Legends of Madrid

Legends of Madrid

Here are various legends of Madrid: the ghost of the Palace of Linares, the legend of the soldier, calle de la Cabeza, the rhinoceros of Calle Abada

The ghost of the Palace of Linares

He is one of Madrid's best-known legends. It talks about the tragic love of José de Murga and Raimunda Osorio. The first was the son of a financier, and the young woman was the fruit of an extramarital relationship of the same man. So they were brother and sister. Upon learning of their relationship, the father did everything to separate them and when he died, he explained in a letter to Joseph the reason for his actions. However, the couple had already married.

Aware of their incestuous sin, they asked Pius IX for a papal bull, which allowed them to live together, but in chastity. However, from their already consummated union was born Raimundita. The couple then decided to kill their own daughter and bury her in the palace. Since then, the ghost of the little one wanders in the Palace of Linares located in Plaza Cibeles and which houses the current House of America crying, shouting or humming nursery rhymes.

The legend of the soldier

The Legend of the Soldier is another of Madrid's most famous stories. A soldier fell madly in love with a beautiful young woman, Almudena, who wanted to become a nun and went every day to the Oratory of the Knight of Grace at Calle del Caballero de Gracia, 5. Madly in love with her, the soldier followed her everywhere, day and night.

Faced with the young girl's categorical refusal, he then decided to take revenge, thinking that the entrance to the convent was the real reason. He murdered the young woman, cut off her head, and gave it to the mother superior of the monastery, saying to her: “Mother, here is Almudena”. He was later hanged for this crime.

Calle de la Cabeza

Legend has it that in a house on Calle de la Cabeza near Tirso de Molina, a Portuguese servant cut off the head of his master, a priest to steal all his gold before fleeing. Having left no clues behind him, the servant was not charged and the crime was dismissed. Years later, the man, who had become a wealthy aristocrat, returned to Madrid and, walking down the Rastro, he decided to buy a ram's head for dinner.

Putting it under his coat, the man left a trail of blood on the way to his house, attracting the attention of a guard, who asked him what he was hiding. The ex-servant agreed to show him the head of the animal, but instead of showing the head of the dead animal, he revealed the head of the murdered cleric. Arrested, he was immediately hanged.

The rhinoceros of Calle Abada

Near Callao you can see a rhino on the Calle Abada plaque. Do you know its origin? This story dates back to the 16th century and it was one of the biggest attractions of the time. The animal was brought by Portuguese traders but a young man gave it a freshly baked muffin and the rhinoceros, burned and frightened, tore it to pieces. Then, the animal escaped and in its flight, and still according to the legend, it would have killed about twenty people before being captured.

However, there is a second version of this story, which says that the animal was a gift from the Portuguese governor of Java to King Philip II but when the people of Madrid learned of the alleged aphrodisiac virtues of its horn, the animal was poisoned and his appendix, stolen.