Laguna de Fraiguán

An amazing town which is set within or beside the National Park "Donana".
We arrived on Saturday lunchtime- the place was filling up with coaches discharging people by the hundreds.
The town is fascinating - all the streets are sand, the buildings have railings for horses to be tied up and some of the bars have very large tables so people can enjoy a drink sitting on their horses.
The town has no road traffic control, you drive or ride where you like. Motor cars and coaches were everywhere, commercial horse drawn carriages were ferrying people about between it all.
The coach loads of people were mostly pilgrims from brotherhoods visiting the town to renew their faith in front of the white madonna who resides in the local church.
Faith restored they then rush out to buy Lotto cards at the church door and masses of tat from the usual array of tourist stores on the perimeter of the large squares. The other main outlets were horse tack and clothing and Flamenco costumes.
On Sunday it was all repeated, each town affiliated to the church has a building within the town which hold a shrine and has a large garden for the party that is held after serious business is over.
We watched two processions march through the town - each with a vanguard of pipes and drum, followed by the congregation holding banners and some with twigs on a stick. These people had travelled from one or other of the affiliated towns on their pilgrimage and judging by the amount of food and drink taken off the coaches were in for a good party.
We had a look around the small museum which was wrapped around the church knave at balcony level - quite informative and the music from the church service was joyful.
The church bells were ringing all day as one set of pilgrims were changed over for the next town's lot. More faith restored - the lottery ticket salesmen were doing a great trade.
We then cycled into the nature reserve next to the town where we saw Pochard, a Marsh Harrier looking for its dinner, Egrets and Heron - both grey and white from well located bird hides. We cycled on to the Palacio in the park which held interesting displays about the history of the area and its people.
On Monday the town could not be more different - the town was virtually deserted and the streets nearly empty of all cars - nobody to be seen apart from some British twitchers looking for wild life on the adjacent lagoon - there was a very large flock of flamingo.
Absolutely fascinating - a must see place to visitRead more