Vejer de la Frontera and its marimantas
A night tour through the steep, beautiful streets of Vejer de la Frontera represents an opportunity to learn all about its legends, which reveal the beauty of a "fabled" town. There are a number of characters who play a leading role, including the "marimantas", people who disguised themselves as souls in pain and wandered about in the dark of the night, Juan Relinque, a local hero who fought for the rights of the people during the Middle Ages, and ghosts of monks from the convent of San Francisco.
We could say that a marimanta is a scary appearance, a deceased person dressed in white clothing who, since ancient times, has been visiting those areas in the town that related to mysterious and paranormal phenomena.
These characters are as imaginary as they are real. They came out at night, when the streets had no public lighting and darkness reigned. This is why children were afraid to go out in case these characters appeared.
Currently, during "La noche oscura de Vejer" (The dark night of Vejer) entertainers dress up and act as souls in pain, they adorn themselves in pristine white or gloomy black, in the manner of the characteristic "refugee from El Vejer, and visit those areas that hold the town's greatest secrets: the Mayorazgo tower, the Corredera tower, the Segur city walls, the Jewish quarter, the Castle, the arch of the Puerta Cerrada, etc. They sing songs and recite myths evoking all the town's mysteries and numerous legends treasures, a magical journey!
But there is more to the mysteries of Vejer. there is another unique story that tells us about ghosts and women covered by a black cloak, the deceased who wandered the streets like souls in pain and who, at sunset, seized the living to take them to the other world. The fact is, this is just an anecdote and the real purpose was to hide morally prohibited relationships. Women and men gave free rein to forbidden passions using the disguise as a letter of safe conduct.
The strange thing about the "marimantas" is that they also walk the streets in other parts of Andalusia, such as the Sierra de Aracena and Periana, on the Axarquía in the province of Málaga. Did you know that Vejer and Chaouen, in Morocco, are twin towns? But that's another story...
