PhD Program in Historical studies
The celebration of the feast of San Isidro: Baroque tradition versus popular festival
On 15 May the feast of the patron saint of Madrid is celebrated between the fountain, the Ermita (chapel) and the great field of San Isidro. But Saint Isidore, being a holy farmer, is also the patron saint of many towns throughout Spain. The Ermita of Saint Isidore stands on the right edge of the Manzanares river, between the bridges of Segovia and Toledo in Madrid. At the place where there is the Ermita another miracle of the saint is remembered. One day, the owner of the land where Isidro had worked was very thirsty and asked the farmer where he could have a bit of water. Isidore sent him to a field where a lot of water flowed, but the owner went to the place and found nothing. Then the lord, enraged, returned to Isidore to reproach him for the deception, but Isidore accompanied him to the same place, hit a stone and asked God for water. At that very moment a large amount of water gushed from the ground, with which Isidore’s patron was able to quench his thirst. The fame of these miraculous waters meant that the inhabitants of Madrid went there with their jars to collect water, and a sacred fountain was built on it. In the sixteenth century, Empress Isabella of PortugalIsabella of Portugal was born on October 24, 1503 in Lisbon, the daughter of King Manuel I of Portugal and Maria of Aragon. She married Emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain) in 1526, who sought to continue the marriage policy orchestrated by the Catholic Monarchs to achieve the union of Castile and Portugal. From the marriage were born five children, of which Philip II was the greatest. Isabella died in Toledo May 1, 1539, after a premature birth., seeing that her husband Charles V and his son Philip (later Philip II) became ill with very high fevers, ordered the miraculous water be brought to cure them, working as a new miracle. As a gesture of thanksgiving for the healing, the empress ordered a shrine to be built in 1528. With the passage of time the small structure was subject to several restorations until its present appearance in a Neoclassical style. The holy water continues to flow beneath the altar of the Ermita del Santo and then comes out of the temple.
In 1623, a year after the canonization of Saint Isidore, the rulers Philip IV and Isabella of BourbonIsabella of Bourbon was born in 1602. The daughter of Henry IV of France and Maria de’ Medici, she married Philip IV (1605-1665), with whom she had eight sons, many of whom died as children. In 1629 she gave birth to the heir to the throne Baltasar Carlos, who later died in 1646, two years after his mother (1644). At the court the poor relationship between the queen and the powerful favourite of the king, Don Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, was known. took part in the festival in honour of the saint, going to the shrine to collect holy water, thereby converting the small temple into a place of pilgrimage every 15 May. In this tradition, inaugurated by the monarchs in the seventeenth century, more modern and folk costumes have transformed the feast of Saint Isidore in a set of rituals and devout sentiments which the people of Madrid celebrate every year.
As the video shows, the feast of Saint Isidore, begins with the Feria de la Cacharrería (fair of pottery and ceramics), located in the Plaza de las Comendadoras. The tradition during the fair is to buy jars in which water from the Ermita del Santo is collected, at the entrance of which long lines of people waiting patiently for their turn to have the holy water continue to form. The afternoon of 15 May, is instead spent, according to tradition, at the Pradera de San Isidro (the great lawn of Saint Isidore), where celebration with music and dancing takes place, and where the local clientele who participate in this great spring rite drink and eat. At the Pradera you can still see many people dressed as Saint Isidore, wearing the costume that is typical of Madrid called chulapoA typical costume of Madrid which dates back to the period between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For women, it consists of a handkerchief over the head with a red carnation, a typical polka dot dress which extends to their feet and the Mantón de Manila (a large and square shawl). For men instead it consists of a vest with carnation in the lapel, tight dark pants, a plaid cap and a white handkerchief around his neck., whose origins date back to the Spanish operettas (zarzuelas) of the nineteenth century. As for food, it is traditional to eat a typical dessert called rosquillas del santo, in many colors and flavors, as is shown at the end of the video.