Browsing Tag

Cultural Heritage

Blog

Dicastillo

Posted on 21/06/2016

Dicastillo is a village located at the region of Navarra, not very well known but is well worth visiting. When arriving you can discover a stunning palace from the last years of the 19th century an the begining of the 20th. Its history and that of its owner the “condesa de la Vega del Pozo” has been studied by Blanca Sagasti. Her research is now in an interesting book : “ De la Casa familiar de los López de Dicastillo al Palacio de la Condesa de la Vega del Pozo “

As a result of reading this book I kept in touch with Blanca . Then we visited the palace, today empty ( or almost) waiting for a new use. Nothing better tha reading the report by Reagan Hahn :

I knew we would experience something incredible from the minute the man pulled out a key to unlock the heavy gates. As they opened with a creak, the palacio stood before us in all of its architectural splendor. Beyond the building, tiny roses formed a blanket over the garden pagoda.

Before the excursion…

I had no idea that a palace was a building exclusively for leisure and that, “castle,” is a term reserved for residences designed for battle. Before the excursion I couldn’t have told you what it feels like to look out the window of a tower and see the mountains and fields of Navarra fill the horizon. Before I couldn’t, now I can. From the great, wide staircases, to the ornate fireplaces, every inch of the palacio drew you in.

Beautiful in a tragic way !

Yet, to me, all the grandeur was beautiful in a tragic way. While the rooms were full of things, they lacked people. Only we, the privileged few, got to explore this grand home while the rest of the world lay ignorant to the treasures inside. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this fantastic edifice, and I count myself blessed to have been given the opportunity to explore a piece of history. I only hope that others will come to appreciate the palacio so that once again its rooms will be filled with life.

Blog

Renaissance and Humanism in Navarra

Posted on 31/05/2016

Forget about the motorways, forget about being in a hurry and try some little villages of Spain. Today we visited Genevilla, with no more than one hundred people living in it. It falls close to the regions of Alava and La Rioja where you can enjoy beautiful landscapes and more: you can discover an stunning Renaissance altarpiece. Not only does it have the usual scenes such as these from the gospel but mythological scenes as well.

A few days before our excursion, Borja went ahead of time in order to be able to give us all the useful information about the way, and to meet the priest and people in charge of take care of the small church as well as other people from the village. What a nice experience Borja had! To meet people in their land and with their heritage, is all part of our project, Patrimonio para jovenes ( Heritage for youth )

The whole team was provided with an outline of the altarpiece drawn and explained, so that everyone could observe better and ask questions about it.

They were asked what the scene they liked best and why .In general, people chose the group of apostles on the botton of the altarpiece. One boy said the scene of the martyrdom of St Stephen was the best one for him. Them he was asked for the reasons for his choice.

One great moment was when the kids could touch the sculpture of the Eternal Father.It was a very big sculpture at the top of the altarpiece. Due to the risk of it falling, it was put in the sacristy. So they were amazed to see each detail of the sculpture so close to them.

Another “wow moment” was when Chrissy from Rhode Island came up to the bell tower and got to experience the space while climbing and enjoy the views! Here you have the photo dear Chrissy!

After visiting the St Stephen Church, we went to have lunch in the cute garden of a rural house called “The Encinedo” owed by Mari Asun. She was so kind to also guide us to a great area by the river, from where you can see Genevilla

Before coming to Pamplona we went to Santa María de Los Arcos, a very well known church because it is in an important place on the way of St James. All the baroque, the scenery, the colour, the theatricality and magnificence create emotions for the spectator. Last year I also wrote another post on this website. If you are interested you can check it out for more details.

Enjoy and discover our art and cultural heritage! Come and visit us! Visit Navarra!

