A visit to the cathedral of the fishes

For a long time, he had kept it conveniently away, because, due to the recognized irony of it, it is usually considered socially incorrect. I am referring to the American writer, Ambrose Bierce - whose disappearance during the Mexican revolution of Pancho Villa, continues to be a great mystery to this day - and to that brief encyclopedia of hurtful criticism, which is, in essence, his well-known 'Devil's Dictionary'.

However, I come to him today, with the intention of inviting you to accompany me on a trip, that, far from the great tourist packages, as well as the careful traditional circuits that offer alternative destinations, there are still places that could be included, not only in what the libertine French poet, François Villon, imagined was the limbo where the snows of yesteryear ended up, but also, as what Bierce used as objective adrenaline against hypocrisy: in other words, oblivion.

Among the numerous references that he offered in his dictionary, that memorable sentence stands out above all, in which he affirms that forgetfulness is nothing else, except that gift that God grants to debtors in compensation for their lack of conscience; definition, which, in some way, adapts perfectly to an important part of unfortunate towns, which, in the mid-fifties, were irremediably expelled from the active demographic census, to end up definitively buried in that other cemetery, which is, There is no doubt about it, the little-known submerged Spain.

This is the case of what was once the prosperous Cantabrian town of Villanueva, located just nine kilometers from Retortillo - a place, next to whose Romanesque church of Santa María, are the ruins of the famous Roman city of Julióbriga - which, together with other neighboring towns, it was part of the economic engine of the Valdearroyo area, based mainly on mining, the glass industry, livestock and agriculture, and was also an inexcusable stopping place for the railway line. that still exists - that connected La Robla, in León, with Balmaseda and Bilbao.

When the Ebro Reservoir was inaugurated in 1952, Villanueva was one of the many towns affected by the so-called Ebro Hydrographic Plan and completely covered by the waters of the reservoir, with the exception of the tower of its church, which, standing out like a fabulous obelisk above the waters of the reservoir, offers silent testimony of the place where there was once a lively town with a lot of vitality.

In modern times and possibly in anticipation of tourism, which, on the other hand, usually passes by, generally, due to ignorance, an access to the tower of the old church was prepared - due to its characteristics, it must have been built in the 16th centuries. -XVII- and a wooden framework was erected inside, which, in the form of a spiral staircase, accesses the highest, being the windows where in the past the bells called the faithful to prayer, scaring, in the process, with its sound, to the elemental beings of the rich mythology of Cantabria, occasional viewpoints, where you can obtain excellent panoramic views of the reservoir and the surrounding environment.

In some cases and depending on the circumstances, the drop in water level reveals, in all its harshness, the remains of the houses and factories of a town, some of whose inhabitants, it is also true, chose to recover part of the stone and ashlar from their old homes and settle in a higher place, which would be, right now, the few houses with an ancient and ancestral appearance that you have to pass by following a small path, to reach the shore of the swamp.

The name Cathedral of the Fishes is a romantic, emotional and popular nickname, which, however, unfortunately, has not prevented barbarism from taking over the place and inconsistency, in the form of graffiti, from being present, both in the framework as in the walls of the old parish tower.

It is also a place where, despite the prohibitions, young people from nearby towns come to camp and take some refreshing baths.

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