The seven hundred year period between 722 and 1492 has long been known to historians of Spain as the ‘Reconquista’ and the Spanish have organised their medieval history around the drama of this glorious event which over time has become a cherished feature of the self-image of the Spanish people.
Posted in Africa, Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, History, Literature, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Babieca, Burgos, Castilla y Leon, Cordoba, El Cid, Gladiator, La Tizona, Moors in Spain, Reconquista
My pal John Corden asked if I could post a picture of the entire collection.
I am happy to oblige…
Not great pictures I am afraid due to the poor light in the shed where they are on display.
Has anyone else got a completely pointless collection?
While the current travel restrictions are in place I have no new stories to post so what I thought that I would do is to go through my picture archives and see where I was on this day at any time in the last few travelling years.
On 23rd May 2013 in was in the Spanish City of Burgos in Castilla y Leon…
This is the City of the Spanish hero El Cid, and here is warrior statue looking fearsome with his grizzled beard, wild cloak flowing madly, his sword La Tizona, too big for an ordinary mortal extended menacingly ahead of him, his eyes fixed ferociously on an enemy army as he led a charge against the Moors sat on his magnificent famous white horse Babieca.
Posted in Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, Food, History, Hotels, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Alvar Fanez de Minaya, Burgos, Caminho de Santiago, Castilla y Leon, Culture, El Cid, Life, Saint James the Moor Slayer
While the current travel restrictions are in place I have no new stories to post so what I thought that I would do is to go through my picture archives and see where I was on this day at any time in the last few travelling years.
On 5th May 2011 we were in the Spanish town of Trujillo which I am happy to declare one of my favourites in all of Spain.
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Posted in Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, History, Literature, Natural Environment, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Extremadura, Francesco Pizzaro, Hérnan Cortés, Lima, Mexico, Peru, South America, Spain, Spanish Empire, Trujillo
Regardless of the size of any Spanish city the historical centre is generally small and easily managed on foot and Valencia is no exception confined as it is within a circle that was once the old medieval city walls.
Our excellent accommodation was close to the central squares adjacent to the Cathedral and to the central market which was one of my favourite places. Every morning I volunteered for breakfast shopping duties and made an early morning visit joining lines of Valencians going about their daily business, some vigorous, some dawdling, some urgent and energetic some reluctant and lethargic.
On the very edge of the centre is another market, a very fine building with a colourful Gaudi-inspired façade which is an example of Modernista Valencian Art Nouveau architecture of the time and has since been declared a national monument.
It was once a real market but these days it has been gentrified and gone up-market and instead of stalls of fish and vegetables it is home to expensive cafés, restaurants and shops, the smell of the sea and the soil has been replaced by barista and croissant but it is a good place to visit all the same.
Not a great deal of the original city walls remain in place, just a pile of gnarled stone here and there but there are two restored gate houses that El Cid would surely have recognised even today and I chose one of them to pay the very reasonable admission fee of €1and climbed to the top where there were good views over the whole of the city.
One of the things that I especially liked about Valencia was the general level of cleanliness with tidy streets and a thankful lack of graffiti, I know some people consider it to be a form of expressionism but in my opinion it is almost always a punishable crime. I do however like good urban art and on almost every street corner there was something worthwhile to see, always well done and tasteful. (The three worst places that I have been for graffiti by the way are Bologna, Lisbon and Ljubljana).
Finally we visited the Bull Ring which I know a lot of people won’t agree with as being something worthwhile. I used to think that I would like to see a Bullfight but not anymore. Not because I disagree with it in principle but simply because as a spectacle it wouldn’t appeal to me. That is because I am not Spanish and it is not part of my culture and tradition.
“Nothing expresses the masculine quality of this country better than the bull-fight, that lurid and often tawdry gladiatorial ritual, which generally repels the northerner in the theory, but often makes his blood race in the act.” – Jan Morris. ‘Spain’
There are many calls from outside Spain (and within as well) to ban the sport but that would be doing away with a pagan tradition that stretches back to the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans and once it has gone that link will disappear forever.
