From Storehouses to Stadiums

By Awake! correspondent in Spain

FROM hilltop to seashore, a familiar feature of the landscape of Galicia, northwest Spain, is the hórreo. Few Galician homesteads are without one. Usually made of granite or wood and invariably adorned with a cross, the hórreo might easily be mistaken for a family burial tomb.

Its purpose, however, is more mundane. It is a small storehouse, or granary, used for keeping corn, potatoes, and other crops dry during the damp winter months. The mushroomlike pillars on which it rests serve to outwit the rodents, who would dearly love to feast on the harvest.

But 30 years ago, one particular hórreo in the small village of Xeoane had its cross removed. (See photo above.) This small storehouse​—just 108 square feet [10 sq m]—​served as the first secret meeting place of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Galicia. As many as 23 Witnesses would crowd into this tiny space, arriving and departing under cover of darkness to avoid being arrested during Franco’s dictatorship.

Now, about two decades have passed since Jehovah’s Witnesses were granted religious freedom in Spain. Recently, the Witnesses in Galicia held their annual district convention. A regional newspaper, La Voz de Galicia, said:

“Just as the early Christians met together in the Roman catacombs to hold their ceremonies, forbidden by the authorities, so the first Jehovah’s Witnesses of Galicia, back in the ’50’s, used an hórreo. . . . Now there are 4,000 [Witnesses] in the four Galician provinces. . . . This time, their meeting place​—the municipal sports stadium—​is more spacious.” It was indeed a far cry from that humble hórreo! And now, throughout Spain, there are some 80,000 Witnesses in over a thousand congregations!

[Picture on page 24]

Large convention in football stadium in Barcelona