Blog

Nicolás Alba, the craftsman

Posted on 03/05/2016

Patrimonio para jóvenes is a project focused on helping to discover the hideen places (in terms of art and cultural heritage) from young people, especially for foreign students. And today, her you have an expemple; Nicolas Alba’s workshop, in the midddle of the beautiful landscape of Valle de Yerri

To meet this craftsman, not this artist ( he defined himself as a craftsman) you have to leave the motorway and drive for small and charming roads . Go slow, only slow you came come across the creativity .

Nicolas works with iron, and the iron in his hands looks like silk, meaning softness and light. You can also find sculptures inside a box with labeled “Rain and Wind” . He also works as a scenographer, an indeed during the day of our visit Nicolas was very busy working on a new theatrical production.

His workshop is full of objects like masks, gloves, jars filled with small pieces of iron, and the sculptures big and small as well as bridges.

Built bridges, iron bridges, bridges are like a lifestyle , an attitude, a behavior. We all need to create ways of communications with others, discover means to avoid isolation, fear, unbridgeable steps.

Nicolas, a very shy man, is full of sensitivity and during our visit a new bridge was built, one of friendly conversation, empathy, and the joy of discovering this kind of spark and light inside the creative moment. That’s not forgetting that a “creative moment” only appears after the darkness of many hours of work which sometimes seem sterile , even sad .

The informal chat and questions from the team was great. Everybody was interested about how an idea arrives, what happens if people don’t like a new sculpture shown in an exhibition, or if someone understand it with a very different meaning or point of view from which it was created.

At the end of the visit we shared a very Spanish typical food: “Tortilla de patata” or spanish omelette. It was not a very long visit and not very far from Pamplona, but it was a deep experience of communication, creativity and friendship.

Please don’t forget to check out Nicolas’s website and the one of the Valle de Yerri. See you soon!

Blog

A novel, a castle, a great conference dinner

Posted on 27/01/2016

A cold winter Saturday evening, a charming bookshop, a historical novel and its writer in our informal conference dinner, could you imagine anything better?

Luis Zueco is the author of historical novels and the person in charge of the Castle of Grisel, a lovely hotel, (previously a castle) in the region of Aragon, right in an area full of heritage and well worth visiting.

He came to join us for a talk about his last novel “El Castillo” (The Castle), the story of the construction of the Castle of Loarre, one of the most beautiful castles you can visit in Spain

It is amazing, superb, incredible to find something like this built almost one thousand years ago. The novel bring us the opportunity to think and reflect about the people who lived the adventure of the construction, the dangers, hopes, difficulties, fears and so on. We listened to Luis Zueco talk about castles in Spain, the castle in the novel and the challenge of finding the characters; especially because it is necessary consider that they have to think and behave as people one thousand years ago. Quite a complicated task!

Anyway, we were enchanted with the tale as well as with the castle.

We came to the Castle of Loarre with some of the Patrimonio Para Jovenes team some time ago, but we are going to come back again when good weather and longer days arrive.

The conference dinner was also an opportunity for networking. There were architects specialized in heritage rehabilitation, writers, historians and artists… a wonderful meeting.

Thanks a lot to Luis Zueco who wanted to come to Pamplona when I asked him about it, and thanks to Dani Rosino, the owner of the Bookshop “Walden” a place built with the concept of beauty, simplicity; deep, and peaceful as a forest. Check out its web and visit the shop if you are coming to Pamplona. It is located in the city center, not far away from the famous “Plaza de Toros”.

And… by the way, El Castillo is not translated to English but in any case if you come to Spain, don’t forget to visit the Castle of Loarre, a Castle in Aragon, but with a history bound to Navarra.

See you!

Blog

When we forget about cultural and historical heritage

Posted on 19/01/2016

Perhaps one of the problems in Spain regarding cultural, artistic and historical heritage is its profusion. But… is it possible or positive to say that a country has too much history? Probably not.

