This secret haunted historians for several centuries. Today, perhaps, an important step has been taken towards solving it …
“… Here is the Lierganes - Pamanes road, March 7, 1997. 16.05. I am ready to give up the search that took me to Lierganes, a beautiful town in the remote end of Cantabria, driven to despair by the clearly impossible task that was set before me: to find the church records of the 17th century and prove that the man who was considered a legend actually existed; the difficulty was also in the fact that no one had ever published documents on this score.
I myself began to seriously doubt the outcome of the case. It's easier to find a needle in a haystack. To top it all, from the very arrival in the town I was haunted by only failures. This is how the journalist and researcher from Spain Iker Jimenez Elizari began his story about his discovery in the Enigmas magazine.
Despite a 3-day search, the parish priest Antonio Fernandez never showed up. Iker already began to think that he was simply avoiding him. There was a rumor among the local population that a newcomer was looking for him to ask about the fish-man, a fascinating story about which once rocked the whole world and brought fame to this remote village.
But there was so much doubtful and implausible in her! And only Don Antonio could indicate the place where important documents are stored that can shed light on the circumstances of the life of Francisco Vega case, the prototype of the legendary man-newt, who spent 5 years in the depths of the sea.
“At the last moment, I decided to make one more attempt and walk around Lierganes. When I reached the church of St. Peter ad-Winkul, I finally ran into a long-sought priest, face to face. Accidents, as you know, should not be neglected. I think that the incredulous look that he threw at me through his glasses clearly demonstrated that he had no illusions about this meeting. But the documents that I showed him, collected by me from the writings of various historians of the last century, still made him listen to me …"
Some of the sources pointed to church metrics that prove that the fish-man actually lived in the world - this is a very important clue, but the existence of such documents was later denied by experts who searched for them but never found them. And the story remained for a long time the way it was for two centuries: something in between truth and fiction.
Antonio Fernandez seems to have realized how important it is to find this evidence; meanwhile, the funeral began in the village. Of course, it was not the best time, but intuition told Iker that the last opportunity to get closer to the truth was this very conversation with the priest on the church porch.
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In the last century, many tried to "talk" the priests, but no one was able to see the documents with their own eyes. And, apparently, actually in a great hurry, Father Antonio declared in a resolute tone that not a trace of such papers remained in Lierganes itself; Perhaps the only place where it is possible to find them, although it is not very suitable for a journalistic investigation, is in the damp cells of a monastery, where outsiders are generally not allowed …
“Seizing on this last opportunity to find the papers I was looking for, like a drowning man by a straw, I pressed the gas and began to wind kilometers on the speedometer, bringing me closer to the very place where, perhaps, something was preserved, if any documents exist. And while the road flew under the wheels of the car, I, at least, could well remember what is known about the mysterious creature."
From that very moment, the fate of Francisco in the Vega case remained unknown, but thanks to the previous part, the whole world was interested.
… Brother Benedictine Benito Jeronimo Feihu was a rather learned man, who throughout his life tirelessly fought against the prejudices and superstitions of Spain in the XVIII century. His encyclopedic work "Theater of Universal Criticism", which was created from 1726 to 1740, became a solid foundation on which he built his fight against all kinds of fraudulent religious affairs, which at times shocked society.
For several hundred pages full of rationalistic arguments, Feihu exposed various miracles and wonders. He managed to deal with all cases, except for the history of Francisco Vega case. In fact, according to Feihu, he was, albeit an unusual, but quite real example of human adaptation to the water element. He never doubted the truthfulness of the story, given that much of the information was obtained from highly educated people.
Priests, nobles and scientists who witnessed the misadventures of the fish man provided Feih with all the information about him, certifying its authenticity with their signatures. Private messages of interest to his topic were published in the sixth volume of a work entitled "A Philosophical Review of a Rare Occurrence of Our Day."
The fame that Feihu acquired with his stinging pen, unyielding in many other matters, gave significance to the entire history at the end of the 18th century. European zoological luminaries began to gather in Lierganes.
