The ship Espíritu Santo was the vessel chosen to take Emperor Charles V from the port of Flesinga (Flanders) to the port of Laredo, where he disembarked on 28 September 1556 to make the journey that took him to the Monastery of Yuste.
It was already known that the emperor’s health was not good. According to the physician and writer Víctor Guerrero Cabanillas in his study ‘Illnesses and death of Charles V’, published in Revista de Estudios Extremeños, already in Jarandilla de la Vera, on 20 November 1556, Luís Quijada wrote to the secretary Juan Vázquez to inform him of the emperor’s health. According to what he reported, he was in good health, healthy and fat, although gout was causing him quite a few ailments. However, in spite of everything, nothing foreshadowed such an accelerated end.
And all because of a window.
On Saturday 4 February, the 24th Emperor’s Route will be held, commemorating the transfer of Emperor Charles V from his temporary retreat in Jarandilla de la Vera to the Monastery of Yuste.
Everything is ready for the 24th edition of the Route of Emperor Charles V! As usual, this route, which starts in Jarandilla de la Vera and ends at the Monastery of Yuste after passing through Aldeanueva de la Vera and Cuacos de Yuste, commemorates the final transfer of Emperor Charles V to his final resting place.
90 leagues separated Laredo from the Monastery of Yuste. That was the distance travelled by Emperor Charles V on his last journey after disembarking in Laredo until he reached Yuste.
We are not discovering anything if we say that Emperor Charles V loved fruit. This explains the large number of fruit trees to be found in the gardens of the Monastery of Yuste. These trees share space with all kinds of ornamental plants.
As soon as the first cold weather set in during the autumn of 1557, Emperor Charles V demanded that a cooker be installed in the Monastery of Yuste, as he considered the fireplaces to be insufficient.
When Emperor Charles V decided to retire to the Monastery of Yuste, he had a pond built where, it is said, he used to fish, although the reality is far removed from this picturesque note.
Did you know that there is a German cemetery in Cuacos de Yuste, the only military cemetery in the whole of Spain, and that around 180 soldiers who died during the First and Second World Wars are buried there, either in Spain or near its coasts?
It is said that Emperor Charles V held his funeral during his lifetime and even lay down in a coffin to listen to the monks’ prayers for his soul. But how much of this is true?
Red de Cooperación de las Rutas del emperador Carlos V 