Homage to San Pedro Bautista

Classification:

Tourist Sight in Castilla y León

Dates:

5 and 11 of February and 7 and 8 of July

Four times a year the inhabitants of San Esteban del Valle, a village in the valley of El Barraco, in the middle of the Sierra de Gredos, take to the streets to celebrate in the honour of Saint Peter the Baptist a festival that as a result of its long tradition and history has been declared of touristic interest in Castilla y León.

Since the 17th century, tradition goes that as the evening falls, the bells of the parish church and the Santo chapel call the townspeople to the Plaza de San Pedro Bautista (Saint Peter the Baptist). From there horseback riders and people on foot form a procession in honour of the Saint to cheer and give thanks. Accompanied by torches to light the way, the procession proclaims the life of Saint Peter the Baptist, who was crucified in the Japanese city of Nagasaki at two o'clock in the afternoon, in 1597. Before being crucified, however, the saint had time to stop the outbreak of war between Japan and Spain, when the emperor Taikosama attempted to take the Philippines from Spain in the reign of Philip II.

The procession follows the first horseman, who leads the cheering and bears the image of the Saint, and who is always accompanied by two more horsemen carrying burning lanterns. On arrival at the house of the saint's birth, the last event of the night is an auction for the honour of fixing the saint's image on the front of the house, in memory of the townsman who died on the cross at the hands of the people of Nippon.