There’s a lot of attractions competing for the attention of little ones in Orlando—from Walt Disney World to Universal Orlando—but Villatel Orlando Resort has created something that will make kids and adults alike want to spend all their time in the hotel room.
Valencia's secret history: executions and bullfights in Plaza del Mercado
09.01.2024 - 17:31 / lonelyplanet.com
It was a hot summer's day in Valencia when Margarida Borrás was hanged.
Despite the heat, people packed into Plaza del Mercado to watch the transgender woman expire in the gallows. Public hangings were meant to be a deterrent, but for the general public of the 15th century, they were entertainment; a big, rowdy spectacle – a bit like a modern-day soccer match.
Looking at the square today it's hard to imagine. Lined by elegant houses with jaunty balconies, it's filled with a jumble of visitors taking selfies and abuelas (grandmothers) nipping through with shopping trollies. They're all en route to Mercado Central, a grand market and one of the city's most-loved tourist attractions. Plaza del Mercado looks like a joyful place – and it is – but the square's pretty facade belies a grisly history.
The bench beneath the palm tree, where holidaymakers sit and graze on bocadillos de jamón (ham sandwiches), is roughly where the executions took place. In the Middle Ages, Valencia's market was an improvised, ramshackle event outside the old city walls. Traders would pitch up on homemade stalls, and shoppers would have to navigate bickering live animals and haggling farmers. As Valencia grew, the market was gradually enveloped by the city and became the hub of the community. The square hosted everything from festivals to funerals, protests to parades, and from the end of the 14th century, public hangings.
The gallows were a huge part of day-to-day life: they were plonked right next to the main market in the busiest square in Valencia and there was no avoiding them. In 1601, more than one person was hanged per month – and they were left in the gallows for days after they died. So even if you walked around the block to avoid the horrific sight of a bloated corpse one week, then next week you might hear the trumpets declaring the next victim as the executioner rallied up the crowd like a sinister street performer.
Plaza del Mercado wasn't the only place where public executions took place: caballeros, or noblemen, were killed near Catedral de Valencia, and heretics in Paseo de la Pechina. In Plaza del Mercado it was a little of everything: murderers, thieves and people accused of sodomy. And although hanging made up the majority of executions, there were a few recorded cases of decapitation, garroting and being burned at the stake.
Among the thousands executed in Plaza del Mercado, one of the most tragic stories follows Margarida Borrás in the 15th century. Daughter of a wealthy official from Mallorca, Borrás was a socialite who mingled with the city's elite. Margarida was born a male, named Miquel, but she openly lived her life as a woman, and this was the reason her life was tragically cut short.
Margarida was
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