Seville: Legend of Pepper(La leyenda de la Pimienta)

       Por Antonio Bejarano Dominguez Antoniocamel @antoniocamel

http://es.paperblog.com/leyenda-de-la-pimienta-4229903/

Located in the emblematic Barrio de Santa Cruz, this Seville street, besides being known by its peculiar name, is also known for the different legends that hide behind its narrowness. It is one of the fundamental streets of medieval and Sephardic Seville. The Barrio de Santa Cruz is a protagonist of our Jewish history, and famous for the narrowness of its streets, mostly pedestrian streets.

Pimienta Street is located in the heart of this Sevillian neighborhood, one of the most emblematic of the capital of Andalusia. This historic Seville street is located between two fronts of houses and has a rather short route, following the usual stela of one day was the center of the Jewish quarter of Seville in the fourteenth century.
This street has become a transcendental part of the different tourist and cultural routes that take place by the Seville capital. This is the main reason why this street, which has been a residential area, has spent years to house shops as small souvenir shops and even hostels, taking advantage of its strategic and privileged place of the city. As for its curious name, it must be said that there are different legends.

The main one speaks of that in this street lived a rich and important merchant of the Jewish community sevillana that assured that Yavéh, when they arrived times of famine, never resorted to the tree of the pepper. Because in his yard miraculously grew a copy of this plant, the famous merchant decided to give the name pepper to the street, as a form of respect to Yahweh.
Although it is not the only history that is told about the origin of the name of the street Pepper. And there is another version that says that a wealthy Jewish merchant established a small spice shop there, a business that soon after opening began to decline. The owner, from that moment, began to complain of his misery and to blame it on God. One of the times he spoke ill of Yahweh in the face of his bad luck, a Christian echoed his words and made him think, because he said that God had only given good things and was blaspheming. At that moment, the Jewish merchant repented for his harsh words to God and began to weep. From every tear he spilled pepper plants sprang up, hence the name of this central Seville street.

But not only is Pimienta important because of its legends and its privileged situation, it is also important for the Jewish remains that it preserves, because despite the years that have passed and the changes that have taken place in this street, they are still preserved in perfect state. An example are the tiles that are still intact from the very distant time when the Barrio de Santa Cruz was part of the Jewish quarter of Seville … Do you accompany us to discover the secrets of the Jewish Quarter of Seville?

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