Journey to the Alcarria: Stage 8

This touching passage is from the eighth stage of the book "Journey to the Alcarria," in this project that combines the themes of literature and life: "Felipe is a lover of the countryside and of agriculture. He has a wholesome, old way of thinking and a profound understanding of what he does."

"The sun is beating down strongly and the pack seems heavier than it ought to be. The slope is tiring, and halfway up, the traveler, who is sweating freely, decides that it would be well to make a stop and recover his energy."

Journey to the Alcarria

Camilo José Cela

Walkers usually eat on the road.

"From this height, though Casasana is not yet visible, a broad and beautiful panorama can be seen. It is extremely varied, with great naked boulders and some small scanty herbage in the foreground, the red-and-white terrain of Pareja below and the green banks of the Tagus far off to the left."

Journey to the Alcarria

Camilo José Cela

It's a beautiful description of a place in which you can lose yourself.

"The traveler washes up a little in the doorway of the house, while his meal is being prepared."
These are the words on the plaque commemorating the journey that the Nobel laureate in Literature made in 1946.

"It has a very pretty color, ranging from a darkish green to a bluish gray."

Journey to the Alcarria

Camilo José Cela

The use of a palette of colors to describe towns is an intriguing literary technique, which perfectly describes Casasana.

The Alcarria is known for its honey, which is produced by bees using plant life as their raw material. A hive is divided into well-organized sections: the bottom board and escape board; the brood chamber or lower super; a honey super; an inner cover made of wood or another material, with a hole in the middle for feeding if necessary; an outer cover; and removable frames.

"Around midday, the traveler, Felipe the tailor and Lucero the donkey, who is loaded up with the bags, leaves Casasana to take the Chinarros road that will take him as far as Córcoles."

Journey to the Alcarria

Camilo José Celaivy

The Monastery of Monsalud, which is one of the stops on the journey, can be seen in the distance.

"Two dozen black sheep graze in the abandoned cloister. Four or five black goats clamber over the crumbling walls, which are miraculously still standing..."

Journey to the Alcarria

Camilo José Cela

The cloister is still well worth a visit 70 years after this was written

The Monastery of Monsalud is an impressive Cistercian monastery, built in the second half of the 12th century. Although it was altered in the 16th and 17th centuries, its medieval structure remains, as does the elegance and austerity characteristic of Cistercian architecture.

"The sun, bearing down over the plain, has become more intense. The traveler looks for some shade in which to sit and rest for a while, have a drink and something to eat, and smoke a cigarette."

Journey to the Alcarria

Camilo José Cela

Going for tapas in Sacedón is a good option for eating.

When Camilo José Cela traveled through Sacedón, the Entrepeñas reservoir did not exist. The reservoir would later shape the character of the town, which named the adjacent street the Paseo Marítimo, or Seafront Promenade.

"Sacedón, which is surrounded by fields of lush green wheat, appears to be an important and very industrious town."

Journey to the Alcarria

Camilo José Cela

Seventy years after this was written, visitors to the village will see that it is indeed a place of some importance.

At the top of Coronilla hill is an impressive monument to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Erected in 1956, it was a gift from the Tagus Hydrographic Confederation on completion of the Entrepeñas and Buendía reservoirs. The statue of Christ is 18 feet tall, and the entire monument stands at 75 feet. It did not exist when Camilo José Cela passed through here in 1946.