El oso and El modroño

The symbol of Madrid is el oso y el modroño. You can see this symbol everywhere! There is a huge statue in Puerta del Sol and it is stamped on taxis, buildings, bridges etc. When Ben and I first got here, we saw everyone taking pictures by the statue in Sol and we couldn’t figure out what was so important about it. Ben finally decided to research it and we found out it is the symbol of Madrid.

The modroño tree when translated into English is strawberry tree. I can’t quite figure out why because from the numerous articles I have read, this tree does not produce strawberries, only berries that look like strawberries. They are small and red but if you eat them on their own they are very bitter. I believe they are used in marmalades though.

From what Ben and I can gather, el oso and el modroño go back to a dispute in the 13^th century over hunting rights on land owned by the church. Citizens wanted to hunt on the land and the church didn’t want them to. The dispute was settled by declaring that the church owned the ground but the citizens owned the animals on the ground which gave them the right to hunt. The trees were considered part of the ground so the modroño represents the church and the bear represents the citizens.