We continue to be fascinated by the countless mysteries of the Merindades region of Burgos, and in a small village belonging to the Traslaloma district, called Colina de Losa, we were overwhelmed by the enigmatic presence of some Romanesque sculptures in its 12th-century church, dedicated to the Expectation of Our Lady.
Although some of them show signs of the inexorable passage of time—which, as the Latin poet Horace aptly stated, all hours wound except the last, which kills—it is the incomprehensible aggression of humanity and its fatal biases of intolerance that prevent us from appreciating, savoring, and enjoying these unique archetypes in all their splendor.
And yet, amidst the veiled allusions to those phallic plants, the asparagus, the unsettling presence of a merman playing the violin, perhaps possessed by the very Devil who—so it was rumored—accompanied Paganini in his breathtaking performances, and the elaborate columns that demonstrate masterful skill, the disconcerting figure of an ascetic meditating among the vegetation, as if he were a true Western Buddha, evokes more than just mixed emotions: genuine astonishment.
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