Fiesta of Tourist Interest

Medina del Campo, in the province of Valladolid , is a stone's throw away from Madrid – 100 miles by the N-VI – and it is less than half an hour away from Valladolid , the capital of the Autonomous Community. It is situated in a plain, at a height of 2,400 ft .

The Rio Zapardiel – affluent of the Duero River - crosses the town which is rich in farm and cereal products. However, what Medina del Campo – also known as the Town of Fairs – is best known for are its trade activities of the 15 th and 16 th century.

The town has an exceptional historic and artistic heritage and it also offers sport and cultural facilities. It has made it a point of honour to be the guardian of two ancient traditions that are the Semana Santa (Holy Week) - that was declared of Regional Tourist Interest in 1993 and of National Tourist Interest in 2005 – and the encierros (bull festival) of September – that were declared Fiesta of Tourist Interest in 2002.



HOLY WEEK (SEMANA SANTA)

The oldest processions in Spain
Fiesta of Tourist Interest

Historical Notes

The processions of the Holy Week were brought to Medina by San Vincente Ferrer in 1411. We know that the Saint lived in Medina del Campo in 1412, with the permission of Regent Fernando de Antequera – a nobleman of Medina del Campo who played an important part in the saint's journey.


According to the historical information that we have, we know that there were two main cofradías – brotherhoods. One was under the invocation of the Vera Cruz (today Cofradía de la Oración del Huerto ) and the other one was placed under the invocation of the Quinta Angustia de la Virgen (nowadays it is the Archonfraternity of Nuestra Señora de las Angustias ).

The Cofradía de la Vera Cruz was created in 1544 and it built its own church with a hospital for the poor and a theatre in 1588. On the night of the Maundy Thursday, the members of the brotherhood would walk out of the Iglesia de la Cruz (Church of the Cross), carrying pasos – wooden statues representing the Passion, the Death and the Resurrection of Christ – during a procession commonly known as “Procession of the Poor”.

Concerning the Cofradía de la Quinta Angustia de la Virgen , the first known data date back to 1567. We know that, as the brotherhood of the Vera Cruz and at the same period, the members of the confraternity would go on an entire procession of the Pasión de Nuestro Señor on the night of the Good Friday. This procession is commonly known as the “Procession of the Rich”.

There is a third confradía , the one of the Virgen de la Misericordia (Virgin of the Mercy) which was created on the 13 th of June, 1542 and it is known as the Brotherhood of the “Naçarenos” (“Nazarene”).

Until 1941, the Holy Week of Medina del Campo was a time of decadence. The processions as we know them today in Medina del Campo, in reverential silence, appeared in 1941, as a consequence to some missions celebrated in the town and thanks to the brotherhoods that existed at that time.

Since 1984, when the Holy Week Foundation was created, new pasos - the Resucitado (the Resuscitated Jesus), the Virgin of Joy and the Washing of the Feet - have been added to the processions, with the consent of all brotherhoods. Other processions have also been created or re-integrated such as the one of the Vera Cruz or the Procession of the Encuentro for example. Every year, thanks to the national and international impact, more and more people come to Medina to attend the magnificent processions.

In 1993, the artistic, historical, religious and tourist qualities and merit of the Holy Week of Medina del Campo were recognized. It was declared of Regional Tourist Interest by Castile y Leon. And it was declared of National Tourist Interest in 2005.

Pasos and processions

Today the Holy Week of Medina del Campo has twenty six pasos and eleven processions. They begin on the Friday before Palm Sunday with the Procession of the Virgin of the Angustias, the patron saint of the town. The procession is headed by the town councillors of Medina del Campo.

The Procession of the Borriquila is on Palm Sunday.

The Rosarios de Penitencia , with the paso of Cristo de la Penitencia (Christ of Penance) is on Holy Monday and Saint Tuesday. It is a popular and quiet march for men and boys that has kept the best idiosyncrasy of the processions of yesteryear.
The Vía Crucis Popular (The Way of the Cross) takes place on Holy Wednesday. A crowd of 3,000 people celebrates the Christ on the Cross (anonymous, 16 th century), stopping at each of the 14 stations along the way in the historical and commercial centre of Medina del Campo.

