From Madrid to heaven ... and hell: the dark and enigmatic chronicles hidden in the capital

• RUTH DÍAZ

  @ruthdiazg

Updated on Sunday, 28November2021-02: 12

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There are times when he walks through Madrid with demons clawing at his sternum and others when it seems that the city itself has decided to free all its ghosts. The whispers are amplified, the shadows thicken and certain deformities of the environment are revealed that bristle the body or suddenly an unreal and unusual beauty assails the crowded asphalt. It is in those electric moments in which inexplicable events and sensations breathe, which make up the legends of an underground and veiled Madrid, that authors such as

, are in charge of rescuing from the shredder of forgetfulness.

With encyclopedic ambition and taste for knowledge, in

(Ediciones B), the writer recovers

.

From the ghosts that make their own in the Cañizares de Lavapiés mansion - raised on a cemetery;

little joke-, or the unidentified noises of the Reina Sofía and the general malaise that spreads among the workers in certain rooms of the museum, to the pagan origin of the emblematic Cibeles, Thracian goddess and heretical patron of Madrid, or the vestiges of Roman villas and archaeological remains found in the lands of Villaverde and Carabanchel, which suggest that the Muslim Mayrit was not the original settlement.

JOSÉ AYMÁ

The statue of the Fallen Angel in El Retiro was exorcised

Glorieta del Ángel Caído, Retiro Park

Raised by Ricardo Bellver, in 1878 it obtained the highest award at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts and won applause at the one in Paris.

But when he was placed in El Retiro in 1885, the people of Madrid protested and, even, an exorcism was practiced on this Lucifer.

'Coincidentally' located at 666 meters above sea level, precise direct relationship with the satanic number, has two 'brothers', in Havana and Liège.

ANTONIO HEREDIA

Does the specter of Raimundita walk through the Palacio de Linares?

House of America, Plaza Cibeles

Legend has it that the Marquis de Linares, José Mª Murga, and Raimunda de Osorio, married to parental opposition, discovered that they were brothers, and that they made Raimundita disappear, the fruit of their incestuous love.

The crying and the girl's voice have been heard, they say, in the current Casa de América, and the sensitive Paloma Navarrete, from the Hepta parapsychological research group, has assured that she feels presences there.

JM CADENAS

From the vault that is flooded to the ghost nun of the Bank of Spain

Square cibeles

It treasures paintings by Goya, Fortuny or Picasso, and other 'jewels': millions of ounces of gold;

a 48 meter deep vault which, in the event of an alarm, is flooded with the underground water channeled in its construction;

and his own ghostly nun, whom a cleaning worker saw in 2014. There are recorded psychophonies - "Ave Maria" and "Don't pass", they say - and testimonies about doors with a life of their own and knocks without an author.

ANTONIO HEREDIA

The grave of the Nazi who tried to kill Hitler, in the English cemetery

C / Comandante Fontanes, 7

Among the nearly 1,000 people buried in the Carabanchel cemetery are the graves of Emilio Huguenin, founder of the mythical Lhardy restaurant; of the tamer William Parish, husband of the daughter of the creator of the Circus Price, and that of the diplomat Ekkehard Tertsch, affiliated with the Nazi party, who was arrested by the Gestapo accused of collaborating with the 'Operation Valkyrie' of 1944, with which it was intended assassinate Hitler.

A whole torrent of data - despite Ortega apologizing for his alleged "bad memory" at the beginning of the interview - that

of the region, for a book that in its genesis was radio serial on M21, the defunct City Hall station, and as a couple. "My wife started a program called

and it occurred to me to do a weekly section on hidden Madrid. I did not want topics that were already hackneyed in the world of mystery and I tried to document myself in the municipal newspaper library with magazines from the beginning of the century and philosophical ones. I rescued art notes from my degree and a doctorate in Aesthetics; I visited Ramón Gómez de la Serna's office in Conde Duque and listened to stories from friends of museum directors, "he says. From oral he jumped to desktop publishing on Amazon, where he was caught for this expanded editorial project, and illustrated by

, faithful listener of the broadcast chapters, which were inaugurated with Leonardo Da Vinci's traces in the region, also included in the volume.

Such dedication is explained by the origin and profession of Ortega:

says.

Second generation

, he has worked as a City Council official, in Culture since 2017, although his original training was as an engineer, which he would later redirect towards artistic history and dissemination.

Among his merits, his work on World Heritage also shines, within the drafting team of the candidacy of the

, recognized by Unesco last July.

THE WORLD

Goya's remains in San Antonio de la Florida ... but without his head

Gta.

San Antonio de la Florida, 5

The hermitage of Florida, in addition to the frescoes by Goya from 1878, houses the painter's skeletal remains.

Except for his head, unaccounted for.

In 1888, the loss was revealed when his grave was exhumed in Bordeaux, for transfer to Spain.

A reproduction of the skull does seem to be preserved in a painting by Dionisio Fierros (1849), whose son could have used the skull for his medical practices, and it was no longer known.

'Goya to the best mystery'.

BERNABÉ CORDON

The cursed legend of the current Ministry of Culture that pointed to Felipe II

Pl. Del Rey, 1

Ministerial headquarters, the House of the Seven Chimneys was built by order of Felipe II.

There Elena Osorio, former lover of the King, died of grief after her husband died in Flanders, although it is suspected that she was murdered, so that her illegitimate daughter would not claim the Royal Household.

The body did not appear, but there was a ghostly lady pacing on the roof.

In some works from the 19th century, the corpse of a woman sandwiched with coins from the time of Felipe II was discovered.

