Decodificando el Círculo Sagrado de Peraleda
This video is the second part of the video “The Sacred Circle of Peraleda”, where we have already presented the Sacred Circle and explained its origins and function. Here we are going to give, above all, data: a more academic explanation, but also very interesting and full of surprises,
Where we will offer more specific data to better understand why in the previous video we gave the information we did and to show what we based our opinions on. deductions. And furthermore, we are going to reveal new data discovered since then, which makes our hypothesis
Even more credible. If you haven’t seen the previous video, you better watch it first or you won’t get the gist. Right now. If you are on YouTube, a small window should appear on the screen
To go to that video by clicking or tapping on it, and if you don’t see it, it is because I have put a link here in the comments so that you can open it from there, or maybe I will do the two things. Let us begin.
To situate ourselves first, we have to say a few words about how Peraleda came to be where he is and why. As we already said at the beginning of the previous video, Peraleda de la Mata was founded by the queen’s scribe, Domingo Velasco, on behalf of King
Alfonso X the Wise, in the second half of the 13th century, naming him the first Lord of Peraleda. The name ‘la Peraleda’, by the way, is due to a stream that was called that and that ran from near the current Corchuelo to the Tagus. And today, most of its
Route is hidden by the Valdecañas reservoir, so it is difficult to get an idea of how long it was. The older people in the area will still remember it with the modern name of Arroyo del Valle, but in the Middle Ages it was called Arroyo de la Peraleda. Maybe
Because at that time there were some pear trees there. Curiously, Arroyo de la Peraleda means the same as the neighboring place name ‘Guadalperal’, if it really is a half-Arabic, half-Castilian compound. We do not know what year it was founded, but it had to be between the years 1252, which is when Alfonso lordship.
At first, the town was founded, logically, in what seemed to be the best area of the entire environment, in the very fertile Vega de Alarza, but not on the plain, but at the top of an elevation that allowed it to have good view of the entire Tajo ford,
Next to the Peraleda river, from which it takes its name, and with two streams next to it, then called the Tamajoso and the Gamonoso. So they had water to drink and wash without complications. Let’s get closer to see it on this map, a map in which we have
Reconstructed the situation of Peraleda and its surroundings in the 16th century, merging the information from several old maps. We can see a little further south of Majada Alta, where today the irrigation tower is built, what we call “El Puro”, and on an elevation that today is
Below the waters of the swamp, there is an area that for that reason century it was still called “Las Huts of Blasco Mingo”. This toponym is quite clear in itself, since the name Blasco Mingo obviously refers to Domingo Velasco, first lord of the Peraleda and its
Founder, because “Mingo”, just as we still use today in the area, is an affectionate abbreviation of ‘Domingo’, and “Blasco”, a deformation of ‘Velasco’. The reference to “Huts” seems to be because the first inhabitants who settled here did so in huts, waiting for the population center to consolidate and
Become wealthy enough to start building houses. Furthermore, it is assumed that the first inhabitants of Peraleda, like the rest of the area, were shepherds from La Vera who, for the most part, were already accustomed to spending the winter with their livestock in the
Campo Arañuelo area, living in temporary huts. , and what is done now is to try to offer them a stable settlement for the entire year. But the normal thing would be for them to continue building their usual huts at first , if only for the reason that “we’d better
Try first and see if we like staying here forever.” It would be something similar to what happened in the neighboring Casatejada, which would also begin with shacks or houses covered with brooms, and that is why its first name was Casa Escobiza. Then, when
The town settled and prospered, people began to build their houses with tiles and changed the name to Casa Tejada. But in the case of Peraleda, that was his name from the beginning, which is why Domingo Velasco was called Señor de la Peraleda. It is when the town changes location that people
Begin to remember the old location as the place where Domingo Velasco, or Blasco Mingo to the family, had ordered the people to build their huts, and from there the ‘Chozas de Blasco’ remained. Mingo’. And the thing is that Peraleda was in that old location for a short time
, since in the following century it was already installed much higher up, in the current location, far from the most fertile lands and from any river or stream, which forced the people of Peraleda to supply themselves of hard water from poor quality wells and travel
Several kilometers to reach the nearest stream, where you can wash clothes, the area that today we call “La Bomba”, due to the pumping system that the City Council installed there in the middle of the century. past to facilitate this work. It seems illogical that the seat of
The Peraleda lordship was built on a hill that belonged to the friars of Alarza, but although this contradicts some later documents, we know that at that time it did not belong to Alarza because the grandchildren of Domingo Velasco passed that land
To the Lord of Navamorcuende, which is 22 km north of Talavera, and who created the so-called ‘Mayorazgo de San Román, and the Chozas de Blasco Mingo’, origin of the lordship of San Román, and these huts would end up being part of the Marquisate of Velada in the sixteenth century.