“I do not consider bullfighting a sport, it is an art, a science, a ritual more spiritual than physical” Patricia McCormick – America’s first professional female bullfighter
The informative little museum explained that in a bullfight six bulls are killed in an event and this involves three matadors with their band of attendants, the picador horsemen who lance the bulls and the banderillos who stab them with barbed spikes. If the spectators approve of the matador’s performance they wave white handkerchiefs to signal to the president of the fight that he should reward him with a trophy, one or both of the bull’s ears and/or its tail. Personally I would rather have a bottle of champagne or a cheque!
Every year, approximately two hundred and fifty thousand bulls are killed in bullfights. Opponents condemn it as a cruel blood sport, supporters defend it as a cultural event and point out that animal cruelty exists elsewhere in horse racing, rodeos or any form of hunting with guns which are all forms of sport that are stoically defended by those who take part.
Personally I would include the cruel and pointless sport of fishing in that list because to my way of thinking there is nothing more barbaric than catching a poor creature just going peacefully about its daily business with a hook and line and dragging it from its environment in a most stressful way and watch it lying there on the bank of a river gasping for breath.
All in all, I remain firmly on the fence in the matter of Bullfighting. I think we should first address the issue of man’s inhumanity to man.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Beaches, Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, History, Literature, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Animal Cruelty, Bullfighting, El Cid, El Poema del Cid, Graffiti, Granada, Street Art, Valencia
When planning a road trip in Spain at least for one night I generally like to find a place to stay off the usual well beaten tourist trail. I have had great success with this and in picking places like Carmona, a few miles east of Seville in Andalucía, Pedro Bernardo in the mountains of Castilla y Leon and Almagro on the Ruta de Don Quixote in Castilla-La Mancha.
I was optimistic that Antequera was going to be added to the list of good selections.
Because of geography, tradition and culture Antequera is called the heart of Andalucía and was once considered as a suitable candidate for the regional government to be based but it eventually and inevitably lost out to Seville.
My instincts proved to be correct and I was not disappointed.
Click on an image to scroll through the gallery…
Almagro is an old town that was once much more important than it is today, two hundred and fifty years ago it was for a short time the provincial capital of La Mancha (1750-61) but religious decline set in during the reign of Charles III and it fared badly and suffered damage in the Napoleonic and the Carlist wars.
Eventually it was eclipsed by its neighbour Ciudad Real and it settled down to become the quiet provincial town that it is today on, not being unkind, a secondary, less important, tourist trail. We came upon Almagro quite by chance and chose it for a one night stop-over. We stayed for three!
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Posted in Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, Food, History, Hotels, Literature, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Almagro, Castilla-La Mancha, Postcards, Spain, Spain UNESCO
From Besalu in Catalonia to Chinchon in Castilla-La Mancha about four hundred and fifty miles to the south.
The Plaza is in a marvellous location with a big irregular shaped square that is used for town festivals and the occasional bullfight; it is surrounded by a hierarchical arrangement of buildings of two and three storeys with two hundred and thirty-four wooden running balconies all painted a uniform shade of green called ‘claros’ and below these shops, bars and restaurants on the ground floor all spilling out onto the pavement.
It was the location for one of the opening scenes, a bullfight as it happens, in the 1966 film, ‘Return of the Magnificent Seven’ and was also used as a location for the film ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’.
Click on an image to scroll through the gallery…
Posted in Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, Hotels, Literature, Natural Environment, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Besalu, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Chinchon, Don Quixote, Madrid, Spain UNESCO
“…Sigüenza, ninety miles from Madrid, remains a quiet spot in an empty landscape. It sits among narrow valleys celebrated by Camilo José Celar in his ‘Journey to the Acarria’” – Christopher Howse – ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’
I am sharing with you my favourite places in Spain; last time I was in the north in Cantabria and today I am two hundred and fifty miles south in the town of Siguenza in Castilla-La Mancha…
Click on an image to scroll through the gallery…
Posted in Cathedrals, El Cid, History, Literature, Natural Environment, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Semana Santa, Spain Civil War, Spain UNESCO
“Extremadura was pre-eminently the country of the adventurers for many of them went to the New World… and often returned rich and the region is full of their memorials…. The old part of Cáceres is embellished everywhere with the heraldry of imperial nouveaux-riches”, Jan Morris – ‘Spain’
As we walked into the city we passed into the old town through one of the eight-hundred year old Moorish gates.
