A Heritage Treasure of Silos

Its cloister still preserves the ancient cypress tree praised by the poet Gerardo Diego, which, among other characteristics, he described as a "tall fountain of shade and dream": the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos.

The traveler, neither clumsy nor lazy, returns once again, a restless seeker of mysteries, to the prodigious valley of Tabladillo, which, located in the ancestral heart of Old Castile, also constitutes an epic poem, where Art and Cultural Heritage, rooted in a complex History, have not always been fully assimilated in ungrateful textbooks.

The cloister, spectacular as few others, which involved at least two stonemasonry workshops and two different masters and oriented according to a symbolic layout, with each direction indicating specific biases, sponsored by the graphic design of its unique sculptures—north, indicating the demonic, vice, and sin; south and east, evoking grace and virtues; and west, indicating the external, profane world—also conceals other valuable gems, whose splendid design and no less controversial message are not only worthy of admiration, but also of seeing, in both their design and conception, hidden messages of genuine heterodoxy, not lacking, moreover, in a certain dissenting humor.

We're talking about an extraordinary piece, its 14th-century Mudejar coffered ceiling, a marvel that, unfortunately, often goes largely unnoticed by many of the thousands of visitors who come to this significant cultural center each year, generally seeking to contemplate a Romanesque sculpture. However, considering the periods of neglect and disdain, interest in it seems to be on the rise today, as evidenced by the proliferation of individuals and associations that dominate social media.

Anonymous, as is unfortunately also common in this type of art, many of whose exponents also ended up in the collections of foreign museums and individuals, the Mudejar coffered ceiling of Silos is an extraordinary piece, where its mordant nature can be considered a warning to those other underground currents that, through the visual arts, also exercised their dangerous right to disagree, in times when disagreement, as is the case today, carried dangerous consequences.

In these spirited representations, we observe not only mythological allusions, where animals also take on a certain moralizing role, centuries before George Orwell surprised us with another of his fabulous anticipatory critiques, which, in addition to that novel currently gaining more relevance than ever, '1984,' also constitutes another vision of the future: 'Animal Farm.'

It should not surprise us, therefore, that until relatively recently, among the most hallucinatory scenes in this surprising coffered ceiling, one could see, as an unusual social critique, the figure of a wolf, dressed in a priest's chasuble, officiating at a symbolic funeral mass, where the deceased was a hare.

With that part of the coffered ceiling gone during the renovations that took place a few years ago, we are nevertheless left with the consolation of seeing other representations, of similar charisma, where the sacred and the profane combine as a true social critique worthy of meditation and exploration.

The value of this work, as astonishing as it may seem, seems to perpetuate itself over time, thanks to a visual art that, seen in this way, resembles the profound and critical vision of the mysterious master who designed them.

A cultural treasure that, without losing its potential educational and cultural relevance, deserves to be contemplated, assimilated, and reflected upon, for its unprecedented conception, strange as it may seem, is a faithful reflection of ourselves, with our biases and virtues, and a heritage that we must never lose.

NOTICE: Both the text and the accompanying photographs are my exclusive intellectual property and are therefore subject to my copyright.