We spent a morning in Bilbao and then the afternoon and evening in Burgos. Not that these two places have anything else in common. Bilbao is fiercely Basque whereas Burgos is proudly in Castile and very Spanish. These two cities were as far north in Spain as our travels took us and not too far from each other by car.
Don't you just have to love a place with a name like "Bilbao"? In fact, Bilbao is a distinctly not-charming industrial port city. However, it now boasts one of the most famous structures of the late 20th C: Frank Gehry’s Bilbao Guggenheim Museum. I had to see it.
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| all photos by JS |
And it did not disappoint. If there's any continuing controversy about it, my vote says it's a winner!
What a terrific, expansive, surprising feeling to come upon it, to walk around and in it. Doing so, I kept being gleefully surprised. It was a totally up feeling for me. And frankly, Frank, I hadn't come with any particular expectations of even liking it.
I took the first photo (L) on the walkway that sneaks up to the entrance GG from one side. You turn left at the dog and walk slightly down (you'll see). The photo (R) beside it, with the "boat prow" shows the entrance. The metal 'shingles' and the different colors they take in different lights and shadings, the shapes, the ins-and-outs of it... caramba! this is an exquisite piece of work. It has so many different facets that no one rectilinear view does it justice.
Construction continues in the area around the museum. I'm not sure what the finished result will be as an environs for it. But so far, so good.
I rather liked this photo I took looking up at a suspended crane... part of the construction I mentioned.
Now that’s a puppy! This flower-growing sculpture is some distance in front of the Bilbao Guggenheim, and puppy's looking across the the street.
I just liked Gehry's structure so much that I can hardly remember the paintings it held (maybe that’s not so good).
One memorable sight was a Richard Stella steel sculpture taking up an entire museum wing. It was just so right in its setting. One could walk inside and through it: walking within a sculpture within a sculpture!
The current show: Chaos and Civilization (see sign in photo below) was OK but not nearly so stirring for me as was the museum/sculpture itself.
This museum seems to have done good things for the city, too, attracting many other cultural ventures.
Bilbao is a busy Basque port. Much political turmoil exists between the Basques/ETA and Spain, and you likely know of the terrorist outbreaks. The Basque Liberation Movement/ETA has recently, after many years of wanting separation, signed an entente with the Central Spanish government.
In this region the Basque language shares space with Spanish in street signs, menus, etc. Basque is a strange language (lots of Ks and Cs and Qs) ... or at least one that I cannot relate to any other language with which I’m even vaguely familiar. Spain and France both share a history in this region, known as the Basque, which is ethnically, linguistically, culturally and historically unique.
Today's Thought
He preaches well that lives well. -Miguel de Cervantes
Today's Thought
He preaches well that lives well. -Miguel de Cervantes
From Bilbao we went to Burgos. Quite a contrast. Burgos is one of the oldest and most staid cities of Castilla-Leon. It was the historic capital of Castile. Castilla etymologically is the land of castles, built during the expanding Christian fortification in northern Spain. The people native to Burgos claim to speak the best Spanish (Castellano actually) in Spain.
Burgos is known also as a stopping place on the pilgrimage route to Santiago. Known also during the Spanish Civil War, it was Franco’s headquarters.
Now Burgos sits sedately beside the river Arlanzon. This was a pleasant place to walk despite the dreary weather (grey and rainy).
It looks like a thriving city as we walked around it, with evidence of its long-running ancient university in the many bookshops around town (where are all our bookshops in North America?). But I wanted especially to see its main cathedral (there are several in this town), and to get inside.
Burgos Cathedral is one of the oldest and largest in Spain (a country with a castle and two cathedrals at almost very turn, as I've said). It was begun in the early 1200, based somewhat on French cathedrals of the middle ages, its construction spanning to the 15th century. It's impressive with its massive Gothic style. It seems to me that the Spanish Gothic style prefers more solid and chunky proportions than the more slender versions of Gothic cathedrals elsewhere. It's much too massive to take in with an ordinary camera lens. But wait, it's only the third-largest cathedral in Spain (those in Seville and Toledo are larger.) Its front is flanked by towers terminating in octagonal spires covered with open stonework traceries. The middle section serves as an entrance.
And there are some treasures inside. For example, here's its renowned Golden Staircase you find while walking among the 17 different chapels housed in this interior space. There are many mansions...
In addition to the multitude of sculptures and artworks inhabiting the cathedral, there is a separate section, the Cathedral Museum which contains many tapestries of the 16th and 17th centuries and many works in silver and metal to do with church functions and liturgy.
The Cathedral is exceptionally well organized with signs directing visitors where to proceed. The cathedral also does a good job of educating its visitors in cathedral architecture, artistic styles, and iconography. It was good to be invited into such a cathedral while also being invited to learn something about cathedral styles through the Gothic ages and early Renaissance in Spain. Everything important was labeled. But being somewhat polymorphically perverse, I also enjoyed the things less labeled.
Below are some photos of the little creatures I like to find, and one of the many "incidental" or unlabeled works that caught my eye, as well one of about 100 Gothic statues that fill the interior.
Burgos seems a thriving city and I actually liked this famous cathedral. I admit to getting that “oh-no-not-another-cathedral” feeling after visiting so many huge, gold-filled, elaborate, drippingly ornate structures with their sometimes profoundly unsettling depictions of torture and suffering… not to mention all those Madonna Dolorosas of the palpable tears. I get the point. Give me a nice, life-affirming Madonna and Child any day!
Dedicated to the Madonna, the Burgos cathedral, despite its size, invited and aided visitors.
The Spanish hero of the Reconquista, the fabled El Cid was born in Burgos and lies buried in the Cathedral, a simple engraved stone marking the spot. Several finely sculpted tombs of other dignitaries lie here as well. May we all rest in peace... my hope is that we may do it while still on this earth!
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