Seville, as it happens in so many other Spanish cities, does not lack a face full of legends and black stories related in the chronicles or patent in artistic pieces or images as emblematic of the Holy Week as that of the Christ of the Cachorro.
In the Cava de Triana lived a gypsy with a great ability to play the guitar and cante jondo, known as “el Cachorro”.
This man was never known to be in love, but every day he crossed the bridge of boats to go to Seville in search of a mysterious person.
A payo who saw him daily suspected that in these recurring visits the gypsy was committing adultery with his wife.
The jealousy of that stranger towards “el Cachorro” reached its zenith one day when he waited for him hidden while he was drawing water from the Venta Vela well. With the gypsy engaged in the task, he stabbed him seven times, which took his life.
The link between the gypsy and the Christ of El Cachorro
Parallel to this story, the sculptor Don Francisco Ruiz Gijón was plunged into a creative crisis. The new Brotherhood of the Expiration needed a sculpture that represented the Lord at the moment of his death and commissioned it to him.
At that time he was one of the best image makers in the city, although this commission obsessed him to excess.
One night, the sculptor awoke suddenly and had a sudden impulse to go out into the street. He crossed the bridge of boats and went to the door of the chapel of Patrocinio, where he witnessed the terrible murder of the “Cachorro”.
He was so impressed by the look of the dying man that the artist portrayed in situ the face of the deceased with charcoal. The sculptor captured this agony of the gypsy in a carving: the Christ of the Expiration.
Legend has it that when in 1682 the new image of the Brotherhood of the Patronage came out for the first time, the neighbors of Triana began to shout, “Look, it’s the puppy!
Where to see the Christ of the Expiration
Later, after an investigation it was shown that “el Cachorro” did indeed go to see a woman, but the payo was wrong. It was actually the bastard sister of the deceased.
The Christ of the Expiration can be seen in the chapel of the Patrocinio in Castilla street and you can find it walking through the streets of Seville on Good Friday.