This change in location, apparently for the worse, could have been motivated by two factors. The main reason was that the initial location, although it seemed perfect, was in an area where the abundance of water also caused an abundance of malaria, a problem
That lasted until the eradication of said disease in the middle of the last century, and let’s not forget that our area , between the Tagus and the Tiétar, was the last place in Europe where this disease, then called “malaria,” was eradicated. Hence
Those letters of “Antimalarial Center” that years ago were still placed on the façade of the Doctor’s House, today a nursing home. It was also that same disease that finally caused the depopulation of other neighboring towns, such as Santa María
De la Mata and, in part, Valparaíso, which when it disappeared due to war issues, had already been losing population for many decades and moved to Peraleda, precisely also fleeing from malaria, because it was too close to the stream. The new place chosen,
The current one, was also considered better because it was located on what would later be the very busy post road, which passed through here precisely avoiding the streams, since there were no bridges, and which at this point was crossed with the road that went down from the
Sierra to the old Augustóbriga or Talaverilla. Be that as it may, the inhabitants of the old Peraleda moved away from the streams and looked for a place as dry as possible, because “a scalded cat runs away from cold water”,
And climbing higher, they chose a place that seemed already waiting for catch it, since it was marked by a large circle of stones that, in addition, probably already had a reputation for being a holy and protective place, as we will see later. This is how in the 14th century, Peraleda
Was relocated within the Sacred Circle that we have already seen in the previous video. There we said that the Peraleda Circle, whatever it was, already existed in the Middle Ages, but that it may have been older by centuries or millennia. In this video we are clearly betting
That the Circle is at least 3 or 4 thousand years old, if not 5 or 7 like the Guadalperal Dolmen, and that it emerged as part of the Paleolithic complex, the center of which is that famous dolmen. , and that this circle was originally a cromlech. I am going to
Offer new data here that supports this hypothesis above any other. First let’s see what a cromlech is. “Cromlech” is a Celtic word that means “circle of stones” and is made up of menhirs (that is, large vertical stones)
That create a circle, like Obelix’s menhir – here we see him so happy with his menhir. It is believed that cromlechs were used as cemeteries to bury the deceased or as sacred places for religious rites. The one in Peraleda would most likely have
That second function of sacred territory. The menhirs that form a cromlech usually vary from one meter high to more than four. Those from Peraleda were probably just over a meter, we’ll see later why I assume that. The most famous cromlech today is Stonehenge in southern England, which
Was initially a circle of menhirs and centuries later a temple and possible astronomical observatory of larger stones was built within it, and which is the part which is better preserved today. Here you have it in the photo, I’m sure many of you can recognize it.
But there are many others, such as the one near Blandás in France, or the one in Er Lannic also in France, or the one in Sunkenkirk in England. And this other image is what the Sunkenkirk plant would be.
The fact that today we do not find any of the original menhirs or stones that formed the Circle is precisely because Peraleda was built inside it. As long as the Sacred Circle had value for the people, the people would preserve the menhirs; Later,
Not anymore, because before people used everything, everything was recycled. The original cromlech would be a simple circle, perhaps closed or perhaps opened by one or four equidistant places. These four openings or doors could have been there from the beginning or were created in the
Middle Ages when repopulated, with the disappearance of the Neolithic culture, or perhaps not until after the Arab invasion. The circle would be abandoned and the entire area depopulated, and only the shepherds who grazed their flocks on the empty
Lands of Campo Arañuelo would know it, which for several centuries was practically no man’s land between Moors and Christians. As we said in the previous video, almost 5 km from this circle was a place considered very sacred. And it may be that the site was already venerated since ancient times
By the same builders of the Guadalperal Dolmen, perhaps, or by the later Celts or the Romans who arrived later. This sacredness is due to the fact that there is a source of medicinal waters in the place. The fountain we call “the Borbollón” was widely used
To cure certain diseases, especially those of the skin, until the Civil War, when the Borbollón Spa was destroyed and abandoned, but until then it was very popular and received patients who came from all over. Spain, even as far away as Barcelona.
And, by the way, the waters are still medicinal. My father still remembers the local doctor recommending people with psoriasis to take spring water to wash. The fact is that, since its waters were and are medicinal, it is more than likely that it was
Venerated by the ancients, who considered that the waters were medicinal because of some deity that lived in them, and perhaps that is why we find Roman remains. around. But what we can assume with more certainty is that this site where San Gregorio is today
Was venerated as sacred ground in the time of the Visigoths, who lived in this area as in all of Spain between the 5th and 8th centuries. Shortly after Christianity arrived in these lands, right at the midpoint between the Catholic dioceses of Toledo and Mérida,
Which were among the first and most important in all of Spain, the Virgin appeared to a shepherd boy on an oak tree. Logically, the place quickly becomes an important religious point for the entire area, since it is, as we have already seen, the same case
As the modern sanctuary of Fátima. A Visigothic church was built right there (something that I assumed in the previous video, but now with new data I can confirm that it was the case). There was a Visigoth church there and, judging by the remains that appeared in the area
Thanks to excavations to insert pipes, from what I have been told, it must have been an important building, since they found some objects and architectural elements, both Visigothic and brought from the very distant and rich Byzantium, at that time the great Empire of the Eastern Mediterranean.
The current church that today occupies the place, called Santa María but better known as the “tower of San Gregorio”, is a construction from the 14th century, today in ruins. On the west façade of the current church, where the tower is located, you can see on the ground,
One meter from the current wall, a section of wall that probably belongs to the original Visigoth building, because it is the remains of an attached porch of the medieval church, it does not make sense to include its perimeter with the tower, which protrudes from the main wall.
The underground crypt it had, now collapsed, could also be from the Visigothic period, although I don’t know that. Tradition has always recorded this news of the appearance of the Virgin in the place and that this is an apparition from the Visigothic era and not a later medieval legend.
This is demonstrated by the fact that remains of a Visigoth temple have appeared under the current medieval church. But we can also verify it in a document from the year 1234, less than 50 years after the creation of the diocese of Plasencia and when our area
Had not yet been repopulated nor did anyone live here, at least in no population. This is the document by which King Ferdinand III grants the Augustinian friars of San Martín de ValdeIglesias lordship over the Vega de Alarza. There, when establishing the boundaries
Of the farm, the “Carrera de Sancta María” is mentioned, that is, the path, road or race (through which cars pass) that comes from Santa María. But at that time, there was still a century or more before the current church of Santa María would even begin to be built.
The truth is, I have that reference, but I have not seen the document. What I have been able to see with my eyes is another document, not very later, signed by his son, King Alfonso the dominion of La Peraleda and now he wants to expand the territory, taking away from
The Plasencia City Council the so-called “dehesa de la Peraleda”, which is nothing other than the current Valdehúncar. The boundaries of the term are also established there. And again the Santa María race is mentioned. Although there was still a long way to go before the current church was built.