The Procesión de Caridad (Procession of the Charity), with the Santo Cristo de la Agonía (Domino Beltrán, 17 th century), takes place at nightfall on Holy Thursday. It is led by the members of Nuestro Padre Jesús Atado a la Columna.

The sound of the pasos and the beat of the drums break the silence in the streets that lead to the Plaza Mayo r de la Hispanidad ( Main Square ) when, on the night of Holy Thursday, the Colegiata clock strikes 11 o'clock. The pasos , on that night, are el Crucificado de la Santa Vera Cruz (anonymous, 16 th century), Cristo Orante (anonymous, 16 th century), el Ecce Homo (Luis Fernández de la Vega , 1650), el Nazareno de la Cruz (Castilian school, 17 th century), la Virgen de la Amargura (Francisco Rincón, 16 th century), el Cristo de Santa Clara (anonymous, 14 th century), l a Piedad de Barrientos (Maestro S.P. de la Moraleja , 16 th century) and el Cristo Yacente (anonymous, 17 th century). The members of the brotherhoods hold the figures on their shoulders and light them with small lanterns. They all gather to start the Procession of the Vera Cruz which is one of the most moving processions celebrated during the Holy Week of Medina del Campo. The “procession of the Poor” of the confradía of the Vera Cruz is then recreated. While the procession gets to the Plaza Mayor, the silence is palpable. And in the darkness of the night, slightly enlightened by lanterns, the silence is broken by the Miserere.

A copy of the Cristo de Santa Clara ( Procesión de Sacrificio ), made by the Cofradía del Descendimiento , has been integrated to the processions since 1997. On Good Friday, early in the morning, the paso goes from the San Miguel Church to the Convent of Santa Clara, while the members of the brotherhood are doing different acts of penitence on the way.

The pasos of the brotherhoods of Ntro. P. Jesús Nazareno (Our father Jesus Nazarene) and of the Virgen de la Soledad (The Virgin of Solitude) go from the Colegiata Church to the Plaza Mayor de la Hispanidad , where is represented the Encuentro (the Meeting), when the Nazarene bows to his knees, in front of the Virgin. This takes place on Good Friday, when all the confradías are gathered, at noon. Many people attend this procession which is one of the most charismatic and with most devotion. They stand on the Plaza Mayor de la Hispanidad to listen to the prayer said by a priest at the time of the Meeting.

At 8:30 on the night of Good Friday, the Procesión General del Silencio (General Procession of Silence) starts. All the brotherhoods attend the procession with the following pasos: El Lavatorio (“The Washing of the Feet”) (Mariano Nieto, 1989), Oración del Huerto (anonymous, 16 th century), Ntro. P. Jesus Atado a la Columna (Domingo Beltrán, 16 th century), Ntro. P. Jesus Nazareno (Francisco Rincón, 16 th century), Cristo de la Agonía (Domingo Beltrán, 17 th century), Calvary (Francisco Rincón, 16 th century), Cristo de la Luz (Juan Picardo, 1554), Descendimiento (Francisco González Macias, 1954), Nuestra Señora de las Angustias (anonymous, 16 th century), Cruz Desnuda (Ricardo Flecha, 1995), Cristo Yacente (Studio of Sebastián Ducete, 16 th century), Santo Sepulcro (Maestro de Covarrubias, XVIe) and la Virgen de la Soledad (anonymous, 17 th century).

The processions end on the morning of Resurrection Sunday. A procession with all the cofradías of Medina starts after the Meeting between the Resuscitated Christ and The Virgin of Joy on the Plaza Mayor, in front of the Colegiata Church . And the Holy Week ends with balloon and dove releases and fireworks while the trumpet band plays the Ode to Joy.



History and Origin of our encierros
(running of bulls in the streets)

Fiesta of Tourist Interest

One of the most ancient customs of our lands is to include bull games to any celebrations such as royal births, royal weddings, coronations, canonizations, receptions of sacred orders or any other commemoration. Even though here has not been any serious study concerning the celebrations of bull festivities before the 15 th century, we can assume that they stated to take place in the 12 th or 13 th century, when the town played an important part in the official life of Castile . The oldest document that we have concerning bull festivities in Medina del Campo dates back from the 20 th of October of 1418, day of the royal wedding of Juan II and María de Aragón. We know that after the nuptial ceremony, “there were many bull and joust games”, according to the book that tells the life of the monarch and the recasting of the book by the falconer of Fr. Lope de Barrientos. We also know that at that time, some shopkeepers – butcher, oil grocers, etc. - of Medina del Campo had to supply “eleven bulls per annum, according to the will of the governors” for the public celebrations.

