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history of a plaza
Like so many oblong spaces in medieval cities, Bibarrambla was originally a field just outside the city walls used for tournaments, so let us for a moment fancifully imagine the Moorish nobles jousting here on their Arabian steeds... The many English, German and French travellers who visited the city after the Christian conquest have described the bullfights which were held in the square, with the noble families sitting in the balconies behind richly embroidered mantles and banners.
But the bullfights of yesteryear were not the two-hour affairs for connoisseurs which we have today - rather, they were day-long marathons which were attended by the entire city. In one corrida which went down in history, held in August of 1609, 20 bulls were fought which, before dying, succeeded in killing 36 men and wounding 60 others, except for the last bull which no one had the courage to “grab” (bullfighting then was basically a question of laying one’s bare hands on the animal’s horns and throwing it to the ground) so that it had to be shot to death with a blunderbuss..
As the largest square in the city, Bibarrambla was also the scenario for the autos-da-fe which were held frequently after the conquest, in which the Holy Inquisition burned “heretics”, who were usually rich Jews - that is, the ones who had property which the Princes of the Church wished to confiscate. The “autos” were organized like great festivals aimed at impressing, and frightening, the people. Early in the morning two processions converged on the plaza, one coming from the prison with the accused, who were often many in number, and the other led by the authorities who had gathered in a nearby church.
First, the judges solemnly swore to stamp out heresy wherever they found it, and then a Mass was sung, with a sermon designed to create the proper moral state in the minds of the onlookers. Next, the accusations were read in exhaustive detail, with a pause at noon for a banquet which the inquisitors enjoyed right there in the plaza, under the eyes of their victims. After lunch the sentences were read, the condemned being handed over to the executioners for burning, and the others being absolved with a Te Deum. When all was done, the authorities returned to the church they had left in the morning in a torch-lit procession..