CARLOS BARAJAS

The paranormal events of the Reina Sofía that affected its workers

C / de Sta. Isabel, 52

Noise without origin, forklifts running without electricity, discomfort of the employees in certain rooms of the museum, spirits of residents of the old sanatorium ... In 1992, the management contacted the Hepta Group, whose report was leaked to 'Diario 16'.

The sensitive Paloma Navarrete had visions where it was later learned that the sick lived, discovered coffins behind a wall, had appearances ... And the creepy story does not end there: the ghost Ataúlfo, 'ouija' sessions ...

BERNARDO DÍAZ

The miracle of the liquefied blood of San Pantaleón every July 27

Pl. Of the Incarnation, 1

Every July 27, in the Monastery of the Incarnation, the liquefaction of the blood of Saint Pantaleón takes place, who died beheaded that day in the year 305 and from which his friends collected blood in ampoules. Two of them are still preserved: the one from Madrid and the one kept in the Cathedral of Ravello (Italy). The unprecedented thing is that both are liquefied on the same day in different geographical points, to re-solidify after the holiday.

"Giving it a slightly mysterious look,

in the city

", he emphasizes.

In fact, it documents some void, such as that of the Xifré palace on Paseo del Prado, occupied by the current Ministry of Health, of which only photographs and inventories are preserved.

"It was an orientalist palace, founded by the Xifré family, a Catalan family that made the Americas, and which was decorated like the Alhambra and the Cordoba mosque," he details.

It caused such a commotion in its time that it was then branded unseemly and sacrilegious to harmony, and in its demolition it was dismembered: the façade for a hotel in the town of Losa de Riofrío (Segovia), the central patio for a farm in Barajas, two windows in the School of Architecture ...

JAVIER BARBANCHO

The years of the autos-da-fé and public executions in the Plaza Mayor

Markets, fires, the beatification of San Isidro, the coronations of Fernando VI and Carlos III, calamari sandwiches, concerts, drunken 'hooligangs', Pepe Isbert looking for his Chencho in 'La gran familia' ... Everything has happened here, including three autos de fe and the trials of the Inquisition in the 16th century, through which 162 penitents passed, and executions by vile stick at the door of Pañeros, hangings at the Casa de la Panadería and beheadings at the Casa de la Carnicería.

SERGIO GONZÁLEZ VALERO

The blood drinkers in the old slaughterhouse

Pl.de Legazpi, 8

Let me drink blood.

If you don't let me, I'll die.

Do not deprive me of what life is for me! ».

It might seem like the request of a self-sacrificing vampire, but what was collected by the magazine 'Estampa' in 1933 is a report on tuberculosis patients, who were prescribed as a cure the daily intake of bull or cow blood.

Rather, the remedy was used only for anemia, but it is said that some developed psychological addiction.

JAVI MARTINEZ

The hours jam in the central almond for a UFO sighting

Gran Vía and Aluche

On September 5, 1968, a pyramidal flying object with three lights crossed the skies of Madrid, it seems.

Drivers on Gran Vía and surrounding areas abandoned their cars, causing a colossal traffic jam.

An army F-104 fighter reached visual contact, but no radar detected the UFO and not even from the NASA station in Robledo de Chavela could explain it.

Two years earlier, two residents of Aluche claimed to have seen a spaceship landing in an open field in the neighborhood.

ÓSCAR MONZÓN

The Masonic decoration that floods the Athenaeum building

C / del Prado, 21

Linked to Freemasonry since its foundation, the Athenaeum building itself is an incarnation of the secret symbolism of this 16th century movement.

Until some works in 1952, its façade was populated with five-pointed stars, a Mason emblem.

Although the largest sample is that of the ceiling of the assembly hall, the work of Mélida and Alinari, with classical and oriental references.

ANTONIO HEREDIA

The human being would not have reached the moon without the help of Telefónica

C / Gran Vía, 28

Not everything was by work and grace of the Americans.

If Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon in 1969, it was also after the intervention of Telefónica, which has collaborated with NASA since 1960 for all Apollo missions.

The Apollo XI was close to not taking off due to a telecommunications failure, which was resolved with the action of Spain.

EXPANSION

The Cañizares palace: presences, echoes of footsteps and strange phenomena

C / de los Cañizares, 6

Before accommodating the Hostal Cats, in this mansion from 1803, which was built, it is said, on a cemetery, six monks were assassinated in 1936. The journalist José Antonio Abellán bought it in 2001 and sold it after the elevator worked. without electricity, a chair with its own life, steps on the roof and the appearance of a bloody knife.

He was not the only tenant to run away.

SERGIO ENRÍQUEZ

The pistol with which Larra committed suicide, in the Museum of Romanticism

C / de San Mateo, 13

In addition to a drawing painted by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer or a canvas depicting the burning chapel of Zorrilla, the cradle of Romanticism houses other pieces from that time, in which idealism and drama prevailed. Like that of the writer and columnist Mariano José de Larra, who, days before he was 28 years old, was shot dead by, it has been written, his lack of love with his lover Dolores Armijo.

Among the

historical

of the book, what is most disturbing are the paranormal events that science fails to substantiate.

"I am not in favor of ghost stories nor have I gone to sleep where they say there are, but

. There is always a gap for the margin, even if we are rationalists, where knowledge does not reach" .

Yes it was enough for the Madrid medium of the early twentieth century who claimed that the archangel San Rafael had appeared to her reciting in verse - "in verse! It is not very plausible", she jokes-, but not for another who guessed the burial of a girl in life: "It makes your hair stand on end."

This is what also happens, sometimes, with Madrid.

Mysterious Madrid 2021

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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