Andalucia Articles

The Fiesta de los Cascamorras in Baza

In the Andalucian province of Granada there are two inland Moorish villages called Baza and Guadix that lie next to each other in the middle of a fertile plain, famous for its landscape of pyramidal hills and troglodyte cave houses. The two villages have been linked throughout history and at one point become great rivals due to a sacred statue of the virgin, the story of which is still celebrated each year in the Fiesta de Las Cascamorras.

After the Christian re-conquest of Baza by Fernando the Catholic King, the Christians decided to build a church on the site of the old Moorish mosque. Work was started in 1490 and workers were brought in from neighboring Guadix to help complete the project. All was well until Juan Pedernal, a worker from Guadix, heard a pitiful cry as he was demolishing a wall that suddenly gave way to a hidden cavity, revealing a statue of the Virgin Mary. The cry seemed to come from the bowels of the earth and was pleading "have mercy", which in Spanish is Ten Piedad.

To find such a statue was a blessing for all, but trouble came when a dispute arose as to which village should actually posses the statue, as it was found in Baza but discovered by a worker from Guadix. After a long feud an agreement was eventually reached when it was decided that the statue belonged to the village of Baza but that the people of Guadix could come every year and join in the celebrations in honour of "Nuestra Señora de la Pieded", Our Lady of Mercy.

The agreement also stated that each year on the day of the fiesta, a man from Guadix could make an attempt to take the statue from Baza and if he succeeded the virgin would then become the property of Gadix. However, the man from Guadix had to be clean, without any dirt or stains on his person, as he entered the town of Baza to be able to claim the statue as his. Needless to say that on the day of the attempt a group of men from Baza were waiting at the borders of their village, armed with oil, fruit and anything else that could stain, to make sure that the one sent from Guadix was covered in dirt from head to foot when he entered the village, hence failing his attempt and the statue remaining the property of Baza.

Today this ritual is still carried out each year and after getting covered in muck on the borders of Baza, the Guadix man walks to the main square where the Mayor declares from his balcony that he is dirty, and so has failed his attempt and the statue remains the property of Baza for another year. Afterwards, in true Andalucian style, then follows a whole weekend of celebrations by the two villages marking the discovery of their lady of Mercy.

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