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Burgos

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ETERNO in the city of Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain

Posted on 03/05/2025

The January meeting

At the end of last year, Mr Rodrigo Saiz García, member of Círculo Foundation, based in Burgos, introduced me to Laura Sebastián Vega, general director of this institution. In January this year we arranged an appointment to talk about our association in general, and in particular, about our documentary ETERNO and the project about monasteries we have been developing for the last four years.

We have got along since the beginning of the conversation, and we soon agreed to present ETERNO in Burgos on March 17. At that time this date seemed a bit distant. But as always, time flies, and the set day came. Laura took care of the documentary’s presentation, and the truth is that we had never heard such nice things about our association before as what she said that afternoon.

Laura Sebastián presentando el acto

Pilar Martínez Arce, y Laura Sebastián

 

    The March event

On the very day of the event, the weather suddenly changed from sunny to rainy, which we found rather upsetting. We started asking ourselves if this weather would prevent people from attending our screening.

The documentary creators, Pablo Beorlegui and Miguel Arguibide, were thrilled to project the film in such a big venue. On the other hand, they were afraid that few people would come to the cinema because of the weather.

In the meantime, Guillermo and David, who are part of the venue’s technical team, joined us for the rehearsals. In this photo, you can see the creators with Guillermo.

En las pruebas de imagen y sonido

When 7:00 p.m. struck and the venue started to fill up, we couldn´t believe our eyes. About 200 hundred people were already in the venue.  

After the screening, there was also a nice discussion between Pablo and Miguel, the creators, and our special guests, Bernardo Pajares from the Prado Museum, and Pablo Ramos Aguado, our association’s representative delegated for the region of Castilla and Leon, to which Burgos belongs.

Bernardo Pajares y Pablo Ramos durante el coloquio

Vista general de la mesa del coloquio

One of the attendees, Silvia Arribas asked our guests about how heritage has to be promoted. It’s a pity we didn’t have enough time to discuss another important issue, which is related to the prejudices and lack of communication regarding heritage.

Pablo Beorlegui con Silvia Arribas

In particular, it would be worth mentioning that this lack of interest in monasteries means a substantial loss of important material and immaterial cultural heritage. Why do we make great investments in rehabilitation of these places (for example, The La Oliva Monastery) if in the end only the locals or the elderly know about the existence of these places?

Nevertheless, we had a great day in Burgos and we had the opportunity to meet lovely people such as Anastasia Velasco, mother of one of our graphic artists, Tasio Ranz.

Pablo , Miguel y Pilar con Anastasia

 

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FASHION ON THE RETROCHOIR

Posted on 04/04/2017

Have you ever been at the Burgos Cathedral? It is a great monument, with an “unmistakable profile” (as it’s said on Wikipedia) that is well worth visiting. It is so big, so majestic, and so outstanding, that you can easily get overwhelmed by so much beauty. In consequence, you can take for granted a lot of important details.

An example of these overseen jewels is the retrochoir, right in front of the wonderful chapel of Condestables. It’s a shame that people don’t spend enough time there to pay attention to this masterpiece of sculpture. If you want more information about the artist and his work go here

Consuelo Sanz de Bremond LLoret, a specialist on antique clothing was the one who proposed talking about fashion on the retrochoir. Specifically, hat fashion. In fact, most of the characters seen here are wearing hats with such charm and delicacy that they can easily inspire fashion nowadays.

This observation let us organize the creativity practice we proposed to the pupils at the Art and Design School in Burgos: To create new models of hats for today based on those we can see at the retrochoir . And we hope they make it!

With this event, we wanted to introduce in an official way Patrimonio para Jóvenes at the city of Burgos. Even if we displayed some activities before, we have never had a formal introduction.

During the days before, and even the very day of this event, it was broadcasted on newspapers, radio and TV. Check out if you want here (go to 17,30 program time)

On behalf of the team of Patrimonio para Jóvenes, I want to thank Consuelo for joining us at Burgos and for her dedication of more than three months to study carefully each model on each head of the characters.

After the talk, everybody has learnt how to look at a retrochoir with a new point of view. First the superb scene of the life of Christ : The road to the Calvary, and more scenes from the passion. And more important, we discovered how carefully Felipe Vigarny described each person at the story by drawing amazing faces, amazing clothes and charming and sometimes exotic hats.

Welcome to the Cathedral of Burgos and get ready to take off your hat!

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Historicism in Burgos/ another view of Burgos

Posted on 07/03/2017

When visiting Burgos, it is quite normal to visit the most important places of the city, as the cathedral, the old town, the monastery of “Las Huelgas” and even “La Cartuja”. In fact, the artistic heritage of the city and its beautiful surroundings are so stunning that is not easy to have time for more. Even for some people living in Burgos, some part of the heritage could be underestimated. Or at the very least not well known.

                             Paseo de la Isla and its sorroundings

           This is something I experienced when walking with the team around the “Paseo de la Isla” and its surroundings, an area of the city with great examples of Historicism. Moreover; there is a very interesting example of neo renaissance architecture by architects Apraiz and Luque. We talked about them at the beginning of the year, in Vitoria. If you want to read more about our visit to the Augustin Zulueta residence and Vitoria´s Neo gothic cathedral, click here

                               Enrique Jerez and Arturo González

Enrique Jerez in Burgos had a surprise for us. Before our visit, he had asked Arturo González to join us. Arturo is one of the architects in charge of the rehabilitation of the episcopal palace. He explained to us what they did in order to find a totally new and functional use of the building. All, without losing the essential style given by Apraiz and Luque at the beginning of XXth century

                               Stairs and stained glass windows

We could compare the entrance and stairs of the episcopal palace in Burgos with the one we visited in Vitoria. Which one do you like the most? The one made of marble in Burgos or the wooden one from Vitoria? Why? What kind of atmospheres are created by such different materials?

           While in Burgos, we also saw stained glass windows located in the right in the middle of the principal stairs, just like the ones we saw in Vitoria. In fact, the stained glass came from the same craftsman workshop: Maumejean, one of the most important workshops in France and even in Spain during those years.

Due to our very well explained visit to the palace with Arturo, we didn´t have a lot of time to see more buildings. So, we will have to come back in spring! With good weather and in broad daylight, I am sure we will enjoy places such as the palace of the island, the one you can see on the following picture;

We also visited “Las Salesas” a convent close to the building we visited before. Las salesas is a great example of Neo-gothic in Burgos. Built by Lamperez, it is an example of the power that Gothic aesthetic has always influenced Burgos. In fact, remember the Cathedral: Its gothic style is a symbol and icon, a legend, something that becomes a milestone. I posted some pictures on Facebook, and you can check out its website.

Las Salesas also counts with beautiful stained glasses, remembering the ones from the middle age despite being made nowadays. Well, one hundred years ago… but not centuries ago…

            For the next walk we will also see the Capitanía General, another example of Neo Gothic style, only this time it is not a religious building but a civil one.

Afterwards, the team had a pic-nic at the little village of Vivar del Cid. There they visited the mural painting that Patrimonio para Jóvenes sponsored some years ago. The painting was explained by one of the artists, Sergio Rodrigo Andrade.

Well, it was a great visit. But we left very nice places outstanding… Until the next time!!!