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A popular tale of an enormous and frightening lizard reverberates around the city even today, five hundred years later. No one quite knows the truth.
The legend of the lizard of Jaen, whose first reference was recorded in 1628, is alive and well in the city, with a popular saying, a musical competition and many parts of the old town named after the Lagarto de Jaen. The legend says that a lizard of enormous proportions appeared to a group of locals near the fountain of Magdalena. The people were so frightened that they wouldn’t return to the fountain so a solution had to be found. The legend now seems to have three different outcomes, depending on who’s telling the story. The Soldier and the mirrorsA group of neighbours asked a soldier to help them. He dressed in armour that shone like mirrors, and when he approached the cave, the sun, reflecting in the armour blinded the lizard. This allowed the soldier to slay the dragon with his sword. The Prisoner and the breadA condemned prisoner pleaded for his pardon in exchange for killing the lizard. The desperate locals agreed to let him try. The prisoner asked for a horse, a sack of bread and a bag of gunpowder to do his deed. At night the prisoner went to the caves and left a trail of bread. The lizard awoke and began to follow the bread trail, the prisoner now on horseback led it to the Plaza de San Ildefonso. Here he threw down the bag of gunpowder instead of bread, which the greedy lizard swallowed and exploded instantly! This seems to be the most favoured and likely ending to the tale. A large reptile skin is reported to have been on display in the Iglesia de San Ildefonso for a long time. It’s generally thought to have been an alligator skin. The Shepherd and the SheepskinA shepherd, sick of the lizard taking his sheep, dreamed up a plan to get rid of it. He took one of his sheep, killed and skinned it then filled the fleece with tinder which he lit. The lizard on smelling the “roasting lamb” swallowed it whole and died. This tale is often told as gunpowder and not tinder, an amalgamation of the last two tales. Whichever version, if any, is true may never be known, but the legend will live on with the local saying "reventar como el largato de Jaen" "Explode like the lizard of Jaen." In the old quarter of Jaen city, statues and architectural features depicting the famous lizard can still be found. Jaen is an hour and a half north of Granada and boasts magnificent Parador looming over the city.
The copyright of the article Legends and Myths in Jaen, Spain in Spain Travel is owned by Rachel L. Webb. Permission to republish Legends and Myths in Jaen, Spain in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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