Monthly Archives: December 2018

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Girona with its charming old city centre

In November 2018 we spent three weeks near Tarragona. Now we head north again, to the Costa Brava, Girona and Cadaqués.

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The Costa Brava – wild rocks above the blue sea

From Torres del Mar we follow the coast line of the Costa Brava. On the map, the road looks very curvy… and yes, they ARE curvy. One bay after the next. Wild rocks. Some houses along the steep rocky slopes. And at the foot of the rocks, in the bay, a small sand beach with amenities for bathing in the Mediterranean Sea.

We enjoy the romantic views, as the sun plays with the clouds.

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Sant Feliu de Guíxols – large holiday resort with a 10th century monastery

After having curved along the scarcely populated rocky bays, we reach the resort Sant Feliu de Guíxols with ist Benedictine monastery from the 10th century.

All Museums, everything is closed now, end of November. We walk through the narrow streets of the old town, find a nice restaurant open in the otherwise quiet Rambla and yes, there is even a shop for pets. I am sure, this place will be very busy in summer.

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Welcoming Girona at night

A fast national road takes us to Girona (pronounced Jirona). We stay in the hotel Carlemany, and I learn, “Carlemany” is Catalan for “Charles the Great”, “Karl der Grosse” or “Charlemagne”. The people of Girona remember him. He conquered Girona from the muslims already at the end of the 8th century. It was then pingponged between Christians and Muslims until the 11th century. Then it remained with the Christians as part of Catalonia.

In the evening, we stroll through the narrow streets along the river Onyar with the view of the Cathedral Santa Maria…

… and we discover some Art Modern that is present all over in Catalonia.

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A full day in Girona – we start with the river and the medieval bath 

The next morning we return  back to the river Onyar and the medieval city…

… and visit the “Els Banys Arabs”. They have been built around 1200, after the Arabs had left, perhaps by mudejar masters (Dumont, p. 123). This is the tower above the entrance hall. It gives access to the remains of the cold, the warm and the hot room.

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Sant Pere de Calligants: The Romanesque Benedictine monastery is now a museum

Sant Pere de Calligants is the former monastery of the Benedictines from the 12th century. This is the entrance…

… an this is the charming belfry in Lombardian style reflecting in the pond of the garden.

Inside we find the harmonic barrel vault…

… with some treasures such as the Roman tomb that shows the elaboration of wine: The grapes are picked in the vineyard and then tramped in the trough.

I also like the baptismal font.

The Romanesque cloister has some nice capitals…

… such as this one where two fish seem to swallow a women.

In the museum we find a wonderful exihibition of Roman toys, amongst them bones. Interesting, in Mongolia we have played with such bones as well .

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Sant Nicolau: Modern art in the 12th century chapel

Next to Sant Pere de Calligans, we enter the 12th century chapel of Sant Nicolau with its Romanesque vaults. It is now an art gallery. We find a transparent plastic plane with a brush (I believe) and white spots as well as a long chipboard with some bales of straw.

Interesting pieces of art and for me somewhat difficult to understand.

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The Cathedral of Santa Maria with the old carpet of world creation 

It took a thousand years to complete the Cathedral of Santa Maria – the styles of several periods are mixed. Imposing reverence, the cathedral welcomes the visitors with the 18th century baroque facade above the long stariway completed in the 17th century – 3 times 30 steps.

The huge gothic nave covered with the ONE sequence of ribbed vaults is impressive. The nave is 34m high and 22.6m wide. This is the largest of all gothic vault constructions. The choir built in the 14th century has still been conceived with three naves. Later the idea came up to build the longhouse as one single nave. The risk was high. In 1417 the architect Guillem Bofill accepted the task and completed it (Dumont, p. 118).

Treasures inside include this tomb – the bishop lies on his comfortable cushion made out of stone and his feet are resting on his faithful dog.

The beautiful cloister from the 12th century covers primarily themes from the Old Testament. Below Noah’s ark is being loaded with his family and the animals in pairs.

In the marvellous museum attached to the Cathedral we find the carpet of world creation from around 1100. It is silk embroidery. The Pantocrator is surrounded by several episodes of the world creation such as Adam giving names to the animals and Eva being born from his ribs. The pictures are perhaps based on an early Christian mosaic from Roman times (Dumont, p. 122).

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Wrap up: Walk on the wall, with a view of the city and the Pyrenees

To wrap up our day, we climb the city walls near the Cathedral and walk on them up to Plaça Catalunya.  The views of the old town with the Cathedral and the Pyrenees are gorgeous.

To the right is the Cathedral and to the left San Feliu church – they are dominating the landscape of roofs.

In the backogrund, THE mountain of the Catalans, the Canigou, has already been covered with snow.

The sun is setting and we return to our hotel Carlemany to enjoy dinner.

Good-bye Girona, it was a wonderful visit.

Source: Fritz René Allemann und Xenia v. Bahder: “Katalonien und Andorra”, Dumont Kunst-Reiseführer, Köln 1980.

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Escornalbou – the monastery and the castle on top of the “ox horn”

In November 2018, we are spending three weeks in Catalonia, near Tarragona and in-between we explore the surroundings.  

Today our target is Escornalbou. We have visited it a few years ago, and now we return.

Escornalbou is a rocky peak at about 650m above sea level located in the first line of the mountain ranges and above the plane of Tarragona (Camp de Tarragona). This rocky peak is the spectacular stage for a castle, a monastery and, on the very top, a small hermit.

