SANTA FE
On the way out onto the Vega, we pass through Santa Fé. This is where Ferdinand and Isabel set up camp in 1483 at the start of the Seige of Granada. In 1491, in a period of 80 days, they converted the camp into a town of brick and mortar, surrounded by a wall and a moat. This of course was a decisive psychological factor in the war against the Arabs.
The structure of the town is that of a Roman camp built round two straight roads that cross at the centre. The four gates to the city can still be seen today. Lorca's brother, Francisco, recalls: "how many times on our way to and from Granada did we pass through those walled gates in our mule cart".
The "capitulations", setting out the terms of the surrender of the city, were sign at the end of 1491 and offered quite favourable conditions to the Moslems of Granada, but these conditions were not fulfilled. Just as the terms of the contract with Christopher Columbus, signed here on 17th April 1492, were later not to be respected. Columbus sailed on 3rd August that same year and reached America on 12th October.
Lorca's anscestors on his father's side came from "an illustrious
family" from Santa Fé, according to Francisco.
(Recent research shows that Lorca's anscestors had in fact moved from Armilla
to Fuente Vaqueros in the Eighteenth Century and then "married into" the illustrious
Santa Fe family.)
On to Chauchina
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