CHURCH - SANTA MARÍA LA NUEVA HERMITAGE

VILLAFÁFILA

It is one of the medieval parishes of Villafáfila, possibly one of the last to be built, since it is located on the outskirts of the town, we do not have references to it until 1307 and the name of Nueva, to distinguish it from the other Santa María , oldest called Moral.

As I say, the first documented mention that I have found is from 1307. It is a donation made by Francisco Juanes de Villafáfila, a resident of Muélledes, and his wife to the Bishop of Astorga of a garden in Villafáfila, with its trees, well and other accessories. , citing among its boundaries:

“ land of Santa María la Nueva” [1] .

Three years later it is reported:

“ an orchard that lies near Santa María la Nueva ”, which is surely the same [2] .

With the demographic crisis of the 14th century in which the town suffered a decrease in population, some of its parishes disappeared as such, leaving the buildings as hermitages, and in 1513, when Collantes's widow, María Vázquez, died, she left 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 ”.

The chaplaincy was founded before 1541, as can be deduced from the Diocesan Archive of Astorga, it is located in the Arrabal as the chaplaincy of Santa María la Blanca or La Nueva, which was first located in what was a church and hermitage, and later moved to the church of San Pedro. enjoyed by the same priest of San Pedro, Lope Flórez since 1527.

He had the obligation to say two weekly masses that amounted to 104 a year, he had 71 fanegas as assets, spread over 25 lands, three vineyards with a total capacity of half a fanega. He received rent of 400 reais.

The chaplaincy was at the free disposal of the bishop [3] , that is to say that when it was vacant he could present as chaplain whoever he wanted without the intervention of parishioners or families. It was probably due to the fact that the old parish was also freely presented by the bishop, like that of San Juan.

A reminiscence of having been a parish in the past was the route of the processions, specifically the days before the Ascension, the town's ecclesiastical chapter made three processions called the Litanies, which departing from San Martín on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, toured the town passing by the different churches:

“Monday before the Ascension, procession from San Martín to San Juan and Santa Marta, to say mass to San Salvador and return to San Martín… Tuesday procession from San Martín to Magdalena to say mass to Nra Señora and return to San Martín… Wednesday procession from San Martín to San Andrés and to say mass to San Pedro and goes to Santa María la Nueva and returns to San Martín” [4] .

In the book of accounts of the parish of San Pedro, which begins in 1605 [5] , mention is made on numerous occasions of this hermitage or chaplaincy, included within its parish limits. The first time in 1608 as Santa María La Nueva.

in 1610

 "His honor gives license to the chaplain of the chapel of Nuestra Señora La Blanca, so that for a period of two years he can fulfill the order of the masses of said chapel in the church of San Pedrop, taking into account that the hermitage has no ornaments or chalice … until there is enough property to buy what is necessary to say the masses” [6] .

 in 1619

“In this parish there is a hermitage of Santa María La Blanca in which there is a freely available chaplaincy that is currently owned by Lic. Juan de Torres, canon of Ampudia, with charge and obligation of two masses each week, which Jerónimo del Concejo, a cleric, says, and mindful that he is out of the place and that with discomfort one can go to say mass in winter there. His lordship gives him permission so that from the beginning of December to the beginning of May he can say them in the church of San Pedro and the others in the said hermitage” [7] .

Santa María la Nueva remained a hermitage until the 17th century.

In 1636 it is said that the masses of Santa María la Nueva were said in San Pedro because the hermitage was fallen. The name of Nuestra Señora La Blanca would probably be due to the image of the Virgin present in the hermitage, which would be of this color, to differentiate it from that of Nuestra Señora del Moral in the current church of Santa María del Moral, which would be dark (that is, a pity that it was burned at the end of the 19th century, and is not preserved).

Surely the image of Ntra. Mrs. la Blanca passed to the church of San Pedro when the hermitage disappeared, because in the book of accounts of the church of San Pedro of 1885 it is quoted:

“65 reales for fixing the Virgin of Ntra. Señora de las Nueves, retouching her, putting arms, hands and fixing her clothes…” “and for a curtain for the altar of said virgin, 15 reales” [8] .

However, taking into account that no mention has ever been made of said image, it could be thought that it is Ntra. Sra. la Blanca, that once the hermitage disappeared, it was moved to the church of San Pedro and that, due to the similarity of the meaning of names will be so designated.

The chaplaincy continued to be served in San Pedro and it used to be provided by foreign clergymen who enjoyed the lands of the chaplaincy and commissioned the masses to other clerics of the town. So in 1670 Pedro Bernal, a native of Brihuega (Guadalajara), enjoyed it. In 1751 Don Tomás Calvo Piornedo enjoyed it and in the list of assets of the same, which would be those belonging to the factory and parish of the old church, he mentions that he owns 19 loads, 3 fanegas and 3 cuartillos of dry land of the three qualities, a threshing floor of a fanega and three-quarters and a half of vineyards, for which he receives an income of seven and a half loads of bread (half wheat and half barley), with the obligation to say 50 masses a year (with the reduction of the rents the bishop had allowed the reduction of the annual number of masses),

With the construction of the Royal Saltpeter Factory at the end of the 18th century, the urban layout of the town was modified in its southern and western parts, with the narrowing of streets, the displacement of some paths, and several houses and curtains were bought in the site called San Pedro, where the main building of the factory was built and to the west of it, separated by a stream to channel the waters, a plot of land, which was surrounded by stone, used as a firewood deposit, hence it received the name of La Leñera.

On this site, when a well was excavated in 1977, skulls and other human bone remains appeared, such as vestiges of ancient burials, possibly belonging to the disappeared church of Santa María La Nueva.

Regarding the approximate location of the old church, in addition to knowing that it was on the outskirts, on land that was flooded in winter and within the territory of the parish of San Pedro, due to a list of lands of the church of San Juan from 1670 [9] , a land is mentioned:

“to the Fountain, which is a bushel, and adjoins the hermitage of Santa María La Nueva and the Pilas de la Fuente” . 

The Drinking Fountain is mentioned in numerous surveys during the 17th and 18th centuries and it is located on the outskirts of the town, at the exit of the road that went to Benavente and due to the context it was located in the payment still known as Las Pilas, to the west of the current urban center, where we came to see a rectangular manhole made of stone masonry about 3x2 meters, with parapets topped with cement one meter high, with several stone or cement piles in the vicinity, where they would go to wash women.

Author - Text:

Elias Rodriguez Rodriguez:

Holy Mary the New.

villafafila.net http://villafafila.net/iglesiasantamarianueva/iglesiasantamarianueva.htm

Bibliography:

Villafáfila: History and current situation of a Castilian-Leonese town and its parish churches. 1996. p. 431. 432. 433 and 434.

Photographs:

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez.

Manuel de la Granja Alonso.

Transcription and montage:

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez.

All text, photographs, transcription and montage, the rights belong to their authors, any type of use is prohibited without authorization.