The Fish-Man from Lierganes (Spanish: El hombre pez de Lierganes) or Francisco de la Vega Casar (Spanish: Francisco de la Vega Casar) is a mythological and literary character whose image is probably based on real events that took place in the 1670s. years in Lierganes and Cadiz (Spain).
On October 22, 1658, in the family of Francisco de la Vega and Maria del Casar, a boy was baptized, who received his father's name at birth - Francisco. Already at the age of five, he demonstrated the ability to swim much better than an ordinary person, causing great surprise among many nearby residents who gathered to gaze at the miracle from the old bridge.
In 1672, when he was sixteen, he went to the Biscay city of Las Arenas to study carpenter. There Francisco spent two years at the sawmills near the Basques and every evening he hurried to the river to plunge into its deep waters. It was on the eve of St. John in 1674, when, having come ashore with other carpenters, he suddenly decided to sail down the bend of the river, to where the sea reaches far to the coast of Biscay.
Undressing, he jumped into the water. Immediately a strong sea current drew him along, and he disappeared from view. Knowing what a good swimmer Francisco was, the locals hoped that he would appear soon … But alas … The next morning his mother Maria Casar received the sad news of the disappearance of her son, who, apparently, was forever swallowed by the fierce Cantabrian sea.
The statue of the fish man, installed on the banks of the Miera, has become one of the main attractions of Lierganes.
The tragedy drove to despair Thomas, Juan and Jose, brothers of the unfortunate Francisco, who spared neither time nor effort to climb the steep coastal cliffs and plains along the coast in search of their bodies. But the search did not end with anything, and little by little the memory of the brave swimmer began to fade.
Five years have passed. In February 1679, fishermen who were fishing in the bay of Cadiz saw a strange creature approaching at a shallow depth, which greatly amazed and frightened them with its appearance. Rumors, like dust, spread along the embankments of the Andalusian capital, and soon the first device for catching the mysterious fish thief was built from a trawling net with bait of meat and bread.
Promotional video:
Several times they noticed how a certain large creature, whose clear shape could not be seen through the water column, devoured pieces of food, and then disappeared very quickly. After many days, during which he was seen already near the boats, the sea wonder was captured and dragged ashore.
The fishermen were dumbfounded. Their captive turned out to be a rather tall young man, at least one meter eighty in height, with pale, almost transparent skin and fiery red hair. A strip of fish-like scales ran along his body from the throat to the lower abdomen, and another, the same, along his spine. The fingers on the hands were connected by a race of brown film, giving the hands a similarity to duck paws.
The amazing prisoner bellowed and bellowed like a beast, and it took the efforts of a dozen port dwellers to hold him back. The mysterious creature was placed in a Franciscan monastery, where the mysterious Fish Man stayed for three weeks.
The secretary of the Holy Service (as we would say today - the head of the local department or office of the Inquisition), Domingo de la Cantolla, became very concerned when he learned about the incident. He immediately ordered a whole series of different rites of zhorcism to be carried out, that is, the expulsion of demons that could have settled in such a strange body. Experts in foreign languages, such as Brother Juan Rozende, arrived at the monastery and interrogated the Fish-Man for days on end, trying to get at least some articulate answer from him.
Finally, the word "Lierganes" burst out of the mouth of the ichthyander, completely incomprehensible to anyone in Cadiz, except for one young man from Santander, who then worked part-time at the shipyard of the Andalusian capital. He knew well that this was the name of a small village in Cantabria, belonging to the bishopric of Burgos, which included settlements along the banks of the Miera River.
Doubt, surprise and obvious distrust gripped Domingo de la Cantolla, who, however, immediately sent messengers to Solareg, which is located 10 km from Lierganes. There they found the noble hidalgo Dionisio Rubalkaba, as well as Gaspar Melchorro de Santiago, Commander of the Order of Santiago, and the Marquis de Valbuena. All three personally went to the Lierganesians, who could shed light on the appearance of the monster in Cadiz.
In just a few days, Dionisio Rubalkaba unearthed the story of the disappearance of Francisco de la Vega Casar, which had happened five years earlier on the Miera River, and immediately informed the Franciscan monastery, causing great commotion there. In the first days of January 1680, the Fish-Man was transported to the Cantabrian village, for suspicions that he was in fact the missing carpenter were not unfounded.
Brother Juan Rosende took on the responsibility of transporting the monster across the mountains. As soon as the cortege reached the town of Deesy, the prisoner, as if driven by a mysterious instinct, decided to touch the ground with his foot. He seemed to recognize the surroundings. Staggering ahead of the ministers of the church, he entered Lierganes.
Finally he found himself in front of the house of the de la Vega family. Old Maria Casar immediately recognized him as her son, who disappeared five years ago, and burst into tears, embraced him, and the brothers Thomas and Juan were quick to join her. The third brother, José, had left for Cadiz two months earlier and never returned home.