There has been at least five ways to run the bulls since that time: alanceados bulls (hit with lances) – according to López Ossorio´s testimony in his book about the history of Medina, “during bull runs, one must be very nimble to stick the lance through the bull's body”; embolados bulls (whose horns are tipped with balls) - it is said that it was in Medina del Campo that Queen Isabel the Catholic ordered that leather balls be put on the bulls´ horns after having seen two men killed by a bull on the Plaza Mayor; enmaromados or ensogados bulls (with a rope tied around their horns) – that is how they were run when Felipe II visited the town in 1559; albardados or encohetados bulls (with halberds and rockets) – such a “suerte” (or act) was run to commemorate a royal birth in 1601; and, of course, another way of running the bulls is the encierro , with the capea (sort of bullfight but with a young cow), that we are going to explain.



Traditional encierro in Medina del Campo

It is this last way of running bulls that is the most established in the life of Medina . There are also different ways of running the encierros. At first, it was not common to run in front of bulls. It was even forbidden unless it was to thank a patron saint or if there had been a vote or a religious promise to get a divine intervention. Thus, the encierros in Medina del Campo were run in homage of San Juan (June 24), Santiago Apóstol (July 25), the Assumption of Our Lady (August 15) and San Antolín (September 2), at least between the 15 th and the 18 th centuries. These celebrations were officially considered as the “Wishes of the town”. The book of the Council Agreements, kept in the Municipal Archives – since 1490 and continuously since 1552 – shows several reports of payment and rules concerning the running bulls of the time, the places of the fights and the destination of the meat, once the beasts dead. The information is often found in the proceedings of the days before the official celebrations. For example, in the Agreements of 1943 – the oldest ones that we got to study – we find some data under the title of “Summons and distribution of bulls”.

The novillos (young bulls) were also part of the celebrations. Indeed, there were young bull fights and runs during the most important celebrations of the town, the ones of the two biggest brotherhoods of Medina which are the one of the Angustias de Nuestra Señora and of the Santa Vera Cruz. The book of the Council Agreement in the Municipal Archives and the historical documents of the brotherhoods give plenty of information concerning these events.

On the night before the holidays, the animals were taken from the pastures to the bullpens that were provisionally placed downtown. The authorities had ordered that horsemen accompany the bulls with bells and lanterns in order to warn the population of the dangerous presence of the animals. On the D-day, professionals and aficionados would run in a bullring, closed or open, doing suertes – or acts- that don't exist anymore such as the “salto con garrocha” – jumping over the bull after plunging a stick into his neck -, “the wine barrel”, “the wicker basket” and the famous cape of the torero that has continued to exist until today

Although we can find some older documents about encierros in Medina del Campo, the most well-known took place on the night before the celebration of the Assumption of Our Lady (August 15) in 1567. We know about it thanks to the testimony that Santa Teresa has made in her Gook of Foundations in which she says: “We arrived in Medina del Campo on the night before the Assumption of Holy Mary, at midnight. We went to the monastery Santa Ana , not to make any noise and then, we walked home. It was Mercy of the Lord that at that time the bulls were being shut for the runnig of then day after and that we did not encounter any of them…”

After the encierro, there was the bullfight in which the dispatch followed the fight. The bullfight was made of suertes such as the one where the torero hit the tendons of the bull with a sword in order to kill him later and there were also horsemen that would hit the animal with their jousts; these horsemen came especially for the bullfight.

