Templar and Jacobean, dreamed goal by the pilgrim who from Astorga faces the tiresome ascension of the mountain Irago, unloading stone in Foncebadón, but filling his backpack with milestones and solitudes, of calluses and silences, of anonymous hopes.

Ears, hands and noses may not notice it, but the eyes - surely motivated by the madness of being the natural heirs of the mirror that is the soul - will see that the old Ponsferrata has changed the packaging, but not the essence.

You can not hear the Te Deum Laudamus, nor the No Nobis Domine, nor the cries of Vive Dieu, Sweet Love, of the Templar cavalry launched at a gallop, nor the rumble of the Renaissance cannons spitting death through the loopholes, nor the cries of encouragement to the local team in the Sunday games, celebrated to the shelter of the arcane walls of the castle; there are no sentinels of the fraternity kick watching the horizon, nor bauceant raised on top of the battlements, replaced by the banners of Castilla y León.

But with the cold air, probably from the magical summits of Teleno, survives an ancient specter of ancestors wishing to claim that everything in Ponferrada sounds to them, sounds like fratres, pauperis, milites and, of course, Christi.

Yesterday like today, and although in some places point towards the outskirts, the urbanity of Ponferrada continues clustering around its castle.
Old or new, it does not matter, the houses look white on their facades and black on the slate of their roofs.
Near and far in time, cosmopolitan and provincial, I can not, if not remember Gonzalo Torrente Ballester when he said that in Oviedo he discovered architecture and in Compostela he perfected his discovery (1) and to think that in El Bierzo I discovered the Temple and in Ponferrada el Temple discovered me.

Notes, References and Bibliography:
(1) Gonzalo Torrente Ballester: 'Compostela and its angel', Ediciones Destino, S.A., 1st edition, November 1984, page 13.

NOTICE: Originally published in my blog RECUERDOS DE UN PEREGRINO. Both the text and the accompanying photographs are my exclusive intellectual property. The original entry, where you can check the authorship of juancar347, can be found at the following address: https://jc347. blogspot. com/2012/02/ponferrada-vista-desde-su-castillo. html

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[Martial, latin poet]

Ars vtinam more Animvm qve effingere. Posses pulchrior in ter. Ris nvlla tabella foret.

Arte Ojala pudieras representar. el carácter y el espíritu. No habría sobre la tierra. Imagen más bella

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