Perhaps now it does not seem so, because much more permissive than time is the unrestrained obstinacy of men in crushing their own environment, without any sense of the cultural importance of their historical heritage.
But Támara, the same one who, under other names, saw the proud legions of Rome parade and rise again and again to the warlike Celtic tribes, was in medieval times one of the nine important towns of this Land of Fields, which still continues watching the tinkling crooks of the pilgrims go by, albeit long and in the distance, who, following the Way of the Stars, head towards Santiago de Compostela, with their sorrows in the bottom of their backpacks and their souls thirsty for adventure.
Adventure, which is already beginning to be one, when crossing a land that is not in vain also known by the nickname of Gothic Fields and whose extreme hardness -certainly one of the hardest itineraries that the pilgrim who follows the French Way- made it opportune, in the past, that the repopulating military orders had the merciful will to help the pilgrim, raising hospitals in the most relevant points of these lonely and infinite roads.
Perhaps the situation derived from these repopulations, the collection of land and the implicit need to keep open and with adequate facilities another means of income, such as the huge number of pilgrims who went to the confines of Galicia to venerate the holy relics of the Patron Santiago, made the interests of rival orders, such as the Templars and the Hospitallers, settle their differences in places like Támara -place where the first union of the kingdoms of León and Castile took place, in the year 1037- and the hospital that some built next to the old church of the others, possibly after the Templars were suppressed by Papal order, leads to some confusion.
Be that as it may, the fact is that, whether or not it was the headquarters of the Templars in times - let us not forget, that the town of Villalcázar de Sirga is located a few kilometers from here, where they had one of their most important encomiendas, which was irremediably affected by the terrible Lisbon earthquake of 1775- the point is that in the end, the military order that remained associated with Támara de Campos and her entourage was that of the Hospital of San Juan de Jerusalem.
But there is hardly anything left of the hospital and although the old Romanesque church survives, which perhaps belonged to the Templars in origin, it is currently part of the City Hall of a city, which still conserves, not without modern rehabilitations, which of course, have left a good part of it. of its primitive charm, sections of the old medieval wall that surrounded it, including one of its original arches, on the back of which is a false image of the original Romanesque Virgin, which was stolen in the 1990s, in times when the famous thief, recently deceased, Erick el Belga, was still very active.
Located on the hill, which is called the Mirador and from which there is a magnificent view, especially of the Gothic church of San Hipólito -built, among other royal donations, with the alms of the numerous pilgrims who passed through the hospital adjoining- the old Romanesque church, suffers from a soulless loneliness, who knows if remembering, deep down, another better time´.
The enormous bulk of the church of San Hipólito, in a way, can be a good precedent and at the same time, a mystery, reminding us, in some way, of some of the characteristics that pilgrims will see on their way to Carrión de los Condes, inexcusably stop at Villalcázar de Sirga and visit the church of the Templar encomienda of Santa María la Blanca, whose miracles have already been cited even by that intellectual king, who was Alfonso X the Wise.
Another detail that is worth noting is the popular architecture, which although it is not alien to the changes and variations of the times and their fashions, still preserves some beautiful medieval buildings, which are worth observing, even with that look. romantic, capable of moving us to the circumstances of another time and place.
And of course, it is good that both the traveler and the pilgrim who venture through the Land of Campos, do not forget, after all, that it was always lavish in two products of excellent quality: bread and wine.
NOTICE: Both the text and the accompanying photographs are my exclusive intellectual property and therefore are subject to my Copyright.
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