Poetry, music and candlelight filled Vera’s oldest square for a fifth year running

Rows of candles lit the walls of a square where residents once did their washing, as poets took turns at the microphone and musicians performed close by. It was the fifth year running that Vera has turned one of its oldest corners into a stage for an evening of verse and ambient music.

Poets took the mic surrounded by candlelit walls

Vera’s Plaza de los Cuatro Caños hosted the fifth edition of La Noche de Poesía y Música a la luz de las velas (the Night of Poetry and Music by Candlelight) on Wednesday, August 19. Poets read from a small stage set up in the square as musicians played guitar and violin beside them, with candles lining the walls and niches around them. The Ayuntamiento de Vera (Vera town council), which organises the event, said the evening drew both residents and visitors into what it described as a close, unhurried atmosphere.

Culture councillor Antonio Soler also attended the evening, taking his place among the crowd.

A square where residents used to do their washing

The Plaza de los Cuatro Caños takes its name from a 19th-century fountain with four spouts, built alongside the town’s old municipal laundry. For decades it was one of the places residents gathered to wash clothes and collect water, long before running water reached homes directly.

Of course, washing bedsheets at the public square disappeared as Vera modernised, but the fountain and its square remain among the most recognisable corners of the town’s historic centre, a short walk from the fortress-church of Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación.

A bit of history: Vera itself was rebuilt after a devastating earthquake 

The town’s current centre, including the Cuatro Caños square, sits curiously on the site Vera moved to after disaster struck its original hilltop settlement on Espíritu Santo hill. An earthquake on November 9, 1518, destroyed much of the old town, forcing residents to rebuild on flatter ground nearby.

The new town was built as a walled enclosure with eight towers and two gates, centred on the fortress-church constructed partly as a defence against Barbary pirate raids along the coast. Little of the original hilltop settlement survives today, and the rebuilt centre has shaped Vera’s layout ever since.

A tradition that has grown since its first year in 2022

The candlelit poetry night began in July 2022, when 12 poets, five musicians and three presenters filled the square for its debut, drawing a full house of residents keen to see the tradition begin. Then-culture councillor María Manuela Caparrós said the idea was to showcase the art of reciting and enjoy a summer evening surrounded by music and warm candlelight, creating a magical and romantic atmosphere.

Five years on, the council said it intends to keep using spaces that form part of Vera’s identity for cultural events, following a summer that has also included its weekly Sunset Symphony concerts in the town.