadays most historians and researchers agree that Jaun Zuria, the Battle of Padura and the rest of the story are no more than a medieval invention.
Historically, there is no proof that this bloody battle in Arrigorriaga ever happened. Like other battles that never were, such as Covadonga and Clavijo, they are shrouded in a magical blend of fiction and reality in which fragments of history are mixed with almost miraculous events. But whether it is true or not, the tale of the epic battle of Padura has been handed down through the ages and has come to represent certain ideals, and that is its true worth. It has become the basis for a set of rights, a form of government and, to some extent, the very identity of the Basques as a united people who fought against foreign dominion.
In Arrigorriaga, the memory of the battle lives on not only in the stone tomb in the church porch but also in the local coat of arms, which comprises a Latin cross and a tree, along with two wolves, each carrying a lamb in its mouth. According to Garcia de Salazar, these wolves are “the two wolves carrying roasted rams in their mouths that Jaun Zuria encountered on his way to the battle and took as a good omen, since at that time men were wont to believe in signs and portents”