El Tarlà - Carrer de l'Argenteria, Girona

Heading along the Carrer de l'Argenteria in Girona towards the Rambla de la Llibertat.

Seen on the bar above was El Tarlà.

Spring festival on the Rambla and on other occasions.

When centuries gone by, the street was closed for weeks to avoid the Black Death reaching the whole city, a man entertained the bored kids by jumping about on a beam. A popular rag doll (the Tarlà) now dances as a memory of this event.

Tarlà de l'Argenteria

The Tarlà de l'Argenteria is one of the most typical figures of Girona , a doll that, hanging from side to side of Carrer de l'Argenteria, turns around for certain days of the year. It is a doll with the wooden head and the body of clothing, stuffed with sawdust. Currently, the oldest preserved Tarlà is located in the History Museum of Girona .

Her clothes have changed over the years, lately, and for a long time, it has been dressed as a kind of toy, with skeletons at the tips of the hat. It has rigid arms, articulated by the shoulder, and the hands are fixed in a bar (before wood, now iron) that can be rotated by means of a handle that acts from one of the balconies where the bar rests. Before, he acted during the Argenteria festivities, around August 28, St. Augustine's day, street landlord. Lately, the festivities of San Agustin are no longer celebrated, and to preserve the tradition hangs during the spring festivities of La Rambla and L'Argenteria, in the surroundings of Sant Jordi.

The legend that justifies its action is well known to the people of Girona: at a time when plague was one of the most deeply rooted collective fears, due to their mortal consequences, a small outbreak of that terrible epidemic was pronounced in the Argenteria street , where, as the name says, there were the workshops of the Argentines (synonymous of jewelers) of the city of Girona . To avoid possible contamination in the rest of the city, the street was placed in a quarantine and closed and closed by both ends with a fence made of reeds, which were also placed on the doors and windows because they were believed to prevent transmission of pestilence And all the time when the neighbors were forced to be isolated, unable to get out of the other neighborhoods, the long hours of sadness and boredom were enlivened by the performance of a popular character called Tarlà, who was doing Pebbles in the middle of the street, such as the acrobats of the circus.

To remember the nice character, a doll was later built, hanging from a rotating bar, imitating the giragonses of its predecessor of flesh and blood. The figure of the Tarlà was very esteemed by the Girona people because of their cheerful and non-formal nature and Girona has always been a symbol of fun and entertainment.

It explains the legend that Tarlà fell in love with a precious girl, daughter of a baker. The father of the girl did not want in any way that Tarlà would approach her daughter. Even so, Tarlà was determined to see the girl of her dreams.

One day, taking advantage of the fact that the baker was not in the pastry shop, the Tarlà went to see her in love. But while talking to her, they felt like the baker returned and Tarlà had no choice but to hide himself in a sack of flour. While Tarlà was hiding, waiting for the man to leave, he breathed the remains of flour that he had in the bag and sneezed "xiu-xiu". With such bad luck that the father of the girl heard him and found him.

Tarlà, who wanted to forgive himself and ask for the hand of the girl who had stolen the heart, made a proposal to the baker. He would give him the recipe for a sweet still unknown, which would be known throughout Girona. This sweet is the male, named after the sneeze that he discovered. This is how the young man became the best known of Girona, and Tarlà was able to marry his girlfriend.

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Taken in: Spain / Catalonia / Girona (show map)

Taken on: May 16, 2019

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Carrer de l'Argenteria

Girona

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Rambla de la Llibertat

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El Tarlà

the Tarlà

Tarlà de l'Argenteria « less

Sets appears in: • Girona

Groups appears in: • Sculpture • dummy more » • Mannequins and Waxworks at Work and at Play • Terror of the Autons (Mannequins) « less

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ72, f/5.3, 1/500 sec, 24.2mm, ISO 160 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-FZ72
Aperture:	f/5.3
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/500)
Focal Length:	24.2mm
ISO:	160
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.1.0
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