So if in the 13th century people know that road with the name of Sancta María – when the church of Santa María did not exist – it is because, although the Moors had destroyed the church of Santa María that was there before, the place was so important that was never
Erased from the memory of the Christians who, even centuries after its destruction, continued to remember that that place was sacred and continued to call it “Sancta María de la Mata”, the place of the apparitions of the Virgin, the place of Santa Maria. Makes sense.
What would not make sense would be to suppose that they called the road “Camino de Santa María” just because and, taking advantage of the name, then they decided to build a church of Santa María so that everything would look good. But it is also true that the Christian kings during the Reconquista made
A great effort to recover the sacred sites of the Visigothic era, because it helped them to demonstrate that they were not conquering new territories, but rather reconquering, recovering what was theirs and restoring what was theirs. that belonged to them by right. Well, the Christian kings of
The Middle Ages presented themselves as the heirs of the Visigothic monarchy and, therefore, with the right to what was Gothic Spain, which they were trying to recover. Therefore, in places where they knew there had been a Visigoth church, they
Built another one on top of it. And so, when they recovered the site of the old Visigoth church of Santa María de la Mata, undoubtedly already destroyed by the Moors, as soon as they could begin to repopulate the area, they did not take long to build a modest church in the same
Place, which was which today we can see in ruins. Therefore, we can say with certainty that the place that the church of Santa María occupies today was considered very sacred at least since the Visigothic era and certainly during the Middle Ages as well. Therefore, we assume that the stone circle on which
Peraleda settled was oriented towards the place of Santa María, as we saw in the other video, when Peraleda moved to that new location. And perhaps the orientation was already made if we assume that in the same place where the Visigoths built their temple, the Romans
Or the Celts or Paleolithic already had a place of worship established. But, to play it safer , we will assume that it was the first medieval settlers of Peraleda who, after settling in the circle, decided to orient that circle towards Santa María, thus turning it into a sacred circle.
If this assumption is true, or at least it is the most probable, we can say that when Peraleda moved to its current location, it did so by transforming the cromlech into its sacred circle. Although, as I say, there is nothing that forces us to assume that before the Visigoths
The Borbollón area was not already considered a sacred place, and that is why the Cromlech itself could have been oriented there from the beginning. But hey, we can assume that; The fact that in the Middle Ages it was oriented towards Santa María is not an assumption,
It is a certainty, as we had demonstrated in the previous video. So, in the absence of more data, we will remain with certainty. And, how did they orient the circle towards Santa María? Well, as was usual, they opened four doors in the enclosure, but instead of orienting the doors towards the cardinal points,
As was always done, they oriented them towards Santa María with total precision. But, if it was a circle of stones, where are these stones now? The answer is simple: upon reaching the Circle, the primitive Peraleans would build huts,
Just as they did in their old location. They would probably end up creating a fence, which could have been made of wood, adobe, or even joining the spaces between menhirs with mud . The fence, perhaps, would protect something, I don’t think much, from the possible attacks
Of the feudal lords who surrounded the town and which, at that time, was quite problematic, according to the documents we see. But they also allowed the Peraleos to protect themselves from thieves and the famous “golphins”, which were gangs of thieves of French, Flemish
And German origin, who devastated the area, especially from Miravete to Talavera, and who became so rich that they ended up having his own palace, the Palacio de los Golfines. And even better, the fence protected the neighbors at night from the numerous wolves that, until
The mid-20th century, were abundant in the region. The Peraleño grandparents still remember well the old curfew that existed in their childhood, when they said to each other: “The prayers are already ringing, the wolves are already howling in the alleys.” The alleys through which
The wolves entered were the very sunken paths that until not long ago were the entrances to the town, and the prayers were the Angelus, which was also played at dusk, which was the curfew for children that indicated that You had to go home, because after
Dark, especially on harsh winter days, the hungry wolves would come to the town to look for food. And for those, a simple fence, even if it were made of wood or reeds, would be good protection. In that enclosure, whatever it was, is where they opened
The four doors, directing the town towards the sacred place of Santa María, to collect its sacredness or energy, as we explained in our previous video. But there came a time when the enclosure was no longer used, or perhaps the enclosure itself
Made the stone circle useless. Furthermore, the people over time replaced the huts with houses, and this is where the stones disappear. The typical Peraleda house, until not long ago, was built using pieces of stone up to a height of 1 meter or so, and
The rest of adobe, as we can see in these photos. In the past, as I say, everything was used, nothing was thrown away or left unused if it was not available. In addition, the town is built in a place far from the area of rocks, the closest being by La Bomba and
Santa María, so to get the stones for the plinth they would have to travel about 5 km and transport them to the house, which was expensive and laborious, but above all it would be absurd for them to go far away to look for rock when everyone
Around the town had at their disposal a circle of large stones, now useless, that they could break into pieces and use for their houses. without having to move from the site. This is how those ancient stones would end up chopped up and forming part of the base of many of
The old houses of Peraleda. However, everything in history leaves traces, and here things start to get more interesting. In the event that the cromlech menhirs had been brought from some distant place because they had some special meaning, as sometimes happened in these cases, it would be
A matter of analyzing the stones of the old houses that still keep their stone plinth intact and visible. and see if some of those stones do not belong to the nearby area, but come from afar. For example, in this photograph we can see
Three different stones in this plinth: one made of thick granite, another made of fine granite and another that could perhaps be siliceous rock. In any case, there are other places where we clearly see quartzite and silicon or flint rocks. If so, we would have here the same four
Types of stone with which the Guadalperal Dolmen was built, which was also about 5 km from the town and whose stones were still brought from several kilometers further away. This could be a sign that easily links the original stone circle to the construction of the dolmen, although it is only a probable deduction.
