The Chasm and the Legend of the Cristo de la Antigua

According to legend, the Cristo de la Antigua was found by a shepherd while tending his flock on the hill. One day, while he was entertaining himself throwing stones, the unexpected happened. In one of the throws, the stone fell into a chasm (sima) and, coming from the bottom, he heard the sound of a small bell. The echo of the metal surprised the modest shepherd who, standing up, searched with his eyes for the object that had produced it; not finding it on the surface, he repeated the throw and heard the sound again. Then, he thought he should tell his neighbours and, running, he went down towards the "Portichuelo", where at that time the small village of Tobarra stood, consisting of about a hundred houses and about four hundred inhabitants. Knowing what had happened, they hurriedly left their homes and climbed from crag to crag following the humble shepherd, who stopped pointing his index finger at the narrow opening of the small chasm from which the penetrating and strong sound had come. The town en masse performed the excavation, extracting from among the hardened stones the Holy Image of the Cristo de la Antigua.