Travels through History – Northern Spain

This book is a travelogue about the cities of northern Spain.

I travelled to

1 Pamplona

2 Burgos

3. San Sebastian

4. Valladolid – Valladolid has a bewildering array of churches, statues, palaces, and plazas. I started in the Plaza Mayor built after a fire in the 16th Century. The buildings are all painted in a rich red colour including the Ayuntamiento or City Hall, which takes pride of place on the northern side. This plaza was the first of its kind in Spain and formed the model for similar squares in Spain and most of South America. 

Heading due south through an area of shops including the department store El Corte Ingles, you come to the area called Campo Grande on the far side of which is the railway station. The Campo Grande is a park with shade-giving trees containing a small lake with a jet of water. On the southern side is the Oriental Museum and the Iglesia de San Juan de Letran. The Museo Oriental has the largest collection of Oriental art in Spain. The Augustinian Fathers christianized the Philippines and then headed to China and Japan. As they worked in these countries, they collected the best art they could find and sent it back to Spain. These items including ceramics, sculptures and paintings form the basis of the collection in the 18 rooms of the museum.

5. Segovia – UNESCO declared the old city of Segovia a World Heritage site in 1985. I journeyed to Segovia to see the Roman aqueduct bridge and the Alcazar. The latter bears a striking similarity to the castle seen at the beginning of Walt Disney productions. 

Segovia is one of nine provinces that make up the autonomous region of Castile and Leon. Burgos and Valladolid are to the north, Avila is to the west, and Madrid to the south.

The aqueduct bridge is the oldest feature of the city, dating from the late 1st or early 2nd century AD. Scholars regard this bridge as the most important Roman civil engineering feature in Spain. Water ran along channels for 9.3 miles from the Rio Frio, in the nearby mountains, before arriving in the city. It will not surprise engineers that the aqueduct bridge was constructed using the principles laid out by Vitruvius in his De Architectura book.

  The aqueduct bridge comprises 25,000 granite blocks held together without mortar. It amused me to see warning signs on the monument where a road went through one of the arches. I wondered how any road user could be unaware of a two-tiered structure that spans 818 metres and reaches a height of 28.5 metres including 6 metres of foundation. From the point the aqueduct enters the city until it reaches Plaza de Díaz Sanz, there are 75 single arches and 44 double arches, followed by four single arches, totalling 167 in all. How could anyone miss it?

6 Leon – The other major site of Leon is the Basilica of San Isidoro dating from the mid-12th Century and built into the city walls on its southern side. Before entering look at the two doorways on the western facade, whose reliefs are of the ‘Descent from the Cross’ and the ‘Sacrifice of Abraham’. Above the latter, visitors can spy San Isidoro riding a horse. 

Fernando I, who united Leon and Castile in 1037, founded the basilica. It was built to house the bones of San Isidoro and act as a mausoleum for Fernando and his successors. The tombs of eleven kings and twelve queens are in the Panteon Real, a portico of the basilica. They painted Spanish Romanesque frescoes on the walls at the end of the 12th Century. A Christ Pantocrator in the dome and an agricultural calendar on an arch are still visible. A highlight of any tour of the treasury at the basilica is the Chalice of Doña Urraca, a jewel-encrusted onyx chalice which is alleged by some people to be The Holy Grail. The cup belonged to Urraca of Zamora, daughter of Ferdinand I of Leon, and has been in Leon since the 11th Century.

Gijon,

Oviedo,

Santiago de Compostela,

Pontevedra,

A Coruna,

Vigo

on board the fast, modern trains of the Spanish railways.

I describe the history of these places along with the sights seen plus some food and drink options available to all.

There are extra stories about two pilgrimages of my own – to see the modern architecture of Santiago Calatrava in Valencia and to watch Lionel Messi play football in Barcelona.