We also found some stones, like the ones in this photo, that could perhaps be the tip of a menhir and that have marks that could be traces of the quarry or could also be some design that that menhir had, although these are just assumptions. It is not
Necessarily about finding pieces of polished or carved stones, since in many of the cromlechs, unlike in dolmens, the stones that form the circle are simply more or less large stones that delimit the circle, cut but not necessarily polished. nor carved. So, if one of those boulders is shattered,
The chances of recognizing it with the naked eye are slim. However, without the need for speculation, we can say with quite certainty that, by searching around the Circle, we have found one of the menhirs that formed the original circle, or at least a good piece of one of those menhirs.
It’s about this stone, but why didn’t this large stone end up like all its companions, chopped into pieces at the base of one of the town’s houses? The answer is, again, simple: this stone, used as a slab, is currently found in the
Drainage on Peligros Street, right in front of the cheese factory, therefore, it must have been found in the area of the Puerta de Oropesa. , what is today the Plaza de Greros, because if a stone like that is found, it will be used nearby. I say “found” because
The only possibility that such a large stone survived almost intact for centuries and without reuse is that it was hidden, that is, underground. But why was this stone left buried, perhaps before Peraleda existed? Many Peraleños born before the 70s will remember that, next to what was the Puerta de Oropesa,
Between the old Gastar well and the beginning of the Cuesta del Cristo, there was a row of stones called “pisaderas” or “paseras”, which They were used to cross that piece that, from autumn to spring, was almost always full of water or mud. The Circle is on
A slope, and the rains, more frequent and abundant than now, came down the sides of the Circle, the current streets of Peligro and Cuesta del Cristo, and also down the center, the current street of Portugal. The result is that, right where
The Puerta de Oropesa would be, a backwater was formed where the three streams met, and for months the passage was a quagmire, so people crossed on the steps to avoid sinking in the mud. This makes it very likely that, if the mud loosened the base of one of the
Menhirs and it fell to the ground, over the years it would sink into the mud until it was completely hidden. And that could only happen right at this point. Therefore, there is nothing strange that the only menhir that I have been able to locate
Today is exactly a few meters from that point. At some point in the middle of the last century, perhaps in the 1940s, when Lucio García did work to guide that stream and paved and put stone boats in the streets, or perhaps it was in the 1970s, when
Ditches were dug all the streets to put the running water pipes. Maybe, When excavating, this rock, the menhir, came to light, and it suited them perfectly for what they were doing, unlike now when everything we didn’t have already prepared
We threw in the trash. So, when they built the large stone culvert that guided the stream to make it pass under some houses in front of the cheese factory, they reused it right there and incorporated it into the structure, as we see it now.
Perhaps dividing it into two parts, in case the original menhir was not as thin as we see it today. But why are we so sure that this stone boat is not modern, but rather belongs to the Neolithic or Paleolithic? Well, for a very revealing detail: its
Surface is decorated with dimples. This decoration is technically called “ bowl decoration”, and is typical of the Paleolithic and Neolithic, although in some parts it continued in use until the time of the Celts, in the Iron Age. If we search for “bowl”
In the Wikipedia encyclopedia, we find the following: “although the most common case is that they are found engraved on the surface of natural rock formations, they can also appear on megalithic orthostats”, that is, menhirs. “The bowls are one of the most recurrent rock motifs in all periods, their chronology would cover
Europe from the Middle Paleolithic to the Iron Age”, that is, until the 5th century BC. And when he cites the possible functionalities of this decoration, among others, he points out “cartographies of constellations and terrestrials”, that is, maps of the earth or the sky, “linked to aquatic idolatrous cults” and “markers of
Sacred spaces, of migratory paths.” , of places with high magical and propitiatory value.” As we see, this description seems tailor-made for our menhir, since, as we saw in the previous video, the sacred circle was probably located since ancient times
On a pilgrimage route – which would be equivalent to a migratory path. This menhir was located at the door of an enclosure of high magical and propitiatory value, so it would be duly decorated, and it could also be, in some way, linked to aquatic cults, since, as
We have seen, it was in an area that used to be be flooded for much of the year. But in addition, these bowls again suggest a link between the menhirs of the Sacred Circle and those of the Guadalperal Dolmen, since there, the main menhir is also
Decorated with bowls, as we can see in this engraving from before the swamp water eroded its surface. Even so, the bowls of that menhir are still visible today . And furthermore, if we rotate this image, we will see a schematic engraving of an animal with horns
That could be a cow, perhaps a deity of the time. Although it must be admitted that it could also have been a capital “R” engraved in more modern times as a sign left by some reuse prior to the current one. There are things that we can say with enough
Certainty and others that are just assumptions, even if they are founded. Cow or “R”, both things are possible – although it would be a very strange “R” and too eroded to be modern. But bowls, that’s what there is, and that’s enough to know that the stone is
Prehistoric. So, once again, we find signs that link the sacred circle with the Guadalperal dolmen. The Guadalperal Dolmen was the main monument, built 5 or 7 thousand years ago by a Paleolithic culture that inhabited the area of the Alarza ford and the surrounding area,
Including the current Peraleda and, possibly, up to the current Santa María at least. The dolmen was a stone vault buried under a mound of boulders and earth, more or less like what we see in this reconstruction I have done. The vault was connected
To the outside by a corridor oriented towards the sunrise on the equinox, which was when the dawn sun could enter to the bottom, and illuminated a carved menhir that was at the entrance to the chamber – the same decorated menhir. with cups
That we have talked about before. Today, what we see of the dolmen is its skeleton, because the mound was excavated in the 1920s and removed outwards, forming a ring of stones that surround the remains of the central chamber, while the waters of the reservoir
Have cleaned the whole of dirt, leaving it with the appearance it has now, which would be the skeleton of the dolmen. They used that building as a collective tomb and it would also have other sacred and community uses. It was, so to speak, the equivalent of a cathedral, both
Because of its importance and because of the feat that building something like that meant for the people of that time , at a time when the construction of dolmens was almost in its beginnings. If in thousands of years we found the remains of a cathedral in the middle of the countryside,
We would fail to think that those people had built a great isolated cathedral in the middle of the countryside without further ado, because that cathedral was the center of an entire city that was the one that
It gave it function and meaning. In the same way, finding a large dolmen in the middle of the countryside cannot lead us to think that it was an isolated building simply, because it cannot be, but rather
That it was the center of an entire complex of buildings, homes and roads that formed a network through all the surrounding countryside, and the dolmen was its center. It is not surprising that recent hasty studies in the area have found more remains of Paleolithic constructions, probably from the same period, including, they say,
Some 11 minor dolmens, as well as stone steles, tombs and other things. Although their location has not been made public – we assume to leave them safe from the treasure hunters that abound in our town – and because many of them are normally under the water of the reservoir.
