Windows Bars in Spain

The other day, at one of the travel forums, I came across the question-why are there so many barred windows in Spain? The detailed answer of the forum expert read: 1. The crime rate is higher than in other countries, people are afraid of thieves. 2. With the onset of the crisis and rising unemployment, the population has become impoverished, and many are trying to solve their financial problems at the expense of others. 3. Migrants from poor Mediterranean countries who climb through the windows of native Spaniards in search of a living. I was very much amused by this answer.

Now by points: 1. Spain in terms of crime is much calmer than at least France, where there are no massive bars on the windows. 2. With the rise in unemployment during the global crisis of the 2000s, the crime situation worsened, but not much. 3. About migrants is partly true, although they are again much less in Spain than in neighboring France - they do not really shine a social freebie here. The crime rate in these strata, of course, is much higher than among indigenous people, but they are more involved in pickpocketing in places where tourists gather and small-scale fraud, and do not climb through the windows. What can you take from the average Spaniard's home? Cash? In Spain, as in any other developed country, money has long been rotated electronically. With a 100 euro piece of paper, you are unlikely to buy anything in most small shops and cafes - they simply will not have any change. Steal clothes? "don't be ridiculous! It is quite inexpensive there, and even homeless people dress quite decently. Household appliances? But who will buy it when fully functional televisions and washing machines are taken out to the garbage cans?. Why go into a house with a high probability of running into a serious article of the Criminal Code, when there are crowds of careless tourists with thick wallets?

Since many lattices are hundreds of years old, when there were no crises or migrants, I began to look for the answer to this riddle in the Middle Ages. As it turned out, the bars on the windows of houses began to be put in the second half of the sixteenth century on the instructions of Philip II. The king was known as a religious fanatic, especially revering the early Christian martyr St. Lawrence of Rome (San Lorenzo). Laurentius was the archdeacon of the Christian community of Rome during the time of the emperor Valerian, who subjected Christians to severe persecution. In 258 AD, he was roasted alive on an iron grill-brazier after refusing to renounce Christianity and accept the pagan faith. The famous monastery of San Lorenzo el Escorial, built on the instructions of Philip II and which also became his residence, had the shape of a brazier in the plan - the internal spans and courtyards of the structure form like bars and crossbars of a huge lattice. The windows of the monastery, of course, are also covered with thick bars.

To fully perpetuate the memory of his idol, the fanatical monarch gave the order to close all the windows in Madrid with bars. Homeowners reacted to the innovation creatively and many of the bars became works of blacksmithing art. Since then, grilles have become a traditional construction decor in Spain.

Of course, the protective function of the grilles has also not been canceled, especially in hot Spain, where the windows are always open. An open ground-floor window will be a temptation for easy theft in any country. In modern homes, grilles are more often found in the southern regions, especially in Andalusia, and almost none at all in the Basque Country and other northern provinces.

I doubt that the Spaniards are so afraid of apartment thieves that they put up bars that can easily withstand a tank hit.

There is also an opinion that the presence of bars supposedly reduces the amount of insurance premiums. During my next visit to Spain, I will try to test this hypothesis with local residents.

By the way, in Italy, where the level of crime is much higher than Spanish, I have not seen anything like this. In "creepy Naples", in the blocks around Piazza Garibaldi, which frightens tourists, bars are not everywhere, even on the first floors of houses.