Some changes have occurred in the organization and the conception of the encierros. In 1873 the town Council raised the number of holidays dedicated to the patron saint of the town – San Antolín – up to six – five years later, the first eight days of September will become holidays. The point was to gather the holidays which used to be spread all over the year. At that time, the bull runnings lasted three or four days and they different functions. Early in the morning, there was the fight of the “toro del alba” – the bull of dawn – a young fighting bull that ran at the crack of dawn. Although we don't know the exact date of origin of this tradition, we can say that it is very ancient. Later in the morning, the “eleven o'clock bull” would run and in the afternoon, at 4 p.m., other seven bulls would run. These runs used to take place on the Plaza Mayor ( Main Square ). However, we know that other places were converted into temporary arenas until the building of the permanent Plaza de Toros in 1949. Among these places, there were the waste land where used to stand the palace of the Castroserna, the marketplace, the squares of San Augustín and Segovia (where were a close building in which horsemen used to train for the lance in Medieval times), the ruins of the district - before its reconstruction, the area around the old train station and a lot more.



“Traditional encierros”

The traditional encierros as they are run in Medina del Campo consist in a group of at least six fighting bulls, led by six steers that get out of the pen at a given time. They are accompanied by professionals that lead them to the outskirt of the town, by foot or horseback, according to some rules.

The traditional encierros are celebrated on the 2 nd , 4 th , 6 th and 8 th of September. And there is another one on an unspecified day.

The animals get out of the pen at 9:00 a.m. After the third call, the animals are released. The calls are made thanks to discharges of three rockets.

Once the herd has been released and under control, it is led to the streets of Medina .

Getting to the doors of the town, the cattle are getting excited and that is when the urban run to the bullring begins.



“An Encierro day in Medina ”

The number of inhabitants of Medina del Campo starts increasing a couple of days before the beginning of the celebrations of San Antolín. But as the time of the encierro approaches, everything changes: as people have stayed up all night or wake up at the crack of dawn, the party can start.

The reveille is sounded to wake up the crowd. Then, right after the chocolate and the churros, the eau-de-vie or the garlic soup, the people go to take part in the encierro. Elderly people and kids look for the right place to be to watch it; some are getting prepared for the run in the streets or behind the fence and others, by foot or by horse, are waiting for the bulls in the fields, creating a patchwork of colours and smells, mixing the colours of the shirts of the participants to the lances of the horsemen and the clods to the stubbles.

Meanwhile, in a bullpen, six bulls and as many steers are waiting, tinkling the bells they wear around their necks, until the detonation of the rockets announces their release. At exactly 9 o'clock, once the three rockets have been shot, the doors of the pen open and the cattle are released.

The encierro has begun; from now on, who knows what will happen? The herd may get out quickly and one by one as well as it may go slowly and rounded up. But one thing is for sure: it will always go surrounded by all these people who attempt to run in front or alongside of it. The fear disappears; the risk increases. In the fields or in the streets, by foot or horse, they are likely to be hit by the bulls, anytime. But what they feel in this moment is stronger. Time is going by; the uncertainty and the emotion of the people waiting in the streets in increasing. They are waiting for the bell ring that will tell them if the bulls have escaped or if they are coming with the horsemen. The Colegiata Church and the Castle of the Mota stand as exceptional witnesses. Indeed, you can see all the run from the top of these buildings. And yet the herd becomes divided. A huge cloud of dust indicates what is happening: almost there! The encierro is about to get in the streets of Medina . There we are: ten, twenty, thirty thousand people have come to see one of the most fascinating shows that are the encierros of Medina del Campo. The horsemen have excited the bulls with their lances. The animals are running at top speed to the streets of the town where the crowd is expecting them. When they get there, the people run with them, shouting Ay! Ay! Often, the fear causes the stiffening of the legs but some courageous kids run alongside of the bulls in the streets of Medina to reach the bullring.

Fortunately, No victim has been reported yet except for the traditional jostling, fall or minor trampling.

After having been kicked or hit in any way, the best thing to do is to go for a drink! Then, after breakfast and a glass of wine or lemonade, the celebration goes on. And tomorrow or the day after, there will be other runs; uncertainties will come back, people will come again, a crowd larger then ever as those who have not seen the traditional and typical bull runs of Medina del Campo yet would have had time to get ready and to come. And they will be warmly welcomed to take part in an incredible show : THE TRADITIONAL AND TYPICAL ENCIERROS OF MEDINA DEL CAMPO.

From the description and data of Domingo Nieto Sainz

“Tradicionales y Típicos Encierros”.