This is the Castell Monastir with its small Hermit Santa Barbara above, taken from the viewpoint across.

From the small hermit Santa Bàrbara, we can see the unique location of the Castle Monastir overlooking the mountains of Prades, the Camp de Tarragona and the Mediterranean Sea.

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The exposed rock of Escornalbou has always been a fortification

Due to its strategic location, Escornalbou has been fortified since ancient times: The Romans had a castle here (3rd century), the Saracens (8th century) and the muslims until the middle of the 12th century. After the expulsion of the muslims, the rock continued to be a fortification. The monastery was added then to mark presence of Christianity. The complex suffered in the Carlist wars of the 19th century. Only ruins were left.

In 1910 Eduard Toda (1852-1941) bought the hill with the ruins. Toda had worked as a diplomat in China, Cairo, Helsinki, then as a merchant he made a fortune. In 1918 he returned to Spain, became professor in Barcelona and published various books about Egypt and his travelling.

Puig i Cadafalch advised him to rebuild the Escornalbou site based on all that was known about its history. But Toda built a comfortable mansion, based on romantic historism modern at that time. He even had a “medieval” tower added to the former cloister that he remodeled to become his garden with a marvellous view. I took this photo from one of the palace windows.

The mother of Toda managed much of the reconstruction. In 1924 the mansion-castle was completed.

This is one of the cosy rooms that you can heat with coal in the middle.

Toda loved to invite guests, mostly men, once even the Spanish king. The second floor of his palace had bedrooms for men and the third floor was reserved for ladies. In the dining hall, they would celebrate and eat. Ursula murmurs something about “Völlerei” or gluttony.

As a diplomat and merchant, he has seen much of the world. He collected books, and built up a huge library. 

He also acquired souvenirs such as the tiles that are decorating all walls of a small room. We would love to have these pretty tiles in our kitchens.

Escornalbou changed hands later. In 1979, the Bank Urquijo and the government bought the complex and renovated the palace to illustrate the life of notables in the early 20th century.

The palace can only be visited with a guide. We were the first group of the day, a German with his Spanish wife and the two of us. The guide must have been from Castile, because he spoke like a machine gun and he did not slow down, when being asked to do so. I needed some time to get used to him.

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The monastery Sant Miguel with the church – today the stage for a wedding

When the muslims had been exiled from the area, Alphonse I founded the monastery San Miguel. First the Augustinian Order lived here, then, in 1574, the Franciscans took over. They left the place in 1835, when the properties of the church in Spain were sold.

Today’s oldest parts of the monastery are from the 12th century: The Romanesque church and the chapter house. Toda had the belfry removed and the cloister remodeled to become his garden.

The Romanesque church has dressed up. A wedding is being prepared, as white flowers at the entry portal indicate.

Inside we find more flowers, white chairs and a blue carpet. Under the ribbed vault in front, the choir is practicing. The setting is very romantic for a wedding, but it is chilly here. 

The ribbed vaults – typical for gothic churches – are unique in a Romanesque church – it seems that the architect has been trained in France.

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Castle and monastery on the exposed ox horn give rise to legends: El jorobado (the forger)

The museum of Pratdip, attached to their Oficina de Turismo, tells the following charming legend on a panel: “Once upon a time the nights in the castle of Escornalbou were odd. Few people approached the castle, and those that did, heard a terrible noise and voices coming from underneath the earth. Worse even, they heard a metallic sound – alarming and frightening. Perhaps chains from the afterworld? “Are there ghosts in desolation?” the people asked, ”tormented souls roving around in the crypts of the monastery?” Those who could not sleep would pray the rosary. At night they often watched a crooked man descend the hill walking with difficulties. It always seemed to be the same man, tall and corpulent, and miraculously his hump was sometimes to the right, and sometimes to the left.

One day, the people from the village of Colldejou assembled and decided to send a delegation of courageous young men to the castle. The young men did, as they were told, and what a surprise… they discovered a counterfeit production. The forgers and their machines were the reason for the infernal noise and the crooked man was the one mandated to carry the counterfeit money down in a huge sack, and in one night he carried the sack to the right, and in the other night to the left.”

Today I learn from the guide that the legend remembered by the people living in Colldejou near Escornalbou is based on real facts: At the end of the 19th century, when the castle and the monastery were in ruins, a man called Macià Vila installed the counterfeit production here. He was a friend of General Prim who is much venerated in Reus.

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Wrapping up the visit by climbing to the Ermita Santa Bàrbara at the very top of the ox horn

At the end of the 19th century, the chapel Santa Bàrbara was added on top of the “ox horn”, made out of stones from the Romanesque tower.

I went up to wrap up my visit. From here the view is just marvellous, of the mountains in the west (with wind mills)…

… and of the Castell Monastir below, with the church to the left and the palace to the right.

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Good-bye Escornalabou

The parking is now brimful of Saturday tourists and wedding guests. The location for the marriage is extremely romantic.  But, a cold wind blows and I feel sorry for the wedding guests that come festively dressed, some ladies just with a light jacket and transparent (or even no) stockings. They must be shivering soon in the church. I wish that the sun having come out today, after a few rainy days, may be a good omen for the bridal couple.

We return to our cosy apartment to warm up.

Source: Website Castell d’Escornabou