"I take a deep, enraged breath and whisper back:

'Miguel, I cannot wait to wish you a Merry Christmas.'

He looks confused.

'What?'

Oh, Miguel. You'll see what I mean."

Carla feels a lot of anger and pain. Go caroling with her this holiday season through San Lorenzo de El Escorial’s life-sized monumental Nativity Scene (or as she calls it, an LSD dream) and discover King Phillip II’s massive monastery, palace and royal crypt and why he had them built in this precise location (hint: it has to do with a door to the underworld).

Carla finds an old saw used in the original construction. The voices trapped inside tell her the legend of the red- and yellow-eyed black dog that has been terrorizing the townspeople for the past 500 years. And she meets characters not quite living…but not quite dead.

Carla channels her anger and pain to into a Christmas from hell.

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1-See the location of the monastery here.

2-See the official webpage here.

Join our Spanish Sundown community. For original images of the monastery and Nativity Scene:

spanishsundown.com

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“I take a swig of wine from my Don Simón box and whisper at the woman: ‘God’s trying to punish me.’”

A man lives on the Madrid metro. He is convinced that God wants him to confess to something he didn’t do.

He discovers a macabre secret hidden behind the subway walls. This secret takes him back to 1619 and introduces him to Tirso de Molina, author of Trickster of Seville, and reveals the history of the square that bears the writer’s name.

A history shaped by political chaos, the desamortización de Mendizábal with his government seizure of Church property, technological progress and the first underground train line…and Franco’s thin skin.

It all leads back to the macabre secret behind the walls.

And our character’s forced confession to a sin he didn’t commit.

Or maybe he did?

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1. See the location of the Tirso de Molina square here.

2. Read Trickster of Seville in English or in Spanish.

Special thanks to Revé Fisher for fact checking.

See the website and social media for original images of the recording locations:

spanishsundown.com

FB, IG, Reddit: @spanishsundown

-"HAMMER THE SYSTEM, KILL THE SYSTEM."

-Men, women, and children in white hoods and robes. Swaying to the beat of drums. Is she a terrorist?

-A priest betrayed. A bloody hammer. What has the king done?

A woman attends a secret meeting in a 500-year-old dungeon beneath the streets of Madrid. There, her leader gives her both a symbol and a tool to destroy the people they hate.

This object teaches her the story of Matías Vinuesa, a mercenary priest in cahoots with King Ferdinand 7th whose tragic fate played a pivotal role in ending the trienio liberal progressive government and ushered in the década ominosa of political absolutism in 19th-century Spain. It all has to do with a bloody hammer.

And somehow, the Americans.

Both our characters pay the highest price for betrayal.

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1. See the location of the retirement home where the Cárcel de la Corona is hidden here.

2. Check out Benito Pérez Galdós' book El grande oriente here.