From the picturesque chronicles of his travels through Spain, which some illustrious travellers left for posterity, I have special affection for that particular letter, in which the German poet Rainer María Rilke - do you know his extraordinary novel ‘All quiet on the westerm front’, also taken to the cinema as an allegate against war - in an admirable reflection addressed to his dear friend and teacher, the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, commented that Toledo continued to be a capital of forgotten empires.

Part of that ‘forgotten imperial capitality';, it still survives a few kilometres from the capital, in a mysterious place located in the heart of Montes de Toledo, being a silent testimony of an era, the Visigothic, which seems to us more distant every day and above all, more unknown: the Visigothic hermitage of Santa María de Melque.

Situated halfway between La Puebla and San Martín de Montalbán, this place, which a priori could be estimated as a miserable set of stones located in the middle of nowhere and which barely recall the extraordinary complex it must have been in time, exerts a memorable influence on the traveller, the researcher or simply the tourist who dares to venture there.

There are numerous legends that place the presence of these mysterious medieval warrior monks, the Knights Templar and, as could not be less, there are also legends that speak of the supposed treasures that they hid in the underground galleries that would connect this place with the ruins of another no less enigmatic enclave, the castle of Montalbán, which, located approximately two or three kilometres from the hermitage, also lived in an early period, before being occupied and restored by a nobility, generally enveloped in stories of intrigue and resentment, linked to the characteristics of an era in which the Spain we know today began to consolidate as such.

Believe it or not, this was precisely one of the ‘Places of Power'- I prefer to call this special type of places, such as ‘Places of the Spirit'; - which together with the sacred mountain of Montserrat and its sanctuary, aroused the interest of German National Socialism and apparently also received the visit of the SS Reichführer, Heinrich Himmler, who seemed especially interested in the enigmatic figure of Nª Sª de Melque, a Black Virgin who, in the opinion of some researchers especially interested in esotericism, contained certain keys to knowledge, which being duly studied and deciphered by the experts of the Ahnenerbe, would provide invaluable data not only on the location of certain objects of power (1), but also on the importance of the Aryan race in History.

The ancient carving of the Virgin of Melke - in fact, it is said that there were two carvings, one White and the other Black - little else is known, which mysteriously disappeared. Although there are those who assert that it is kept by the residents of San Martín de Montalbán, who pass it to each other in custody, completely veiled in the eyes of the public.

But besides all this, to see in these ruins the magic of the Visigoth architecture, with its basilical plane and the use of the so-called golden number, we must not forget the short distance that separates it from a place, Guarrazar, where a formidable treasure was found, belonging to the Visigoth kings, whose vicissitudes, well deserve a separate entrance.

We would not err, then, if we were to say that these melancholic ruins are at the centre of a historic cyclone of the first magnitude.

Notes, References and Bibliography:

(1) Let us not forget, in this sense, Dr. Schaeffer's expeditions to Tibet or relics such as the supposed sacred spear, the spear of Longinus, taken from the Savoy and recovered by the Allied army at Nuremberg in 1945.

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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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