It was strange that the Pisces Man did not in any way express his joy at meeting his relatives. And he remained silent for two years (according to other chronicles - nine), which he lived in his father's house under the vigilant supervision of Dionisio Rubal Kaba.
Francisco de la Vega never became the same person. His life in Lierganes was limited to silent walking around the household, sometimes interrupted by the inaudible muttering of the words "bread" and "tobacco", although there was clearly no connection between their pronunciation and smoking and eating. He preferred to remain in rags, could devour fish and raw meat for hours, and sometimes vice versa - he did not eat a single piece for several days.
He spent most of his time as a plant, prone on the ground. And he never showed interest in anything. However, one evening in 1682, he roused himself when he heard someone screaming, and for no apparent reason to those around him rushed straight to the waters of Miera. Despite the attempts of the peasants to prevent him, the Fish-Man managed to deftly escape from his captivity and quickly plunge into the water again, this time - really forever, and just in the very place where he showed the miracles of buoyancy as a child.
Moving in water at a speed unnatural for humans, the strange creature soon disappeared into the misty distance. From that moment on, the fate of Francisco de la Vega remained unknown, but thanks to the previous part, it interested the whole world.
The Benedictine brother Jeronimo Feihu was a very learned man who throughout his life tirelessly fought against the prejudices and superstitions of Spain in the XVIII century. His nschlopedic work "Theater of Universal Criticism", which was convened from 1726 to 1740, became a solid foundation on which he built his struggle against all kinds of fraud and religious affairs that from time to time shook all strata of Yugdash society. For several hundred pages full of rationalistic arguments, Feihu exposed various miracles and wonders of all kinds.
He managed to deal with all the cases, except that concerning the fate of the young Francisco de la Vega. 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 truth of the whole story, given that much of the information was obtained from highly educated people of high culture.
The priests, nobles and scientists who witnessed the misadventures of the Pisces Man gave Feih a kind of access to all information about him, certifying its authenticity with their signatures. The private messages that he received from some people who were of interest to his topic were carefully collected and 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, right up to the fact that European zoological luminaries began to gather in Lierganes. From that moment on, attempts to trace the fate of the Pisces-Man and find out all the details of his life did not stop to this day.
In the mid-30s. Dr. Gregorio Marañon took over the leadership of the search and devoted an entire chapter to the legend in his work, The Biological Ideas of Father Feihu. In it, he proposed one remarkable theory, which was accepted by most of his colleagues.
According to Marañon, Francisco della Vega suffered from cretinism (a disorder of the thyroid gland, which was very common in that era in the mountainous regions); was an "idiot and almost dumb" who, after leaving his native village and last seen on the river bank, suddenly began to be considered drowned. The circumstances of meeting him on the Cadiz coast and all his wonderful swimming abilities, according to the doctor, belong to the mythical part of history.
His appearance was not explained at all by the watery image of the newt man, but by a disease called ichthyosis, in which scales appear on the skin. The specific 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 theories have caused a lot of controversy, but not in substance, leaving aside the main premise. And meanwhile, the testimonies of not only dozens of fishermen were overlooked, but also of those many people who lived with the ill-fated Francisco for a long time.
A few years later, the same Marañon came to the conclusion that the whole story of the famous Lierganesian is nothing more than a gross fiction, a legend that descended from the Cantabrian hills and does not have any evidence of the real existence of a strange creature. The same was said by the famous scientists of previous centuries, desperate in their search for the church metrics of the Pisces-Man and decided that his prototype never existed at all. At least in the official lists of the municipality of Lierganes, which were kept in 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 during the following tables. But a monument arose, which rises near the central street of the Cantabrian town: “His feat, crossing the ocean from the north to the south of Spain, if it was not genuine, still must be perfect. Today, his main feat can be removed that he remained in the memory of people. True or legend, Lierganes honors him and elevates him to immortality."
It was only in 1997 that journalist and researcher Iker Jimenez Elizari proved the reality of Francisco de la Vega's existence.
“And then I was suddenly returned to the real world by the exclamation of a nun,” the researcher recalls. - The index finger of Sister Emilia Sierra, trembling, buried himself 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: having brought the book closer to the window, we 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 de la Vega Casar, the Pisces Man!"
Iker's ill-restrained joy was also passed on to Sister Emilia, who frantically continued to flip through 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.
Here on page 106 was the entry of another priest, 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 vigilant law of that era, it was necessary to wait as long as 100 years before officially declaring a missing person dead.
“The facts were really right in my trembling hands; there was nothing to deny now. The Pisces Man actually lived in these places, and we can prove it,”says the researcher.
This is the most important thing. From that moment on, the very history of his misadventures in the abyss of the sea threw a challenge to science - the true mystery of the ichthyander, which now can no longer be attributed to only fairy tales.
Based on the materials of the magazine "Enigmas del Hombre y el Uneverso", prepared by Nikolai Nepomniachtchi