Eduardo González
Tradition says that the Christmas custom of representing the Nativity scenes with figures was introduced to Spain by Charles III from Naples, where he had reigned for 25 years. However, the real creator was Queen Maria Amalia, who was very fond of Nativity scenes and whose premature death has been remembered ever since with the Nativity scene in the Royal Palace.
The tradition of Nativity scenes arose in Italy in a way that was, to say the least, curious. Around the 10th century, the custom of representing the episode of the birth of Jesus with real actors began to spread throughout this country and other parts of Europe, the greatest exponent of which was the Plays of the Three Wise Men.
The problem arose when those performances, which were held in temples, began to become authentic parties in which alcohol was used and religious stories were treated in a very irreverent way. As a result, Pope Innocent III banned these theatrical performances in 1207, and to remedy this, it was decided to replace the real actors with figures. Tradition has it that Francis of Assisi staged the first nativity scene in history in 1223 in Tuscany. True or not, what is certain is that it was in Italy where, thanks to the Franciscans and the Poor Clares, the custom began to spread through convents and homes.
The privilege of having the oldest current nativity scene in the world is disputed by the Bavarian monastery of Flussen (with a manger from the mid-13th century) and the cathedral of Florence (from the end of the same century), but it was not until the 15th century when nativity scenes like the current ones began to be made, with loose parts.
The first nativity scenes known in Spain appeared, due to Italian influence, in the territories of the Crown of Aragon. However, it was not until the 18th century for the custom to take root.
When Charles of Bourbon was crowned King of Naples in 1734 as Charles VII, the tradition had already been well known in his new kingdoms for at least 400 years, but the true golden age of the Neapolitan nativity scene came in the 17th century, when those spectacular nativity scenes began to be made, whose scenes, of great quality and with a wealth of traditional details, were modified each year with a different set-up.
Enthusiastic about the Neapolitan nativity scenes, Charles and his equally enthusiastic wife, Queen Maria Amalia of Saxony, brought the nativity scene custom to Madrid when the monarch was crowned King of Spain in 1759 as Charles III.
Maria Amalia had the nearly 7,000 figures that made up her Naples nativity scene brought to the Royal Palace of Buen Retiro and, as often happened in such cases, the noble houses were quick to adopt the new royal custom and set up their own nativity scenes in their palaces.
The queen died the following year of tuberculosis at the age of just 35, and Charles III, in homage to his wife, decided to set up a nativity scene in the Royal Palace every year to be visited by the people, which helped to spread the custom to the most humble homes.
To this end, the king commissioned the Royal Workshops to make the so-called Prince’s Nativity Scene for his son, the future Charles IV. Many of its pieces did not survive the War of Independence or other conflicts, but the Prince’s Nativity Scene, made up of figures in Neapolitan, Genoese and Spanish styles, remains one of the most important nativity scene sets of the 18th century. Faithful to Neapolitan custom, the arrangement of the pieces is modified every year and new figures from Italian workshops are introduced from time to time.
