Spanish castle magic

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Zafra castle

Spanish castle magic. Castillo de Zafra, Guadalajara, Dating from the late 12th century it is built on a sandstone outcrop on top of a previous Moorish fort, and stands on the borderlands between Christian and Muslim-ruled territory.  Castillian, the language from the Land of Castles.

Incidentally, the castle featured as the Tower of Joy in Games of Thrones. 馃摲 Diego Delso, Wikipedia

There are an estimated 10,400 fortified structures in Spain. Most are in private hands. Around 90% of a runious state.

Montearag贸n

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On the way up to Montearag贸n castle, taken by the POUM mlitia in September 1936.
Ridiculously beautiful wildflowers like a Monet, a griffon vulture sonewhere above. Always a vulture somewhere over your head in Arag贸n. With the Orwell Society one May.

El Greco’s Toledo

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El Greco”s mesmerising and dramatic View of Toledo. Painted around ~1600. I love the threatening clouds, the hills seem about to swallow the town or perhaps slide into the Tajo below. This is one of the earliest examples of a landscape painting though it is not a true topographical representation.

View of Toledo

El Greco鈥檚 later painted View and Plan of Toledo (1608). This canvas offers a multiple viewpoint; a panoramic. The River Tajo聽is seen here asa  sculpture pouring water and so prosperity, apparently part of the town’s propaganda聽campaign to convince聽Philip II聽and his court聽to return to Toledo from聽Madrid.

View and Plan of Toledo

Ice wells in Fuendetodos

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Impressive ice well in Fuendetodos, birthplace of Goya. One of ~1000 in Arag贸n, Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia Built during the Little Ice Age (C16-19th) they were big business in Eastern Spain. Ice wae collected over winter in sierras, stored and shipped to the cities until the early C20th when technology rendered them obsolete.

It goes without saying that climate change has rendered them ultra-obsolete. So little snow falls in these places in the heating 21st century.

Basque whalers

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Hondarribia stamp bearing a right whale

Official stamp of the Basque border town of Hondarribia, dated 1335, showing the hunting of a Right Whale (Ballena de los vascos in Spanish). With local whales decimated by the end of the Middle Ages, Basque whalers found new population off Newfoundland, reaching these territories by the early C16th or even before.

Image Wikipedia

Monday in the Sun

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Lunes al Sol starring Javier Barden. This powerful 2002 drama shows how unemployment affects men left jobless by the closure of Vigo’s shipyards in Galicia. Bardem’s later film El Buen Patr贸n is told from the opposite perspective of a boss, who only concern is himself.. It’s even more damning on effects of capitalism on human beings.

Whaling station in Galicia

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Whaling station at Cangas de Morrazo

Some time ago I sneaked inside the abandoned whaling station at Cangas de Morrazo run by the Mass贸 family tinning company. There are remains of another small whaling factory in the C铆es’ southernmost  island.

This was more or less where in 1980 Galicia’s and Spain’s whaling industry ended. The factory is in a right mess. It would make a great site for a museum to the history of that evocative, cruel and sorry business.

1482 map of Spain

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1482 map of Hispania

1482 map of Hispania, the kingdoms of Granada and Navarre still hanging on. Castile and Arag贸n including the Principality of Catalonia still separate entities for another 125 years, latter including Roussillon. The geography was based on the work of the 2nd Century CE work by Ptolemy.