Cirilo, the birds and the night visitorsIf there’s a spot in Madrid charged with a somber back

Cirilo, the birds and the night visitors

If there’s a spot in Madrid charged with a somber backstory which could made it the perfect magnet for ghosts, then probably the Plaza Mayor is the place to be for human ghosts. And probably ghost birds too, given the story of the equestrian monument that presides it (there are no mention about ghost birds, though, which I find disappointing). This “main square” has seen auto-da-fés, executions, bullfights and three fires (1631, 1672 and 1790) with multiple victims. It’s not strange then that rumours about mysterious aparitions (inside or outside the buildings surrounding the square) abound.

Plaza Mayor’s “official” ghost is Cirilo, who apparently was executed there during the 17th Century. He’s not as popular as Ataúlfo or the ghosts of the Palace of Linares, but he has his little space in the city’s extended list of spectral inhabitants. Cirilo’s favourite activity is to equally scare tourists and madrileños. For the ghost, the fact that his victims are present at the square at certain hours of the night is reason enough. Cirilo and other unnamed ghosts are said to visit the housings nearby. Perhaps they hang near one of the square’s secondary entrances, in past times called Hell’s Alley (Callejón del Infierno, in Spanish). Thus named in remembrance of the 1672 fire. Since 1854, the street bears the somewhat less intriguing name of Arco del Triunfo (Triomphal Arch). 

And what about the birds? Philip III’s statue, a masterwork by Gianbologna and Pietro Tacca, was, during centuries, a mortal trap for them. This was unintentional: the horse’s mouth had been left slightly open, so sparrows and other little birds were often trapped inside. Only in the 20th century, when after the proclamation of the Second Republic someone throw a little bomb against the statue and damaged it, was this discovered. When the monument was restored the house’s mouth was carefully sealed, so no other bird had to suffer the same fate again.

Photo by Sebastian Dubiel,Wikimedia commons.