On the same map of Peraleda from the 15th century that we saw before, we can see several menhirs and dolmens with their own names, such as “Piedra Hincada” or “La Piedra del Oso” – although all of them, today, have already disappeared. Forming part of that complex of
Paleolithic constructions associated with the culture that created the Guadalperal Dolmen, we would have the Peraleda cromlech. This cromlech, which we now call the Sacred Circle because it was the one that received this function oriented to Saint Mary (we assume that already in the Middle Ages), is, however, not
The only one in the area, there were probably several, or perhaps many further. In fact, about 5 km to the south – it seems that in Peraleda everything is about 5 km away – the 2019 drought caused a construction to appear that is probably another cromlech.
I say “probably”, although it seems that way, because I have only been able to see a few photos like this one. So it is a probable assessment but not definitive. And although it seems of a considerable size, I don’t know what actual measurements it will have. But from the appearance you can
See that it could perfectly well be a cromlech that over time was buried under the sand, but that the ebb of the reservoir, as it went down, partially unearthed it, leaving the tips of some stones poking out, which is all we can see in the photo.
The rest would remain buried underground. Other cromlechs like that may have been throughout the area, most of them having been reused to build the many walls that the farms around Peraleda have. But within the current urban fabric of the town, we have not only been able to clearly detect
A cromlech, the protagonist of this entire story, but we have also detected the remains of at least two other stone circles, all of the exact same diameter as the main one. . Although its trace is not so well preserved – proof that
What loses usefulness falls into oblivion – and in the Middle Ages only the current circle maintained its sacred function; the rest lost usefulness and, therefore, reason for being and, therefore, began to degrade much earlier and there is less trace of them. And yet
, we can still locate them on the Peraleda street map. Let’s see it. As we see here, we only preserve half of the second of them, and it still has a disfigured piece; Here you can see it perfectly. Of the third we have little more than a third left; it’s harder
To watch and seemingly less believable. But these remains, being circular, are sufficient to find the diameter of the circle to which they belonged, and that circle turns out to be, in both cases, exactly the same measurements as the Sacred Circle, so that
It cannot be a coincidence and we have to accept that in this same area there were at least three cromlechs almost together, perhaps more, forming a large structure that would have an important purpose. Another curiosity: in the center of one of those circles was the jurisdictional roll.
Although recently, when Raíces de Peraleda helped rebuild it, they have placed it a little more off-center, adjusting to the current square. This may not be by chance; Perhaps, when the original scroll was placed there were still traces of the layout of the old
Cromlech and it seemed normal to place the scroll in the middle of that space. Or maybe not, it’s a coincidence. But the truth is, when so many coincidences appear, it is time to think that everything is too much coincidence and that the simplest and most logical thing
Is to accept the hypothesis that gives meaning to everything; in this case, the hypothesis that there was a sacred circle in Peraleda. But there are still more interesting and better surprises. To understand that Peraleda’s case is not so strange. We can compare it with three
Of the best preserved cromlechs in Europe. The oldest, perhaps from the same era as the Guadalperal Dolmen, is the stone circle of Los Almendros, in Portugal, 170 km southwest of Peraleda, very close to Évora. Well yes, strangely it is not
About 5 km from Peraleda like everything else. When seeing it from a bird’s eye view it is not easy to know that what we are seeing is a Cromlech, but if we see its reconstruction, we will understand that it is. This cromlech began as a single double circle, but
Another oval cromlech was later added to its side. The gradual disappearance of stones due to reuse for other things has disfigured the plan, making it confusing. We can also see in this map that the Los Almendros cromlech is not an isolated construction,
But is the center of an entire network of cromlechs, dolmens, menhirs and towns, which extend throughout the area in about 15 square km, which It’s not little. The same is true of another of the great preserved cromlechs, that of Avebury in southern England.
This is also a composite cromlech, with two smaller cromlechs inside. Today it still preserves the protection wall—I imagine it has been restored because it is too intact—and almost half of its menhirs. But Avebury Cromlech is also just
The tip of the iceberg. As we see here, it is part of a larger complex where we have more circles, avenues of menhirs and artificial mounds. The same goes for the third one we are going to examine, the best known of all: Stonehenge.
Here we see the reconstruction of its original state, a simple stone cromlech approximately one meter high, similar to what the Peraleda cromlech would be, but much smaller. To this was added, centuries later, a temple inside. This temple underwent modifications to be used as an astronomical observatory as well,
As I said before. The inner temple is the part that is best preserved today, because these stones are enormous, which undoubtedly made it very difficult for someone to take them to reuse them elsewhere, while the small stones of the outer circumference, as happened in Peraleda, they were disappearing due to reuse.
