A conjuratory or exconjuratory ( an, esconchurador, ca, comunidor, es, conjuratorio) is a small religious building from which ceremonies were conducted to bless the fields and ward off calamities caused by the weather, like
storm
A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmos ...
s,
hail
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. Ice pellets generally fal ...
and excessive rain that could ruin the harvests. Usually these buildings are attached to a
church building
A church, church building or church house is a building used for Christian worship services and other Christian religious activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 and 256. From the 11th thro ...
or a
hermitage.
Exconjuratories were common in the ancient villages of the
Pre-Pyrenees
The Pre-Pyrenees are the foothills of the Pyrenees.
Description
As a mountainous system the Pre-Pyrenees are part of the Pyrenees. They run parallel to the main mountain range in a west to east direction.
On the French side the Pyrenees's slop ...
and the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...
, especially in
Aragon
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...
.
Description
Exconjuratories were usually built in a symmetrical way, with large windows open to the four
cardinal points
The four cardinal directions, or cardinal points, are the four main compass directions: north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials N, E, S, and W respectively. Relative to north, the directions east, south, and west are at ...
.
In some places the exconjuratory is part of the
bell tower
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
of a church. On the fourth floor of the main tower of the
Cathedral of Murcia
A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...
there are four conjuratories. Located in each corner, special ceremonies were conducted in them by priests to ward off storms that could spoil the harvest in the fields by means of the
Lignum Crucis
The True Cross is the cross upon which Jesus was said to have been crucified, particularly as an object of religious veneration. There are no early accounts that the apostles or early Christians preserved the physical cross themselves, although ...
kept in the cathedral. Other towns in the
Region of Murcia
The Region of Murcia (, ; es, Región de Murcia ), is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain located in the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast. The region is in ...
like
Cieza, had conjuratories as well. Conjuratories could also be used to ward off other non-weather-related catastrophical events afflicting the community, like
epidemic
An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics ...
s and crop-damaging
pests
PESTS was an anonymous American activist group formed in 1986 to critique racism, tokenism, and exclusion in the art world. PESTS produced newsletters, posters, and other print material highlighting examples of discrimination in gallery represent ...
, like
locust
Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstanc ...
s.
They fell into disuse centuries ago and many of the exconjuratories that have survived are in a ruined state.
Rituals
The ''Tentenublo''
(in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
) is an example of the prayers conducted in special occasions within the conjuratories:
Gallery
File:Evol 25.jpg, Ruined exconjuratory in the Saint André church, Èvol, Pyrénées Orientales
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...
, France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
File:034.Asín de Broto - Esconjuradero.JPG, Exconjuratory in Asín de Broto
Asín de Broto is a locality located in the municipality of Broto, in Huesca province, Aragon, Spain. As of 2020, it has a population of 28.
Geography
Asín de Broto is located 78km north-northeast of Huesca
Huesca (; an, Uesca) is a city i ...
, Aragon
File:035.Asín de Broto - Aintror de l'esconchurador.JPG, Interior of the exconjuratory in Asin de Broto
File:Pallerols63.JPG, Exconjuratory at Pallerols, Ports de Beseit
Ports de Tortosa-Beseit (), also known as Ports de Beseit, or simply as Els Ports or Lo Port by locals, is a limestone mountain massif located at the north-eastern end of the Sistema Ibérico, a complex system of mountain ranges and massifs in ...
, close to La Sénia
La Sénia is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Montsià in
Catalonia, Spain.
This town is located in a plain by the Sénia River at the western end of the Montsià county. The limestone massif of the Ports de Tortosa-Beseit rises a few mile ...
Image:Torre Campanario Catedral de Murcia.jpg, Cathedral of Murcia
Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country. It has a population of 460,349 inhabitants in 2021 (about one ...
bell tower showing the conjuratories located in the corners of the third tier
File:206.O Pueyo d'Araguás - Ilesia d'a Santa Cruz.JPG, The church of El Pueyo de Araguás has a conjuratory up in the bell tower
File:Iglesia de Santo Tomás - Campanario y cúpula2.jpg, The Santo Tomás parish church in Haro, La Rioja
Haro () is a town and municipality in the northwest of La Rioja province in northern Spain. It produces red wine, and hosts the annual Haro Wine Festival. Its architectural heritage includes the plateresque main entrance of the Church of Santo T ...
also has a conjuratory in its bell tower
References
External links
*
Esconchurador d'a Cruz Blanca{{in lang, es
Hiking Route, including images and references about ExconjuratoriesConcatedral de Santa María de La Redonda - Logroño"Esconjuradero" label in FlickrCarmen Gozalo de Andrés, ''Meteorología popular: Acordarse de Santa Bárbara cuando truena''
Christian practices
Christian buildings and structures in Spain