In life Pedro de Luna y Gotor (1328-1423), Aka Benedict XIII, Aka Pope Luna, was a figure as fascinating as controversial. However attracted that it was his life (and it was) what probably never imagined the famous “Antipapa” Aragonese is that with the passing of the centuries his skull would end up starring in a worthy story of a Thriller of Dan Brown and facing two villages that have been throwing in A legal pulse to clarify who deserves to host the relic.
Now that story writes a new chapter.
What happened? That incredible as it may seem, Pope Luna, a character who died more than 600 years ago, is starring in a heated legal dispute Between two Aragonese villas: Illueca and Sabiñán. The two locations are separated for 15 minutes by car and together do not reach 3,500 neighbors, but when it comes to Pope Luna they maintain two postures in an irreconcilable appearance: both claim to be the place of legitimate rest of the remains of the “antipapa”.
Why is it news? The lawsuit between Illueca and sabiñán on account of Pope Luna’s skull, which is the little that is preserved from his body, is nothing new. Both locations They have been Battleing to clarify which of the two you have the most right to be the resting place of the skull, something that already led to the fact that in 2023 To the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon was pronounced in favor of the Consistory of Sabiñán.
The novelty, like He has just revealed The Aragon newspaperIt is that the Illueca City Council does not seem willing to give up and has hired a lawyer to reopen the process. To achieve this, it proposes to submit a new demand, something that, as the regional newspaper progresses, will happen In September.
What do you argue? What he resolved does plus two years Aragonese justice is that Pope Luna’s relic belongs to the Sabiñán City Council. Now Illueca focuses on his claim from another angle and argues that the key is not in whom he is the legal owner of the remains, but what was the original will of the “antipapa”.
“We are not going to instigate the judge to say who is the owner of the skull, but to say who can better fulfill the will of Pope Luna’s descendants,” Comment to The newspaper Jorge Español, the lawyer signed by Illueca. It is not the first case on heritage that reaches your office. Spanish already became famous for defend to the City of Sijena in front of the Generalitat.
And where does the dispute come from? To solve that question before, you have to know the peculiar (and attributed) history of the bones of Pope Luna. After his death in 1423, in Peñíscola, his nephew claimed the body and transferred it to the Castle Palacio de Illueca, the same town where the “Antipapa” was born in 1328. There, in his native villa, the bones of the controversial Pope Luna remained the following centuries until at the beginning of the XVIII ended up desecrated.
It is said that Between 1701 and 1707 The French troops that supported Felipe V in the war of succession took the remains of his grave and that from the evil bones of Pope Luna only the skull was recovered, a skull fragment that moved to the Argillo Palacein Sabiñán. There it rested as many centuries until with the arrival of the 21st century the skull again starred in another truculent chapter.
What happened? That in April 2000 someone stole the relic. The skull was guarded in a wooden urn located inside a chapel, but that did not prevent this spring for more than 25 years ago for two young people to loot it. The skull ended up hidden in a booth while the looters tried that the mayor of Illueca pay them a rescue of one million pesetas.
The news of the robbery went around the world, but did not last too long. Months later the police recovered what was left of the head of the “antipapa”. To confirm that those bones were effectively those of the deceased Pedro de Luna underwent an exhaustive exam that included carbon dating 14 and a digital exam.
The results were favorable and after years of analysis (and a trip to Florida through) the relic moved to the Provincial Museum of Zaragoza. In 2021 He returned to Sabiñán already with the label of good of cultural interest (BIC). To guard the remains It was conditioned The Chapel of Santa Ana of the Church of San Pedro Apóstol.
And what is the situation now? It depends on whoever is asked. A few years ago justice confirmed that the relic is owned by the City of Sabiñán since He received it of the Olazábal-Bordiu, the family of the Palacio de Argillo.
The truth is that this was the town where the remains of the “antipapa” rested between the 18th century and the theft of 2000. But Illueca sees things differently. Your lawyer remember that to understand the history of the relic well, it does not come with the 18th. It is time to go much further, to the fifteenth century, when the Aragon crown authorizes the transfer of the body to Illueca at the request of the Pope’s nephew, which, the town maintains, gives a track of what the desire of the relatives was.
Why is it important? That the skull of Pope Luna is generating such a stir and in front of two neighboring villas is not explained only by its patrimonial value or as Bic heritage. The key is who was the protagonist of the story and the enormous fascination that continues to generate more than six centuries after his death: Pedro de Luna y Gotor, also known as Benedict XIII or Pope Luna, was one of the great figures of the end of the Middle Ages.
He was proclaimed high pontiff in Aviñón, in 1394, during the Great Schism of the Westand although over time he dealt with the pressure of monarchs and prelates and even He was excommunicatedHe always defended his legitimacy. Hence, among other things, in addition to his skull, he left us a saying that is still alive in the popular speech of the 21st century: “stay in its 13” just like Benedict XIII.
Images | Erik Cleves Kristensen (Flickr), Sabilán City Council (Robert Gillon) and Mia & Steve Mestdagh (Flickr)
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