While consulting my Footprint Andalucia Handbook (2009) about sights and landmarks of Jaén, the provincial capital, a phrase in the description of the old church of San Ildefonso caught my eye: "and the skin of the Lagarto de Jaén, the pesky lizard that terrorized the city for so many years, also hangs in the church." There was nothing more in the book about the lagarto, but my curioity was piqued. What kind of monster was a "lagarto", which translates as "lizard"? If it was large enough to be really scary, why not call it a dragon? And if its skin remained, there must be at least some truth to the story, an actual animal that had grown in stature over centuries of storytelling. An alligator? Perhaps a monitor lizard or Komodo dragon brought over from one of Spain's Pacific colonies, escaped and run amok in the city. In any case, I put it near to top of my list of things to see.
The Lagarto de Magdalena (also called the Lagarto de la Malena) is something of a mascot for the city, appearing periodically in the city's architecture and on the logo of the city's tourism office. There is a Noche del Lagarto celebrated during the Feria San Lucas, and a rock competition each year called Lagarto Rock (this year's winner: a horror-blues group from Ubeda called
Guadalupe Plata).
I first tried to see the Lagarto skin during the Feria San Lucas, a weeklong mid-October festival in Jaén. My roommates and I visited San Ildefonso, but there was no lagarto skin in sight. There was a darkened chapel, with strung with an empty wire that I guessed could be the lagarto's resting place. Perhaps it had been moved for the celebration. The parade that night roughly followed the city's history; first the Romans, then the Arabs, then the Christians. The Roman emperor, atop his chariot, was clearly enjoying himself. Responding to an older woman's whistle, he turned and held an imaginary phone to his ear, miming "call me!" After Napoleon's troops marched through, the Lagarto made his appearance. Hissing and blowing smoke, the huge puppet was a big hit with the kids lining the street, who screamed in terrified delight as he waved his head in their direction. After the Lagarto, the parade got a little weird - there was a series of bizarre balloon animals - a cat-octopus, a giraffe-bird, and a winged tadpole - followed by a troupe of Smurfs and other plaster-headed cartoon characters, including Krusty the Clown.
I returned to Jaén Friday, Nov. 6th, to seek out the Lizard again. In San Ildefonso, the previously darkened chapel was now partially lit, with a sign saying that the Virgen de la Capilla area was being renovated. So no Lagarto skin here, after all. I asked a woman who was sweeping the church whether the skin of the Lagarto was in the church. She gave me a strange look, then told me I had the wrong church. I should go to the Iglesia Parroquial de la Magdalena, up the hill in the old Jewish and Arabic section of the city, she said.
I was beginning to have a bad feeling that the Lagarto quest was turning out to be a wild goose chase. On the way to the Magdalena, I stopped in at the Jaén tourist office to ask where I could find the Lagarto's remains. The man at the desk laughed in my face, confirming my suspicions. "You know its only a legend, right?" he asked. I said I did, but my guidebook said that its skin was hanging in the church of San Ildefonso. "Que rico!" he said, laughing again. That's rich!
Before pointing me towards the Fuente de la Magdalena, the ancient fountain where the monster was rumored to live, he gave me a written account of the story of the Lagarto, in Spanish.
There are three basic versions of the story. In each of them, a reptilian beast emerged from the waters of the fountain, which was the main source of water for the entire city in the Middle Ages, and spread terror throughout Jaén. In some tellings the monster is more like a serpent, and in others it is more like a dragon, but "lizard" is the name that stuck. It devoured sheep and cut off the water supply from the city. In one version, a mysterious knight rode in to rescue the people of Jaén. His armor was made of mirrors, and his shield shone like a beacon in the sunlight. He dazzled the beast with his shield, and cut off its head while it was blinded.
In another version, the hero is a dashing young shepherd who, to protect his dwindling flock, set a trap for the Lizard. He stuffed a sheepstick with burning sticks, and waited for the Lagarto to come. The Lagarto saw the sheep, and swallowed it whole, burning sticks and all. The creature died from the fire inside, exploding with a bang and a ball of flame.
In the third version, the people of Jaén offered a large reward of gold and jewels to whoever would rid them of the monster. A prisoner, condemned to die, offered to kill the beast, requesting only his freedom as a reward. The governors of Jaén agreed, and offered to provide the prisoner with any help he needed. He asked only for a fast horse, a sack full of bread, and a bag of gunpowder. The prisoner waited at the fountain until night fell, and then goaded the Lagarto into chasing him. With the monster close behind, the prisoner tossed loaves of bread into the Lagarto's open mouth. When the pursuit reached the church of San Ildefonso and the bread was all gone, the prisoner threw the bag of gunpowder, which the hungry monster swallowed as eagerly as it had the bread. Moments later, the Lagarto stopped. He stumbled forward, and his eyes grew wide. And with a sickening boom, the gluttonous reptile exploded.
There are some sources online that say that a skin
used to hang in the church, likely that of a New World alligator brought back by a conquering explorer. But I found nothing I could verify, or even a timeline for when the skin was displayed and when it was taken down.
We walked to the Fuente de la Magdalena (side note: if you dump this into a free translation site, you get some pretty funny results. I've seen "Source of the Mary Magdalene" and "Fount of the Fairy Cake" - Magdalena is a kind of Spanish cupcake)
. I've also seen it called the Raudal de la Magdalena; it seems either is correct (raudal translates as a fiercer flow, something like "torrent."). There, we walked through an impressive gate (too large to photograph well), and a guide met us and led us to a chamber beneath the pool. There, in the moist darkness, we watched a video presentation on the story of the fountain as the main source of drinking water, and the coming of the Lagarto. I missed most of it, because my Spanish listening skills still lag behind my reading ability, but it seemed dramatic and poetic, as old-timey stories should. In this version, it was a shepherd and not a convict who destroyed the beast, but he used the horse, the bread, and the gunpowder. The Lagarto may have been some sort of divine punishment, but maybe I'm just projecting - the sudden switch in tone from a changing of power in the city to the coming of the Lagarto seemed to suggest something along those lines. After the video, the guide told us that the Lagarto lives on in the popular imagination through a common expression for overeating -"reventar como el lagarto de Jaén ," to explode like the Lizard of Jaén."
The last stop on the Lagarto tour is the Monument of the Lagarto, a small statue in a small fountain near the Fuente de la Magdalena.
I guess that's it.
(this pops up if you want to see it better....I couldn't figure out a triptych with enough size)
Oh, I guess one good thing came out of this excursion that I forgot to mention. My guidebook somewhat redeemed itself by recommending an excellent restaurant where we had lunch, El Pilar de Arrabelajo, on Calle Millan de Priego. We had the menu del dia, which was 9 euros for a tapa, two courses, a drink (in this case a good-sized glass of beer) and dessert. I'm not generally one to get excited about food, but the stuff here was delicious. Solomillo a la pimienta! I stuffed my face, and got to practice saying "Voy a reventar como el lagarto de Jaén!"
