La Magdalena Chapel of Villafáfila, century ?

The first mention that I have found is from 1513 together with the other hermitages of the town and outside the walls, when Collantes's widow, María Vázquez, died, leaving a command in her will:

“To Vera Cruz and to Sª Mª de Villarigo and to Sª Mª Madalena and to Sª Marta and to Sª Mª la Nueva, hermitages of this town, to each one half a real for their works” [1] .

There is still a street today with the name of La Magdalena, which will indicate the proximity or direction to reach this old hermitage, which is documented in the 16th century and which surely came from an old deserted parish.

Calle de la Magdalena belonged to two parishes, the houses located to the south, the even ones, to San Martín and the odd ones to Santa María. Some houses that adjoined the San Marcos corrals belonged to the parish of San Pedro, "to the Magdalena lagoon", which I think refers to a lagoon that formed before reaching Magdalena street, in what which today is Calle del Rosario.

Hardly any remains remain, but it is possible that it was located in one of the threshing floors at the end of Calle de la Magdalena, specifically where some stones and a small lagoon can be seen in the Trabadillos threshing floor, where ceramic remains are found that date back to late Roman and Visigoth times

It was included within the parish limits of San Martín to which its jurisdiction belonged.

Among all the images that have reached today, in the Parish Museum, there is a small carving, which is indicated as "La Magdalena, Parroquia de San Martín". We cannot guarantee that this image is that of the hermitage, but neither that it was not.

One of the processions of the Litanies that toured the parishes and hermitages of the town in the 16th century passed through it on the Tuesday before the Ascension:

"Tuesday procession of San Martín for the Magdalena to say mass to Nra Señora and return to San Martín..."

During the 16th century, a Pedro García lived nearby and is known by the name of La Magdalena to distinguish him from other homonyms.

At the end of the 16th century it was already fallen and the bishop of Astorga, on his visit to the town in 1597, went to the hermitage and wrote down in the San Salvador factory book:

“By the sight of his eyes he saw the hermitage of the Magdalena of this town fallen and profaned, that in it and around it they informed him that the swineherd and cattle driver of the said town was managing, and that people of good zeal had sent three and more years to this part up to an amount of almost three hundred reais, which therefore committed and committed to do and request to do the said work to doctor Cruz (at that time a priest of San Martín) because he is under his bell, and to Francisco de Valencia, as a neighbor of the said hermitage, and I order to notify, under penalty of major excommunication, pay the bequests and legacies to Hernando de Caramazana, archpriest, and go with the necessary money to the said Francisco de Valencia as it was spent " .

The work must have been done and the hermitage remained standing for almost another century. In 1695 it is noted in the San Martín factory book:

"Because if Ilma was informed that the hermitage of La Magdalena, outside the walls of this town, is very damaged" .

He orders that it be fixed and asks the neighbors to contribute with alms for this purpose and the priests of the town to ask for the houses and the threshing floors.

The result must not have had an effect and in 1730 it was completely collapsed, so the bishop gave permission to close and wall up the site where the hermitage was, putting a cross inside.

The image of La Magdalena, which was placed on the main altar of the church in 1738, had already been moved before, but before 1794 it was moved to a side altar [2] .

Villafáfila: History and current events of a Castilian Leonese village and its parish churches. 1996. page 445.

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[1] Archive of the Royal Chancery of Valladolid. Civil Lawsuits. Zarandona and Walls 1353-8 olv.

[2] APV 52. San Martín Factory Book