Some say that on the nights of St. John the bell of the church of Valverde de Lucerna still rings from the depths of Lake Sanabria. Under its waters was submerged this legendary city of Zamora that others call VillaVerde. It is said that “he who goes no longer returns” (which in Spanish rhymes).

To Valverde arrived one day a poor ragged man begging for alms. When people saw him, they hurried to close the doors of his house and hide. Only in a house far away from the city a baker felt compassion for the beggar and encouraged him to come in and sit by the fire. The good man baked the last of the dough and when he went to take it out, he was astonished to see that the dough had grown so large that it could hardly fit through the mouth of the oven. The man told the baker to save the bread to feed his family and went away leaving the house full of bread and amazement.

These events occurred, according to other versions, on a bad night, before the feast of San Juan. The beggar was described as a tall man with a long beard and abundant hair, leaning on a cane from which two shells hung and seeking shelter for the night. House by house he was turned away until he came to a wood oven where some women were baking bread. There, the miracle of the bread grew in size. And he said to the women “Thank you for helping me, only you are worthy to be saved from this town. Stay in the oven and do not come out tonight. I am going to punish this town that does not remember when its stomach is full and warm from the fire, those who are hungry and cold”.

Before leaving the village, the beggar shook the dust off his feet and proclaimed, “Where I stick this stick, let a torrent come out”. So much water gushed out that the village was soon flooded, completely submerging the village and its inhabitants. Only the house of the humble baker or the women, depending on the version, survived. That beggar, they explain, was Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, part of this legend came true on the night of January 9, 1959. The rupture of a dam devastated the village of Ribadelago, causing the death of 144 of its inhabitants.

Sources:

Arrizabalaga Mónica. (2018). Pueblos Sumergidos. In España: La Historia Imaginada: De Los Antiguos Mitos a Las Leyendas contemporáneas (pp. 120–125). essay, Espasa.