In passing, we can see how different this cromlech is from our Guadalperal dolmen, which is not a cromlech but a dolmen under a tumulus. And yet, his nickname of “the Spanish Stonehenge” was what catapulted him to world fame, since being associated with
Something very well known, it was not difficult to also make it known, and it also got the newspaper The Times of London became interested in it, and that was the international starting signal . In reality, what can be compared to Stonehenge is the Sacred Circle
Of Peraleda, which is also a cromlech and which could also have had, perhaps, some construction inside, who knows. And once again, we see on this map that Stonehenge is just the tip of the iceberg of an extensive territory full of megalithic constructions of all kinds. Perhaps because it was a
Neolithic center of enormous importance or simply because it is the area where these remains have been best preserved or where they have best known how to bring them to light. But pay attention to this detail: the The area is literally full of these little circles that are everywhere; some are made
Of stone, others are excavated ditches, and others are mounds, piled up earth. Archaeologists believe that they would be collective tombs. I say that this is easy to see: if you dig and there are bones underneath, then they are graves; If there isn’t, then it would be something else… they will know.
And keep this image, because later we are going to come back to it and discover what this has to do with Peraleda. Spoiler: I already tell you a lot. But now we are going to take a closer look at one of those constructions that surround Stonehenge, it is Durrington
Walls, or the walls of Durrington, another cromlech, larger in size, although worse preserved, as it is not made of stones but of earth. Located just over 3 km away from Stonehenge, that is, forming part of the same network of constructions.
From a ground view or a bird’s eye view it is not so easy to realize that we are facing a cromlech, but with special devices it has been possible to scan the terrain and reconstruct the structure: a circle that formed a wall with a corridor that connects it to
The River Avon, which passes by. Also inside there are several of those small circles that we have seen before, and very close, to the south, is another cromlech, but this one, curiously, was not made of stones either but of wooden logs. His remains, as far
As I know, have been identified only after a careful excavation process that confirmed what the scanner saw. In this other photo we see at ground level the view of the Durrington Walls cromlech and below, this other wooden cromlech called Woodhenge, which means ”
Wooden circle”. Concrete stumps have been built on its surface to indicate the points where the original logs were nailed. The English, to put their value on things, are unique. This is a reconstruction of Durrington Walls next to the River Avon and, to its left, small Woodhenge. The two constructions are included within
A much larger circle that surrounded them. And this photo shows us a 3D reconstruction made through digital scans, where we clearly see the relief of Durrington Walls and Woodhenge. We will return to this photo later as well, because there is something very interesting here to understand the Peraleda Circle.
But now let’s continue with Woodhenge, and we see in this photo the field of stumps at ground level , and here a possible reconstruction of its original appearance. As with all archaeological things that do not have contemporary texts, the reconstruction of what
Is missing and the indication of the function it had are things that can only be deduced from the remains we found and by comparison with other similar remains found elsewhere. areas, but certainties can never be given. Even so, the best deductions available according to the data found are accepted
. And that is what we are doing with the Sacred Circle of Peraleda, although we cannot offer certainty, we do have plenty of data to make quite reliable and sensible deductions. Although for those looking for certainties, we have to say that simple archeology
Can very rarely provide one. But we have many other examples of large Neolithic ovals or circles , not only marked with stones such as Stonehenge or Los Almendros or the neighboring cromlech of Totanés, in the province of Toledo, but there are also quite a few made of earth,
Such as that of Durrington, and even of wooden posts, like the one at Woodhenge. Stone circles , especially if they are close to a town, tend to disappear due to the reuse of their stones; those of land, by erosion; and the wooden ones, because they rot. If
They disappear, they can sometimes leave a trace that experts trace, as is the case of the Woodhenge already seen or the enormous Hindwell circle in Wales, which left a certain configuration in the landscape that intrigued the experts and, when excavating , they found charred remains
Of oak trunks, 1400 trunks 6 m high. Although I don’t know exactly how the experts measured the height , but they left the information there. One thing that seems quite clear to me is that the English look for the value of their things even below the
Stones, never better said. But if missing circles like Woodhenge or Hindwell were found in Spain, hardly anyone would have found them or paid attention. So the Peraleda cromlech could have originally been a circle of stone, earth or wood, but we are seriously inclined towards the
Stone circle hypothesis because if said cromlech was related to the Guadalperal culture, and therefore has between 5000 and 7000 years old, the wood would never have reached the Middle Ages, the earth would have left some bulging trace on the surface of the
Ground, which we do not see, and only the stone could have lasted for millennia to end up falling under the mace of the stonecutter already in the Middle Ages or later, when he lost his usefulness. And now, you remember all those little circles that were all around
Stonehenge. Well, look carefully at this aerial photo of Peraleda. When humidity and dry conditions are optimal, archeology makes great discoveries, since the surface vegetation, if it is little, magically reveals structures of stone and removed earth that would otherwise be impossible to see. And this is because the
Grass on the surface will be wetter or drier depending on what is underneath, or in other words, the different composition of the subsoil generates different humidity conditions on the surface, which makes the remains of a wall, for example, appear as visible marks, especially if it is from the air.
We see a good example in this photograph: the 2018 drought in Ireland produced this image. In a field we see the mark of a large prehistoric construction buried near the famous Newgrange dolmen, more than 5,000 years old. Here you see it, too restored, perhaps, but huge and beautiful, and always full of
Tourists, because these things, when they know how to exploit them, make a lot of money. Here you can see more photos of this phenomenon, which the English, who give names to everything, call “cropmarks”, marks on the crop.
For this to happen, the soil must not be excessively dry or completely wet, but rather in an intermediate state that allows both dry and humid soil to emerge. And the vegetation cannot be very tall either or it would cover the effect, but if it is too sparse, it would not be
Enough to produce the image either. That is why it has been providential that this aerial photo of Peraleda was taken just at the moment in which we can see the exact balance of dryness and humidity in a field that has recently been mowed. You have it there, at the
Bottom of the photograph, next to another field that has not been mowed and, therefore, does not show the subsoil, and on the other side, with another field that does not have grass and, therefore, cannot create this effect. This field seen here, more yellowish in color
– let’s bring it closer so that it can be seen better – clearly shows a series of circles of different sizes. Comparing its dimensions with the hermitage that is to its left, we can deduce that the size of these circles ranges between 8 and 15 m in diameter,
More or less. We can also see that it is very close to the Sacred Circle. So, if Stonehenge is a cromlech surrounded by little circles, the sacred circle of Peraleda is not far behind either. It follows the same prototype as the English cromlech.
