© Sarah Monaghan – all rights reserved

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF EL CID (Spain magazine) Most of us know of El Cid – Spain’s most famous hero – from the epic film starring Charlton Heston. Now Spain is celebrating this historic conqueror with the unveiling of a new national trail el_cid_files/GABON7.COVER2.jpg_1
HomeWelcome.html
BackgroundBackground.html
Spainspain.html
GabonGabon.html
REMEMBER HIS CHISELED jaw and his broad chest? “People of Valencia! I bring you bread!” roared Charlton Heston as he galloped through the Torres del Quart, the colossal gates of the medieval walls of the city. It has to be one of his most memorable movie moments. As the talismanic Spanish warrior in the epic blockbuster El Cid, in which he co-starred with Sophia Loren and a cast of chainmail-clad thousands, Heston is shown at his larger-than-life best as he saves Valencia from the fearsome Moors. Now Spain is encouraging us to discover more about El Cid and to show off another side of itself to that of sun, sand and sangria. In one of its most ambitious touristic projects, it has created La Ruta Del Cid – The Route of El Cid, a trail that winds over 1,200 kilometres of much of the most historically interesting Spain. The trail begins in Burgos, El Cid’s birthplace and ends in the Levante around Valencia, the city he held siege for three years and finally conquered from the Almoravids in 1094. Over the course of Spanish history, this 11th-century knight has been its most popular national hero. Every child in Spain learns his story and Generalísimo Franco worshipped him. To Spain what Robin Hood is to Britain, El Cid has inspired scores of literary works, beginning with the epic poem El Cantar de Mío Cid (1207) and later the play Le Cid by French playwright Corneille (1636) and the opera Le Cid by Jules Massenet (1885). El Cid even inspired the great Cervantes who has Don Quijote trying to compare his wobbly horse Rocinante to the hero’s powerful white Andalusian steed Babieca. Truth be told, El Cid (from the Arabic sayyid meaning ‘lord’), whose real name was Rodrigo Díaz, is a controversial figure. Historians now know he wasn’t quite the hero depicted by Charlton Heston. In fact, he fought on the side of both Moors and Christians, beginning as a nobleman in the court of the Castilian king Alfonso VI, later selling his services as a mercenary–general for the Muslim emir of Zaragoza and eventually gathering his own army and seizing Valencia for himself, where he ruled until his death. Legend has it that after El Cid died here he was strapped onto his horse and ridden into a battle where the Moors were so afraid of his prowess they ran back to their boats. Truth or not, it makes a great ending to the film Charlton Heston starred in! The Ruta, being launched in 2007 to commemorate the 8th centenary of the publication of El Cantar de Mío Cid, has been divided into eight sections that mirror El Cid’s historic rampage across Spain. These can be travelled by foot, bike, horseback or car and wend through eight provinces: Burgos, Soria, Guadalajara, Zaragoza, Teruel, Castellón, Alicante and Valencia. I chose to go straight for the finale of El Cid’s story and do the last two sections, ending in Valencia where the warrior died in 1099 – the year of the first Christian crusades to Jerusalem. Even today, the province retains much of its medieval past. Many towns and villages on the Ruta were seized by El Cid as he fought his way across the taifas (small Moorish kingdoms) towards his glittering prize of Valencia. One of the most picturesque villages is Alpuente. Mind you it has good reason to want to forget El Cid. He burned crops and forced the villagers to surrender ‘taxes’ so he could pay his troops. Records in the ayuntamiento (town hall) show he took 10,000 dinars – enough to pay his army for a year. Here medieval houses cling to the hillside and there’s a pretty 9th-century church built on top of the original mosque – chances are El Cid prayed here for luck in battle... Nearby is Xátiva, then a wealthy town because it was from here the Moors introduced paper to the rest of Europe. Above it stands its storybook castle– a fortress El Cid would have stormed as he journeyed southwards. Over 900 years after El Cid seized Valencia, there’s plenty of him left. And that’s quite aside from his splendid statue on his rearing horse in the Plaza de España. It replaced one of Franco in the 1980s. The dictator probably turned in his grave, but then, I figure, he’d have turned back again, since he admired his replacement so much. Modern Valencia, now famous for architectural creations like Santiago Calatrava’s spaceship-like City of Arts and Sciences, is preparing itself for another invasion in 2007 with the Americas Cup, the world’s biggest sailing event. But the Ruta proves that Valencia is more than the gloss of its new veneer. Anyone who comes here and fails to explore the patina of the past is missing out… Says historian Fernando Sanz Ruiz, who leads walking tours round the city, “Valencia has one of the best preserved medieval city centres in Europe.” As I followed him through the labyrinthine streets of the Viejo Casco (old town), I could have been in the medina of any North African city – it really has not changed much from the time of El Cid. Hardly surprising, so much of this city was built by the Moors, along with the wonderful fertile orange and lemon groves that surround it still irrigated by their complex system of acequias (waterways in Arabic). “You can imagine why for El Cid this city would have been such a trophy,” says Fernando. I dropped into the Iglesia de San Esteban where El Cid is said to have married his two daughters and then climbed the spiral staircase of the bell-tower of the Cathedral in the Plaza de la Reina. Long views over Valencia’s gleaming ceramic domes, the maze of narrow streets and the huerta (fruit groves) beyond stretched out. You can still see the imposing towered stone gates, Torres de Serrano and Torres de Quart: they’re all that remain of the medieval city walls El Cid and his troops scaled. “See these old red bricks?” says Fernando as we head into Calle Salinas, one of the oldest streets in Valencia. “They are over 900 years old. You find similar ones in Morocco baked from the same kind of moulds.” We turn a corner. “Here’s an azucat (Arabic for dead end),” says Fernando, leading me bang into a brick wall and explaining how blind alleys were a defensive architectural ploy of the Moors: soldiers on horses would have come charging into them and found themselves trapped. El Cid was obviously not fooled. Even so, as I stand there, I can’t help but imagine Charlton Heston is about to come galloping round the corner… Sarah Monaghan FACT FILE www.spain.info www.caminodelcid.org El Camino del Cid published by Pais Aguilar gives maps and historical information, plus where to stay en route (in Spanish) Walking tours with Fernando Sanz Ruiz, author of A Guide to Walks Around Historical Valencia (English) can be booked via www.fernandosanzruiz.es; tel 0034 649 732 744 HOTELS Mont Sant Hotel, Subida al Castillo, Xátiva www.mont-sant.com Tel: 0034 962 275 081 Located directly below the castle, this small hotel set amid beautiful gardens with pool is a former monastery built within original Arab walls. Hotel Rural La Taifa Las Eras, 130 Alpuente www.lataifa.com 0034 961 421 650 This family-run four-bedroomed hotel with roof terrace and own restaurant has been created from a historic 17th-century nobleman’s house. RESTAURANTS Restaurant Riberet Avinguda Sant Blai 16, Bocairent www.riberet.com Tel: 0034 962 905 323 Located in the historic town of Bocairent, the chef has researched the Moorish cuisine of the epoque and offers seven-course medieval suppers of the type that El Cid would have enjoyed. Big appetites required! n http://www.spain.infohttp://www.caminodelcid.orghttp://www.fernandosanzruiz.eshttp://www.mont-sant.comhttp://www.lataifa.comhttp://www.riberet.comshapeimage_7_link_0shapeimage_7_link_1shapeimage_7_link_2shapeimage_7_link_3shapeimage_7_link_4shapeimage_7_link_5
Contactcontact.html