According to the legend, Pedro I ‘The Cruel’ was walking alone at night when he came across with one of his rivals, one of the sons of the Count of Niebla, family who supported Enrique de Trastámara, bastard brother of the King, who wanted to dethrone him.
The encounter ended with a duel of swords and where the member of the Guzmanes family ended up dead. An old woman who looked out the window with an oil lamp alarmed by the noise found out that the killer was the King himself. Scared, the lady dropped the oil lamp accidentally and the officers discovered that she was a witness of the crime.
The next day, the Guzmanes family demanded justice to which the King replied promising the head of the guilty in the place of the murder. The old woman testified in front of the King who told her that if she said who she had seen nothing would happen to her.
The King kept his promise and sent a box of wood to the place of the incident in which he ensured that was kept the head of the killer. He ordered not to open the box until the day of his death, being guarded day and night. On the death of Pedro I the box was opened and everyone was very surprised when they found on it a bust of the monarch.
Nowadays the bust is still visible although it is not the original, and gives its name to the street ‘Cabeza del Rey Don Pedro’. The street which is opposite to the bust, where the witness of the murder lived, was renamed as ‘Candilejo’.
Stay with us when you come to Seville and enjoy this and many other stories that happened in the city!
I.P.P.