And finally, we are now going to comment on one of the objections to the fact that the Sacred Circle of Peraleda was, at least in origin, really a Paleolithic or Neolithic cromlech. If we see our circle from a bird’s eye view, it seems that it is on a plain,
Like Stonehenge or Los Almendros, or all the other cromlechs there are. But anyone who knows the terrain knows that Peraleda is built on three hills, and the Sacred Circle is on a slope that has been divided between two of them, so that it has nothing on the ground.
But really, are all Cromlechs on level ground? Well, not exactly actually, although the typical image we have of stone circles is on plain. But there are many cases in which this is not the case. For example, the one we saw before in Er Lannic,
In France, built on a hillside next to the sea, which has partially sunk over time. But to see the example that interests us most, we have to return to the Durrington Walls cromlech, the one that was near Stonehenge. Durrington’s 3D is almost like the one on the Peraleda floor, so it will
Allow us to get a better idea of the relief of our Sacred Circle, because it coincides almost inch by inch with this English, although on a smaller scale. . Here is the photo of the 3D scan of Durrington Walls. The names in green help us
Locate ourselves in what would be the equivalent space in Peraleda. Below we have the schools and the hermitage of Christ. To the left is the Cerro de la Cruz and the Caena olive grove. To the north is Cerro del Rollo and the church, and crossing the circle from side to side in yellow
We have the Calle del Señor, similar to how the road crosses in Durrington. Once located, those of us who know the relief of the streets of Peraleda can visualize the Circle without the current houses and see it in its original cleanliness. We have marked
Each door of the circle with a circle. Let’s start on the right, the Oropesa Gate, which as we have seen is located in the Greros square, right in the torrent that collects the waters of the Cruz and Rollo hills and that crosses the entire Circle until it
Joins with the waters that come down the slope of Christ and along Peligros Street and flow, as we have seen before, into that valley that for months was a pond and a mudhole, enough to submerge the menhir of bowls that we talked about previously.
In this other image, where we mark the torrents through which the water flows, you can understand much better why the Puerta de Oropesa was so flooded, since everything ended up reaching there, and let’s not forget that at that time it rained much more than now. Now, from this
Door we are going to go up the Cuesta del Cristo, which, as happens in this 3D, is the steepest part of our circle, to the hermitage, where the slope disappears and we have an almost flat section to the Puerta del Cristo , which was at the intersection of Calle del
Señor. There begins another climb along Belchite Street, although less steep, until reaching the Puerta de Belvís, at the beginning of Gabriel and Galán, where Cruz Street intersects with the one that goes to the olive grove of Caena. From the Puerta de Belvís to the Puerta de Santa María, the land becomes flat
And little by little begins to become downhill, until you reach the Puerta de Santa María, in the small square of the old pylon, today a fountain. And from there, the slope becomes steep, crossing the Calle del Señor for the second time and getting even steeper until the Puerta de
Oropesa, as we also see happens in this relief by Durrington. The interior of the Sacred Circle also has a relief almost identical to the one we see in Durrington, with a good part of the water descending towards the Centrum and then
Channeling there through Portugal Street to the Puerta de Oropesa and there it partially pooled to continue later down the street. heading towards the House of Culture. Although only until we reached the sewer in front of the cheese factory, where we saw that
The menhir of the bowls that would appear under the floor of the Puerta de Oropesa is now relocated. In this way, the three-dimensional map of the Durrington circle has helped us to better understand the sacred circle of Peraleda and its relief, in addition to marveling at
The coincidences. But it also serves as an argument for all those who think that a true prehistoric cromlech cannot be located in an orography as flat as Peraleda. Durrington’s is from the Neolithic and its geography is practically exactly ours. If they can, so can we.
However, Durrington’s walls allow us to launch one more hypothesis, impossible to verify, but which makes a lot of sense. The Neolithic men who inhabited Great Britain did not enter there through the English Channel, as was previously believed, but rather sailed from northern Spain, as recent
Genetic studies have clearly demonstrated. Therefore, in a way we can say that the builders of Stonehenge and the walls of Durrington are Spanish, or at least descendants who preserved more or less the same culture and the same religion, because at that time, things hardly changed over the centuries.
Starting from this basis, we can look for parallels between the builders of Durrington and those of the Peraleda Circle. The fact that both circles have very similar topography may not be pure chance. Certainly, in both cases, the relief of the
Ground was what it was and was already there; They didn’t build it. But if both human groups came from the same culture and had the same thing in mind, then perhaps they were both looking for the same type of terrain to build their circle on.
We have seen before that, according to the encyclopedia, the decoration of bowls often appears related to aquatic cults, deities of the waters. Certainly, in the Guadalperal dolmen, where we find a menhir with bowls, there is a relationship with water. For
This reason, the menhir at the entrance has a river sculpted and the dolmen itself is located on the shore of the Tagus, looking at its waters. Perhaps that is the key to relating Durrington and Peraleda: the cult of the water deity.
