Jane's adventures
This blog is about my travels. At home in New Zealand, in other parts of Oceania, North, Central and South America and in Europe.
I caught the bus out to Portugal. I didn't have much time on this leg of my journey, but I wanted to see Lisbon. I got less time there than I wanted, my bus had been cancelled, so I had to take a later one, but I got there! I wandered through the cobbled streets of the Alfama in the dreamy afternoon light. I walked up to the Castillo de São Jorge, which had a great view over Lisbon and across the sea. The moorish castle was built in the 11th century.
0 Comments
From Madrid I took the train to Toledo. Toledo is completely soaked, steeped, saturated in history, and as such is a UNESCO world heritage site. It was a fortified city under the Romans, and then was the capital of the Kingdom of the Visigoths. During the period of moorish rule many beautiful mosques were built. After the reconquista these were converted to Christian churches, but a lot of the beautiful moorish architecture remains. Toledo is called the city of three cultures, due to the Islamic, Christian and also long history of Jewish heritage in the city. Wandering around the winding medieval streets of Toledo is an experience in itself. It's kind of interesting to see medieval doors with letterboxes and cobbled carparks, well, particularly for someone like me from the new world where most of our buildings were built quite recently. Toledo Cathedral is considered one of the most magnificent cathedrals in the high Gothic style in Spain. It was started in 1226 built from white limestone from quarries near Toledo. From Madrid, I caught the bus to the small town of Manzanares el Real. While I was there I visited the medieval Manzanares el Real castle. For many hundreds of years, Spanish Christians and Islamic north African forces battled for control of the Iberian peninsula. Spain was called Al-Andalus during the last occupation of Spain by Islamic forces, but became Espana after the reconquista (reconquest) of Spain in the 15th Century. It was just after this period that the Manzanares el Real castle was built. The Castle was built in 1475 for Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, one of the most powerful men in Spain. It was built in a highly fortified way to ward off any attacks during the turbulent times following the reconquista. In 1566 the Mendoza family suffered financial misfortune and the castle was abandoned for a long time. Another fantastic art gallery in Madrid is the Thyssen museum. It has paintings from medieval times right up to the 20th century. I particularly liked some of the paintings by Kandinsky, who would paint abstract paintings that were inspired by classical music. He expressed his interpretation of the music he heard through form and colour. In one of Madrid's inner city parks, the Parque del Oeste there is an unusual sight. Round a corner and you see an actual Egyptian temple! So how did it get there? It was originally built 2,200 years ago in upper Egypt, on the banks of the Nile. It was dedicated to the goddess Isis and stood in the same location for over 2000 years. In 1960, the creation of a large dam meant that nearby archaeological sites were under threat. Spain helped to fund the international effort to protect these sites, and so as a token of it's gratitude, Egypt gave Spain this temple! I queued up for my ticket to see inside the temple. Although the tickets are free, only a few people are allowed in at a time. It is quite a small space, although it is two stories. There are also some interactive exhibits about the history of the temple. The outer part of the temple was originally part of a much larger structure. It was built to allow the rays of the sun to enter the temple at certain times of the day. The Palacio Real is one of the many royal palaces in Spain. Build in the heart of Madrid, the palace was built to rival even the OTT opulence of the palace of Versailles. It was completed in 1755 and has 3,418 rooms! It is now owned by the government and is also used for ceremonies. Photography isn't permitted in many areas, but the rooms are lavishly decorated. One room was completely decorated in porcelain and it was certainly a showy place! The botanic gardens in Madrid were founded in 1755 and contain botanical specimens from around the world. A particular focus of the botanical gardens has historically been its thousands of specimens collected from countries colonized by Spain. In the 20th century they fell into neglect, but are now very well looked after. The modern art museum, the Reina Sofia gallery is full of amazing modern and contemporary art. The most famous artwork of all is Guernica by Picasso, painted in 1937 to commemorate the bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica during the Spanish civil war. Many of the art works in the Reina Sofia gallery related to this devastating war.
The Prado museum is one of the most amazing art galleries in Europe. It is stuffed full of masterpieces. Most of these were donated from the collection of the Spanish royal family. Some of my favourites were the artworks of Hieronymus Bosch, a mysterious 15th century dutch painter. His religious paintings of heaven and hell are some of the most wildly imaginative scenes in art history (unfortunately I wasn't able to take a photo of this, but if you're interested, have a google). One of my other favourite painters is Francisco Goya. The Prado is full of paintings by this great Spanish artist. Some of his best paintings (in my opinion) are from his 'black period'. These are his 'grumpy old man' paintings, which contain some absolute masterpieces. Stricken with deafness, old, cast out from the Spanish court (previous deliberately unflattering royal portraits probably didn't help), and upset about ongoing war, Goya retreated to his country villa, painted the walls black, and set out on a series of paintings on the dark side of the human condition, ranging from human follies like vanity to war and cannibalism. He also painted these in his ground breaking expressive style. Occasionally he wasn't so grumpy though. His paintings at the time do seem to cheer up when he beautifully painted women, a favourite subject for him! From Barcelona I caught the bus to Madrid. Madrid is packed with amazing art galleries and interesting sights.
|
Author
I am a traveller from New Zealand. My blog is to inform friends and family about my adventures. I hope you enjoy it! Archives
August 2020
Categories
|