"Wafer Sellers of Parada de Sil" Mural

Made of tin, these canisters were meant to resemble a traditional milk can, with hand-painted decorations. They were traditionally used to transport the wafers, which were made from ingredients such as wheat flour, water, honey, and cinnamon.

There was a built-in game on the top of the container, based on a wheel with numbers that were used to award prizes to the participants. The wafer sellers would travel to the larger cities (especially Madrid), and their voices would be heard at the local festivals, selling their wafers with clever rhymes describing the various flavours:

"Al rico barquillo de canela (cinnamon) para el nene y la nena, son de coco (coconut) y valen poco, son de menta (mint) y alimentan, de vainilla (vanilla), ¡qué maravilla!, y de limón (lemon), ¡qué ricos que son!".

As the wafer sellers were leaving home, the residents of Parada de Sil would wave goodbye from the viewpoints located along the banks of the Sil River, which is why these are now referred to as the “Balconies of Madrid”.

On the left side of the mural, a stylised depiction of the Sil Canyon can be seen, with an image of the rose window from the Monastery of Santa Cristina superimposed.

Mural and text by Miguel Peralta (Cestola na Cachola). Parada de Sil (Ourense). 2015. Created as part of the project "A Touch of Colour in Ribeira Sacra"