We have seen that the Durrington circle, like that of Guadalperal, also has a passageway that connects it to the River Avon, which passes next to it. But above all, like Peraleda, it is built not on a plain, but on a pronounced valley that, in the shape of a funnel,
Collects the waters from the surrounding area and concentrates them at its outlet, from where they go through the corridor to the river. The same happens in Peraleda. That same stream collects the waters of the area and concentrates them all in what would later be the Oropesa gate, and from there directs them
To what would today be the sewer in front of the cheese factory. If that was the desired effect, the relief would not be a hindrance to the Circle, but rather its reason for existing. Perhaps the Peraleda cromlech, like that of Durrington, would have a corridor
At its main and only entrance, which would be at the Oropesa Gate, that is, Greros. And in that case, since that is the entrance door to the Circle, it makes even more sense that the bowl-carved menhir was found, as we had already assumed, at that entrance,
Fulfilling the same function as the only bowl-carved menhir that exists in the Circle. Guadalperal dolmen , which is also located at the entrance to the inner chamber. That would be the most sacred stone and, therefore, it makes sense that the drawing
Of the associated deity would be engraved on it – which on second thought, may not be a cow, but a bull, although it could be anything that has horns – and , although there are no animals with
Horns associated with water around here today, it could be some religious myth where bull and water were associated or… what do we know. But it could also be a schematic representation of a fertility goddess, like other horned goddesses that we find
Especially from the Neolithic onwards. And since the fertility of the earth is related to rain, he could also be a water deity. In western Spain, it is estimated that it rained almost twice as much as it does today. So this trough would be
A good indicator of dry and wet periods. Furthermore, taking into account that the stone is quite flat, it may not have been a standing menhir, but rather the upper slab of an altar where the bowls would act to collect rainwater. They are all assumptions, but the idea that the Peraleda cromlech had an
Entrance door with a carved sacred stone gains much more strength. Although, if this is really so, then this stone, like the sculpted menhir of Guadalperal, would be a unique stone in the Circle, the most sacred, and therefore it would not be telling us
Much about what the rest of the stones that were found could have been like. They formed the circle, whether large or small. Although that is of little importance anymore. The idea that the cromlech was a sacred place dedicated to the deity of waters
Is also compatible with the fact that it could already be oriented towards the place of Santa María, where the Fuente del Borbollón with its medicinal waters is, which would be the place where that bull or deity of the menhir lived. But, on the other hand, if
It is correct that our Circle had a single entrance, it would confirm the hypothesis that the four doors that orient the Circle towards Santa María would already be one. medieval modification. In that case, the pagan circle would be a sacred circle dedicated
To the deity of waters, with a single door in the drainage of the valley, and Christianity would modify it to convert it into a sacred circle oriented towards the place where Santa appeared. Maria. In any case, Durrington is inevitably also the terrain of several different hypotheses
And some very different ones that try to explain the data they have and improve them with the new data they find. Now it seems that in a second phase they opened four doors and built houses inside, which, by pure chance, would also relate it to the evolution of Peraleda, although many centuries before.
The hypothesis that it had constructions oriented towards astronomical phenomena also strongly opens up . Thus some consider, although others do not agree at all, that if Stonehenge could be the sphere of the dead, Durrington would be the sphere of the living, and that long
Ritual processions would take place between both circles. This would also be possible in Peraleda, our Circle being the sphere of the living, of the energy that gives life, and the Guadalperal Dolmen, which is still in part a collective tomb, would be the sphere of the dead.
And with this, we finish our list of arguments. It only remains to be noted that when in this video or the previous video I give documentary data, I am alluding to documents of which I have a copy or, at least, the reference to the original, and that the ritual that I assume
Was practiced in this circle in the antiquity or, at least, in the Middle Ages, it is not some invented or unknown ritual. It is the so-called “circumambulatio”, widely practiced by the orientals, but it was also practiced by the ancient European pagans, so if the
Sacred Circle was already sacred in the Paleolithic or Neolithic, it is possible that they practiced it, at least from of a certain era, and that Christianity simply inherited said local practice by resignifying it. The best-known example of this ritual is the circle around the Kaaba
On Muslim pilgrimages to Mecca. But also in the Christian religion there are many cases: we have, for example, the “circumambulatio” around the tomb of Christ in Jerusalem, or the three circles around the church on Easter Sunday, or in the baptism ceremony in some Orthodox churches. Also in the circular labyrinths
Of French cathedrals or in pilgrimages as massive as that of Itatí in Argentina, where upon reaching a large circular plaza before going to the Sanctuary of the Virgin, pilgrims circle as an act of purification. Conclusion, because of all these data, I am inclined to think that the
Sacred Circle of Peraleda has its origin in a Paleolithic or Neolithic cromlech associated with the culture that built the Guadalperal dolmen several thousand years ago, and that already had a sacred sense from the beginning. Although we do not know if at that time it was also
Connected to the place of Santa María, or more likely its connection with Santa María was a later reorientation, in times of the Visigoths or even later , when Christians repopulated the area after the Arab desolation. Since
This circle is located at the junction of several routes and pilgrimages, it is more than likely that it was used since ancient times – or at least later by Christian pilgrims – as a circle conducive to the purification ritual that we so often see in circles located in other places. pilgrim routes.
It is for this reason that the cultural association Raíces de Peraleda has put so much effort into reconstructing the history of the Sacred Circle and properly marking it with information panels, plaques and arrows on the ground marking the route starting from the town hall located in the Plaza
De España. And we hope that something so curious and at the same time so important from a historical and archaeological point of view will be able to attract curious visitors, devout pilgrims and seekers of mysticism and energy fields who come to places like this seeking union. with the forces of nature before marching,
Now duly purified, to the source from which that energy or sacredness comes, which, As we already explained in the previous video, it is located, of course, about 5 km northwest of the Sacred Circle, under the ruins of the church of Santa María.
This study also serves to vindicate and value these ruins, which, having been such an important church for the entire region, for this and other reasons, the authorities do not allow it to continue to crumble and fall into oblivion. There is the reflection.
El Círculo Sagrado de Peraleda es la huella de un monumento arqueológico y espiritual de primera magnitud y siglos de antigüedad, en el cual se asentó Peraleda en el siglo XIII y siguió en funcionamiento durante la Edad Media. Ya hemos presentado el Círculo en este otro vídeo (https://youtu.be/uvuekqp_NYc). Ahora vamos a explicar detalladamente por qué todo lo que decimos en el vídeo de presentación está basado en evidencias o en deducciones razonables de modo que es casi imposible refutar su existencia.
Visítenos en: raicesdeperaleda.com