The city has an eclectic blend of Roman, Islamic, Northern Gothic and Italian Renaissance styles, the result of many tug-of-war battles fought here throughout history. Precisely because of this Cáceres was declared a World Heritage City by UNESCO in 1986.
Saint George is the patron saint of the city and the story goes that he knew that there was a dragon terrorising the population of Cáceres, so he captured it and brought it to the city; he told the citizens that if they all converted from Islam to Christianity then he would kill the dragon. Fifteen thousand men converted on the spot (the women weren’t so important it seems) so he slayed the dragon and Cáceres lived in peace.
The route from the splendid gate took us to the immaculate Plaza Mayor which had recently been resurfaced and tidied up in preparation for a submission to be considered as Spain’s representative as the European capital of Culture. (Ultimately not successful as it happens – pipped at the post by San Sebastián in the Basque Region).
It was hot now under a clear blue sky so after we had walked the circumference of the square we took a table at the Meson ‘Los Portales’ and ordered drinks and tapas. Because of a communication problem (We can’t speak Spanish, the waiter couldn’t understand English) we didn’t get the one that we ordered but it was nice enough and we enjoyed it anyway.
After Alfonso IX of Leon conquered Cáceres in 1227 it flourished during the Reconquest and the Discovery of America as influential Spanish families and nobles built homes and small palaces here, and many members of families from Extremadura participated in voyages to America where they made their fortune and then returned home to enjoy it.
“The colour of the walls was of the richest golden brown to be found anywhere in Spain, as though drenched, steeped, saturated with all the sunlight of centuries of summers.” – Ted Walker – ‘In Spain’
The old quarter, with its numerous palaces, churches and convents is enclosed by the city wall, most of it Moorish in construction, many of the defence towers are still standing and there are even a few Roman stone blocks visible. From the Plaza Mayor we walked up the steps and through the Estrella de Churriguer archway.
From there to the Plaza de Santa Maria where close by is the Palacio De Los Toledo-Moctezuma, which is a vivid reminder of the importance of Cáceres in the conquest of the Americas because it was built for Techichpotzin by one of her three Spanish husbands. Who was Techichpotzin? I hear you ask, well, let me tell you, she was no less than the daughter of the Aztec ruler Montezuma.
Dominating the square is the Iglesia de Santa Maria so we slipped inside and took a look around carefully remembering to avoid the image of the Cristo de los Blázquez, also known as the Cristo Negro or Black Christ which, tradition has it, brought death to all those who looked at, or touched it.
It cost just €1 to climb to the top of the bell tower so we paid and took the stone spiral staircase to the top where there were good views of the old town and beyond which we shared with all of the Storks that had built their untidy nests at the highest possible points.
Click on an image to scroll through the gallery…
From here we walked the old narrow streets. Past the Palacio De Los Golfines De Abajo, with its spectacular and architecturally important façade in a style that was widely used in Spain and in South America throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This Palacio was where the house the Catholics Kings stayed when they visited Caceres as guests of the Golfin family, the most important people in town, and the royal crest is carved above the doorway to prove it.
From the old town we came back to the square and walked into the shopping streets and around the old town walls from the outside and then with the afternoon slipping quickly away we returned to the Plaza Mayor and to the car. If I was planning this trip again I would have stayed for a night in Cáceres but it was too late now and our accommodation was booked in Mérida about thirty miles to the south.
We estimated that we would be there in a little under an hour and at first all went according to plan until suddenly the motorway was closed and there was a diversion. I took a decision to take the Badajoz road because although it wasn’t on the route to Mérida it was at least going south and I was confident that there would somewhere be a minor road to make the necessary correction.
We started to travel south-west and because this is such a sparsely populated region of Spain it turns out that there are not a lot of roads at all so we just kept going relentlessly towards Badajoz and further and further away from our intended destination. Eventually after quite a lengthy detour we came across a road that was so new that it wasn’t even on the map but it said Mérida so we trusted to luck and took it and started to drive in roughly the right direction
The journey that should have taken under an hour took nearly two and it was very late afternoon/early evening when we arrived at the Hotel Mérida Palace, parked the car and presented ourselves at reception for check in.
Posted in Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, History, Hotels, Literature, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Caceres, Conquistadors, Extremadura, Merid, Spain World Heritage Sites, Trujillo
