In different religions, aromas play an important role in rites and liturgies, meditation, prayers and communication with deities. They encourage concentration and create a particular atmosphere.

In this replica of the cathedral of Burgos, we are going to find 5 of these aromas used in different religions. Three are on the front and two on the sides. You will open the little brown windows and discover the aromas of wax, incense and myrrh, among others...

Wine tour:

Wine has been and still is closely linked to religion, in ancient Greece the cult of Dionysus, God of wine, was very active and the cult of Bacchus, its equivalent in ancient Rome, was shown in the famous Bacchanals.

There are countless references to this link in the Hebrew Bible. Both Jews, who have a special blessing for it, and Christians, for whom it forms an essential part of the cult and serves as the blood of Christ. As a curiosity, this wine is white and sweet.

In Europe, after the fall of the Roman Empire, it was the monks who maintained the cultivation of this wine, as they needed it for the celebration of the holy mass, and they went deeper into its production as well as into the knowledge of the best places for planting vines.

The aroma of sandalwood, which is of tertiary origin, derives from the ageing of wines, especially red wines, in oak barrels, and is one of the noble aromas that come from the use of new oak. We can find this aroma in Spanish, Italian, Californian and Chilean wines.

The aroma of tuberose oil is a floral aroma of primary origin, reminiscent of white flowers, common in wines made with Chenin Blanc, in young Riesling, and in white Burgundies and Chablis.

Incense is of tertiary origin, it is related to the balsamic origin family, considered a noble aroma in aged wines, it is found in barrel aged wines. We can find it in Cabernet Sauvignon from California and Chile, in Tempranillo from Ribera del Duero, Malbec from Caors, etc. It is also related to the balsamic family that we can hear in locution 3 in the kitchen.

Myrrh is rarely associated with the world of wine although it is a common descriptor in very old Montilla Moriles amontillados with what would be a tertiary aroma coming from criadera ageing.

Signs:

In the various religions, pleasant smells, the sweetest, the most captivating play an important role in rites and liturgies, in meditation, in prayers and in communication with the divinities. Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Jews, Greeks, Romans and Christians - all of them - have resorted to the practice of pleasing their Gods by means of aromas. The latter burned incense in their homes and temples and used it in their funeral ceremonies, believing that the soul ascended with the smoke.

Not surprisingly, both the birth of Jesus and his death are associated with scents. The frankincense and myrrh offered to him by the magi from the East, the oil of nard, and the funeral oils with which they anointed his corpse, are the beginning of a relationship with aromas that would flourish during the centuries of the formation and consolidation of Christianity.

Incense comes from the Latin incendere (to burn) and is obtained from certain resinous trees of the Burseraceae family whose exudations, when burnt, give off a good smell. To produce a more penetrating and heavier aroma, other substances are added, including musk, sandalwood, juniper, cedar, benzoin, etc. Its trade was one of the most lucrative and important in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, as it was an exotic, extremely expensive and highly prized item.
The use of myrrh in the ancient world was mainly ritual. Its name comes from the Arabic (murr) and means bitter. It had many uses in antiquity and was used in the manufacture of perfumes, ointments and medicines.

On the other hand, it was associated with luxurious lifestyles as a symbol of high socio-economic status and was associated with preparations for love, being the perfume with which beds were scented when preparing for love.

Spikenard oil was a highly valued perfume. Spiritual, with its spicy, musty perfume. It is an amber-yellow liquid with a strong characteristic sweet-woody, very warm, almost "animal" smell.

It is made from the rhizomes of this plant and produces an intensely aromatic oil. It was extraordinarily expensive because to obtain one litre of essence it was necessary to press more than 100 kilos of tuberose.

Sandalwood. Its aphrodisiac properties date back to ancient times and in India it is still considered a magical aroma, sweet and exotic woody, subtle and persistent. It is obtained from the distillation of dry wood and contains high amounts of alpha and beta-santalol, small molecules that have anti-bacterial and sedative characteristics.