It was one thing after another in the fourteenth century. In March, 1348, the Black Death claimed its first victims in Mallorca. Alcúdia is generally cited as having been the place where the plague broke out. It cannot be said with certainty how many people succumbed to the plague, though a figure of 80% of the population having died is almost certainly an exaggeration. There is a story about the first death in Alcúdia. It goes like this. The people of Alcúdia are unsure what to do with the body, but they hit on a plan. They'll take it to Santa Margalida, a town relatively nearby but far enough away to be safe. The people of Santa Margalida don't take too kindly to the offer of the body, as might have been expected.
The story is just that. A story. Probably. It merges historical fact, the arrival of the Black Death, with the black comedy of legend or fiction. When later plagues and diseases afflicted Mallorca, Alcúdia had something of a strategic advantage. Its walls. The town could go into lockdown behind its walls and no one could come in who might spread disease. Unless, that is, they found a way of bribing the guards at the gates to the town. That's another story, one told of the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1870.
But to return to the fourteenth century, no sooner had the Black Death ceased to be black than the good citizens of Alcúdia, those of them who remained and who hadn't been deposited in Santa Margalida, were faced with a different type of enemy. One by the name of Pedro, who had the nickname of Pedro The Cruel, the King of Castile. Pedro was, to be totally blunt, a bit of a bastard. Not literally, but he had a brother, called Henry, who was of illegitimate origin. It was Henry who eventually did for Pedro. But before Henry could get round to dethroning him, Pedro engaged, for several years from 1356, in an on-off war with another Pedro, the King of Aragon. This Pedro wasn't exactly a model of virtuousness himself, but history suggests that the people of Mallorca were fairly well disposed to him. He deposed James III, the King of Mallorca, who was far from popular on account of his tax impositions. Anyway, the two Pedros have found their way into history by having a war named after them, and it was the Aragonese Pedro who was to play a part in the development of Alcúdia's walls. Concerned that the other Pedro might launch an attack, he ordered the hurry-up in finishing the walls, a job that had started at the end of the previous century. This, at any rate, is the story.
The walls of Alcúdia contain and reveal all sorts of stories. Being certain as to what is story or historical fact isn't entirely straightforward, but there again, as the Spanish word "historia" means both story and history, then we shouldn't be totally surprised if there is some blurring of the edges between the facts of history and the fancifulness of story-telling, and the stories above, those of the Black Death, Yellow Fever and the War of the Two Pedros, all come from a theatrical production. Its name is the Via Fora.
Ten years ago, Alcúdia town hall was instrumental in establishing a series of productions that combined the history of the walls with the history (or stories) of the town. The Via Fora was the result. It takes its name from a word, "fora", which means a cry for help, be this help because of the Black Death or the imminent arrival of Pedro The Cruel. On summer nights in Alcúdia, the illuminated old walls of the town form the spotlights for the actors and musicians as they make their way around the walls and tell of the stuff of yore and of more modern times. They start from the Moll gate, the Porta des Moll, a name which itself is dripping with history. Moll means port or pier. Why is there a gate with such a name in the old town? The port is some distance away. Ah yes, but once upon a time it hadn't been such a distance away. The sea and thus the ancient port came as close as right by the Roman theatre.
The Romans, typically, don't get a look in on the Via Fora agenda. There is a certain Catalan correctness about the starting-points of Alcúdia's history in this theatrical production. They are always post-conquest of Jaume I, James the First. The Germanies uprising of the sixteenth century is a firm favourite of the Via Fora, a story so ingrained in the island's Catalan culture because of its part in attacking repression and unfairness. But let's not dwell on the politics. The Via Fora is not propaganda. It is a celebration of history in story form, and the first production of this summer takes place this coming Thursday. It starts at 9pm with the cry for help and the final construction of the walls that form its backdrop. Pedro The Cruel was on his way. Or maybe he wasn't. There's nothing better than a good story.
* Programme for the Via Fora at: http://thehotguide.blogspot.com.es/2014/07/via-fora-alcudia-2014.html
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