Since that time, attempts to trace the fate of the fish-man and find out all the details of his life have not stopped until our time. In the mid-1930s, the search was led by Dr. Gregorio Marañon, who devoted an entire chapter of his work, Father Feihu's Biological Ideas, to the legend. In it, he proposed one remarkable theory that most of his colleagues accepted.
According to Marañon, Francisco della Vega suffered from cretinism (a thyroid disorder, which was quite common in those days in the mountainous regions), was an "idiot and almost dumb" who, after leaving his native village and last seen on the river bank, was suddenly considered drowned. The circumstances of meeting him on the Cadiz coast and all his remarkable abilities as a swimmer, according to the doctor, belong to the mythical part of history.
His appearance was not explained at all by the way of life of the newt man, but by a disease called ichthyosis, during which scales appear on the skin. The peculiar combination of ailments and ailments of the unfortunate fish man was enough for the fishermen and residents of the Andalusian capital to decide that they had caught an unprecedented sea monster.
Marañon's theory caused a lot of controversy, but not in essence, leaving aside the main premise. Meanwhile, the testimonies of not only dozens of fishermen were overlooked, but also those of many people who lived with Francisco for a long time.
A few years later, the same Marañon came to the conclusion that the whole story of the famous Lierganese is nothing more than a crude fiction, a myth that has no evidence under it. The same was said by famous scientists of previous centuries, desperate to find the church metrics of the man-fish and decided that his prototype never existed at all. In extreme cases, in the official lists of the municipality of Lierganes, which have been kept since the 15th century in the parish of St. Peter's Church, his name does not appear. The question seemed to be closed.
Clarity did not increase over the next centuries. But a monument appeared, towering at the central street of the Cantabrian town: “His feat, crossing the ocean from north to south of Spain, if it was not genuine, still had to be accomplished. Today, his main feat can be considered that he remained in the memory of people. True or legend, Lierganes honors him and elevates him to immortality."
… Monastery of the Claritines, Santillana del Mar, Cantabria. Perhaps there is a means to resolve all doubts?
“My humble requests had a beneficial effect on the heart of Sister Emilia Sierra,” continues Iker. - It is quite unusual that a young man, hung with photographic equipment, with notepads, a dictaphone and a fountain pen, finds himself exactly where no one like him has been to this day. But I had to get there - I tried to explain it to the nun, communicating with her almost by shouting through a small round hole in the wooden door.
Having passed this first "outpost", I noticed how the bars closed behind my back, and then I found myself just a few centimeters from the sought-after treasures - church metrics, which, I believe, remained completely unknown for many years in these cells. So, I have achieved the very goal with which I hoped to penetrate into the magical riddle for which I traveled so much on the roads of Cantabria.
But as the clock advanced, Iker Elizari's confidence waned, especially when he managed to find one of the old parish books of Lierganes, dating from that time. There was not a single mention of Francisco the Vega case!
And then he was unexpectedly returned to the real world by the exclamation of a nun. The index finger of Sister Emilia Sierra, trembling, buried itself in a few lines, written in real scribbles, which could hardly be made out, and even in a dark room. But there was no doubt: by bringing the book closer to the window, they were convinced that the notes belonged to the hand of Pedro Eras Miera, the parish priest of Lierganes of the early 17th century! This pile of papers of extraordinary importance included the church metrics of Francisco for the case of Vega Casar, the fish-man!
Iker's ill-restrained joy was also passed on to his sister Emilia, who frantically continued to turn the pages of records of baptisms, marriages and deaths. A little later another remarkable document appeared before their eyes. It was the death register of the Lierganes parish, corresponding to the period from 1722 to 1814.
There, on page 106, was the entry of another curé, Antonio Fernandez del Hoyo Venero, the official announcement of the death of Francisco de Vega, called the fish man, and his missing brother Jose! From which it could be concluded that, according to the law of that time, it was necessary to wait as long as 100 years before officially declaring a missing person dead.
“The facts were in fact right in my trembling hands; there was nothing to deny now. The fish-man actually lived in these places, and we can prove it,”said the researcher. This is the most important thing. From that moment on, the very story of his misadventures in the abyss of the sea threw a challenge to science - the true mystery of Ichthyander, which now can no longer be attributed to myths.
N. Nepomniachtchi