13 April, Palm Sunday

    The breakfast in the El Mudayyan hotel works better than expected: Iberian ham on tomato bread, salmon with homemade sauce, yogurt cake, fresh orange juice, kiwis, cheese, cereals, coffee and small cakes called Sighs of Lover, cooked by Maria José, the owner. After breakfast, she invites us to see the underground passage that was discovered shortly after beginning the works of the hotel.

The Torico (small bull) square, Teruel

    Maria José is a whirlwind and speaks at breakneck speed. The nightmare of a typist. She chuckles at tourists who say they can speak Spanish: "Ha ha, I almost made one cry. Most of them don't catch a single word. Shit!, if they don't get me they should tell me and I repeat it more slowly. You do get me, don't you?" on the threshold of the passage, Maria José looks back to the history of Teruel with the confidence of a professor. Then we make our way down the stairs into the bowels of the earth. "The old town of Teruel is riddled with secret passageways: some dedicated to drainage of rainwater and surpluses of underground reservoirs, others are associated with the transit of people, such as the tunnels that were excavated during the Spanish Civil War. This gallery dates back to the 18th century, it is sixty meters long and connects this house with a small room of the sacristy of Salvador's Church and also with another house adjacent to the church. Both buildings were owned by the clergy because during the Middle and Modern Ages almost all the temples of Teruel had attached several priests, it is not like now, that the churches only have one priest ... hopefully. This house belonged to a prebendary, you know, the one in charge of distributing alms among the poor. To me that he kept something for himself, "he who cuts the cake...", because he finally was able to buy the house. In 1964 the nieces of this priest offered the house for sale to my mother, who just lived opposite. My mother started renting and years later she bought it. When my mother died, I inherited the house, which was in ruins. My intention was to build a small hotel and at the beginning of the works in 2002, the masons found a wall and a stone arch. An archaeologist came and, after much study, told us that they were possibly remains of the late medieval church of San Salvador, burned around 1600. In other words, this house was built on the ruins of the church. After the theft in 2011 of the Codex Calixtinus from the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, authorities forced us to wall this passage. The walls of the passage are made of small round stones, river gravel. During the Civil War it was used as a refuge; I know because some clients asked me to visit it. Any questions?".
    —Well, yes: ¿What was the purpose of this passageway?
    —To pass from the house of priests to the Sacristy without going outside. The same function as an overpass, like the one that connects the Episcopal Palace with the cathedral of Teruel or the priest's house with the church of Santo Domingo of Celadas, to give other examples. The reasons for its construction are not entirely identified, most probably they built the passageway looking for greater comfort of access to the church.
    When we pass again through the Torico square, way to the mausoleum of the Lovers of Teruel, we come across another procession and we stay for a few minutes observing this curious tradition. As I am watching the dummy representing the christian deity called "the Son", I wonder how these Christians would react if a muslim brotherhood paraded celebrating the Ashura as it already happens in Sweden.

Brotherhood of the Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem parading along Ramón y Cajal

The float called Mary Most Holy of the Anguish