The problem is how to manage all these things we have. How should it be restored? When and what? In Spain we have bridges, castles, walls… in danger of disappearing for ever. Why? Because there is not enough time, or money, or no way to do so…

On the other hand, you have beautiful places to enjoy, they seem as if they were made for a wonderful film… or tale; in fact, they are part of the tale of Spain’s History. Check out the web Spain is Culture …

But when a ruin, some interesting place has made it until today, the government gives aid in order to take care of that place but … nobody knows it?

Well, I can’t say “nobody”, but almost when talking about the “Despoblado de Rada”, the uninhabited place of Rada; a fortress just on the top of a cliff. The ruins are very well explained in a brochure that you are provided when buying the ticket, (2 euros, only 2 euros and only one if you are more than ten people). You can also enjoy the view of a beautiful landscape. You can imagine what life was like for people during the old times, there on the top. This visit is easy when you have nice weather. During our excursion we discussed how to better promote and communicate heritage, because culture doesn’t always imply expensive. Sometimes it seems like it doesn’t exist.

Close to this place, there is the charming hermitage of the Virgen del Soto. An example of popular and rural Baroque Art. This is not the most important example of this type art, but it is certainly intriguing and has great effect of theatricality.

Scenes from the Old an New Testament are represented on the top, with a beautiful dome. The sculpture of the Virgin Mary is very interesting. But what really attracted everybody’s attention was the representation of allegories such as Envy: a lady with snakes for hair, meaning that an envious person has terrible thoughts that harm all their relationships. The allegories of Peace and Devotion were also represented in contrast with vice.

Around this hermitage there is a nice park to enjoy especially in spring .

Visit Spain, join us , and… have a nice day!

Blog

Streets of Pamplona’s old town

Posted on 09/12/2015

Cities in Europe have their suburbs, neighborhoods, financial areas and so on likecities in USA. But something completely different from cities in North America is the old town, the historical city or Casco Viejo or Antiguo as we say in Spanish. It’s the part of the city that remains as if frozen in time (although with some changes due to today’s needs). That means we can not only see buildings or shops from the 19^th^and18^th centuries but also structures from the Middle Ages such as cathedrals. All this made these areas so important and uniquely interesting for Historians as well as tourists.

Today you can join us walking through some streets of Pamplona’s Old Town with ANFAS, an association working in care, protection and development of people with different disabilities.

This time we didn’t work young people except the ones working on the “Active Aging Project” and considering their mobility circumstances we visited the old shops of the area. That means, as you can see in the photos, that they have nothing to do with the fashion style of multinational franchises or those whose decoration or products you can find in Madrid or Vienna as well in New York city.

Old shops don’t always mean vintage fashion items but rather unique decoration. For example, “Idoate” specializes in silver. Many ears ago, its owner travelled to Barcelona and fell in love with Modernism, the avant-garde at this time, so he wanted to imitate it in his bussines. Marble from Carrara (The part of Italy where Michelangelo had his workshop for his masterpieces), cherry wood and a beautiful gold label are made so lovely and different this shop.

Old wineries, drugstores and charming chemistries gives you the opportunity to have a lot of fun during the route.

During the activity “our pupils” had to answer some questions asked in order to help them observe :

What old shops did we know?

What can tip us off about their age?

What does antiquity or old mean in comparison with dirty or neglected?

If we are careful with our belongings they can look nice and cute even if they are old.

We also discussed good maners when shopping; the importance of greeting the shop assistant upon entering and leaving, waiting our turn when other people have arrived before us, showing gratitude before leaving the shop .

It was a cold morning of November so we finnished our tour with a nice coffee at the tipical Cafe Iruña

A big thanks to the shops assistants who helped us in this activity!

Thank you to the workers and volunteers on ANFAS Congratulations on your great job

And thanks to the photographers Alvaro Sesma and Borja Centenera they offer us such charming virws of the city and the wonderful morning for Patrimonio Para Jóvenes with such special and great people!

Don’t forget check out our Christmas video filmed in Ujue by Angela Irañeta available in a few days!

Merry Christmas! See you in January and thanks for the follow!

Newer Posts