"It is striking that in the gardens that lead to the Visitor Reception Center of Medina Azahara, the urban jewel of the Umayyad Caliphate of Qurtuba that was started by the first caliph, Abd al-Rahman III, and finished by his son Alhakén II, there are centuries-old olive trees born in the 13th century, which is when Córdoba falls into Christian hands with the occupation of the King of Castile and León Fernando III 'the Saint'.
But there they are as sentinels of history, exhibiting their twisted bodies of more than 800 years of life and each of the four coming from what today are Denomination of Origin lands for extra virgin olive oil, which produce Lucena EVOOs. , Baena, Montoro-Adamuz and Priego de Córdoba.
They are one of the very few survivors left in Cordoban lands from remote times, because their older brothers left for Europe some time ago, acquired by individuals, foundations, societies and other groups who, aware of their historical value, have paid significant sums to take them to lands. foreign.
Those who take care of these gardens say that the four wooden Methuselahs had a really hard time taking root in their new home and that on more than one occasion they were given up for lost, until one of them grew green, refusing to die to lose so much baggage into oblivion. of natural wisdom and history of the Earth itself.
It is also assumed that the one who revived with new strength spoke one by one to his fellow captives under a starry night and convinced them that they should continue forward, tracing the line of time and witnessing the future of centuries and men. . Who knows what he told them to make them abandon their internal self-exile, recreating themselves in their own souls to turn their eyes again towards the outer sky and towards the tomorrow beyond a dense, endless present.
Perhaps Lucena and Priego remembered how their lands, once populated by Arab owners who fled to the Nazarite Kingdom of Granada in the face of the advance and threat from an already Christianized Córdoba, were once again distributed by King Alfonso XI between five of his main knights in the town of Carcabuey. And at the same time, in that same town, lower-ranking people were brought in during that dark time so that they could also work the land.
They have also been able to remember the Mudejar uprisings in Andalusian lands before they were subdued and their protagonists fled to Granada, so that their spaces were occupied by 'old Christians'.
Stories that are also shared by their brothers from the area of ??Campiña Este and Guadajoz, since Baena (the Almohad Bayyana) also fell into the hands of Fernando III, who repopulated it with Christians, Jews and Mudejars. These also disappeared from those lands after the uprisings and since then the region was a key piece of the Castilian border system against the Nasrid power of Granada. And the same thing happened in the Al Guadalquivir region.
Therefore, all of them have the same History to remember, but infinite intra-histories that only they know and keep like precious treasures framed in olive wood in their respective internal forums.
If one looks at them without haste, one can hear them whispering ancient words that endure eight centuries of memory in the form of fine sand and dust resting on hidden cobwebs that shine at the sunset of a sun that saw them born. A wealth that must remain part of Andalusian history and a legacy that was about to disappear forever."
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