Portal de Totana
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Restored the fountain of the Plaza recently, Totana is enjoying such accurate performance, enjoying the slenderness, beauty and sumptuousness that was raised in the mid-eighteenth century, but we must also remember that these days is commemorating the 266th anniversary of its blessing.
On March 25, 1753, after several years of work and to overcome intense difficulties, facing the economic constraints that have too often affected the town, the residents of Totana could enjoy that day of joy and joy to see sprout from the source the water that with so much anxiety and need they were demanding.
It was a challenge of singular importance because the works exceeded 150,000 reales.
Note that at that time a lamb imported 14 reales.
To celebrate such a transcendental event Totana, solemnizing it with rejoicing, it congregated in the main square, in the emblematic space where the symbols of temporal and spiritual power converge.
The then priest of the town, Miguel Antonio de Campos and Salcedo proceeded to the blessing and with the blessing "of Our Holy Mother Church" began to run the water for its 24 pipes, 18 lower and 6 higher.
The day was lived "with happiness and general joy of the people."
Presiding the act the municipal corporation.
In front of her, the mayor, the lawyer Antonio Fernández Araujo.
To celebrate such an extraordinary achievement, they had to decorate the main streets with shawls and plant motifs, as was typical of such events, complementing them with the lighting of lights at nightfall and, probably, with "dances, riots and parties" .
This work that began its journey in 1750 led the waters from the birth of La Carrasca, in the heart of the Sierra de Espuña, at the foot of the Morrón, to the then village of Totana, traveling for a distance exceeding 17 kilometers , saving a drop of 876 meters and fording ramblas and valleys.
A task of special difficulty in which the totanero Silvestre Martínez Teruel (1689-1755), whose skill, capacity and responsibility led him to take on different projects, had a primordial role.
His knowledge allowed him to melt bells, paint works of excellence, carve, gild and sculpt, among many other tasks.
The mastery of such diverse skills made the City Council in 1730 say that he was "skillful in all kinds of work" and that Father Ortega pointed out, some time later, that Silvestre was "of such a universal and pilgrim genius that all the arts understand with greatness ».
A totanero who deserves our recognition, respect and admiration, as well as that his name appears among the greats of this land.
In collaboration with him, Pedro de Mora Cánovas and Javier Molino worked.
Uniting such a magnificent construction, the sculptor Juan de Uzeta executed his coronation and auction, a fragment of excellent elegance and quality.
On the other hand, the stonemasons, Juan Moreno and Pedro Litrán, worked the pieces of jasper.
The source is presented in plenitude of testimony and expression of Baroque essences.
The voluptuous of its forms leads to the subtle, attenuating the materiality and solidity of the stony.
In a dialogue of proximity with the spectator, it attracts attention for the graceful presence in which its functionality is configured, becoming an icon of the city and a key reference of its historical reality.
The suggestive of its lines evokes the aspirations of Totana, offering a song of homage and recognition to the work of its people, to the creativity and overcoming of so many totaneros and totaneras that through time have forged the character of its inhabitants.
Juan Cánovas Mulero
Official Chronicler of the City of Totana
Source: Juan Cánovas Mulero
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