In my new life as retiree my blog is my biggest entertainement and before anything else, I like to thank everyone of my readers and followers to stay with me over the years since November 26 2010 !!! Thank you !!! Especially my first likes from former travel forum friend Jeannette I decided to trim some of my older posts in my series Some news from Spain and condense them as not to lose the most important parts, me think, of them, Therefore, this is my new work, the condense news of my belle Spain, Hope you enjoy it as I.
Some news from Spain LXXXVI October 2, 2019
Among the recent donations of paintings from the 19C to the Prado Museum, that of Hans Rudolf Gerstenmaier is unique not only for its number, 11 works, but also for its concentration in the art of the last years of the 19C and early 20C, one of the main nuclei of its extensive collections and the final section of the Prado. With this donation, which is exhibited in room 60 of the Villanueva building until January 12, 2020, painters such as Hermen Anglada-Camarasa, Eduardo Chicharro, Ignacio Zuloaga and Joaquín Mir are incorporated into the Prado, which enrich the end of the collections of Spanish painting of the Museum, where Sorolla and Beruete are already represented, their strict contemporaries. Hans Rudolf Gerstenmaier was born in Hamburg ,Germany on September 9, 1934, he conducted commercial studies there. By 1970 he began collecting Spanish paintings from the 15C and 16C and then Flemish painting. A third area of his collection was the 19C painting, initially attracted by the sensory vivacity of Joaquín Sorolla’s work and the richness of the matter of Hermen Anglada-Camarasa’s. A great addition indeed and see at the Prado Museum:
The first tickets of the Resurrection Fest 2020 go on sale this past Tuesday, October 1. This is hot! The Resurrection Fest 2020 will be held in Viveiro , Lugo, Galicia (see my post on Viveiro) between July 1 and 4 next year, with System of a Down as headliner. Resurrection Fest 2020 program flagship groups such as Judas Priest, on their 50th anniversary tour, or Korn, with the only performance scheduled in Spain in 2020. Other bands that are also part of the Resurrection Fest 2020 poster are Lionheart, Hamlet, Beyond The Black, Elder, Our Home, Cannibal Grandpa, Dark Funeral, Burial, The Atomic Bitchwax, Thirteen Bled Promises, Amenra, Blowfuse, Vita Imana, Knocked Loose or Madball.
The Dolmen of Guadalperal begins to submerge little by little in the waters of the Valdecañas reservoir in Perelada de Mora, Cáceres. It is a slow agony that has begun a few days ago even without the autumn rains. This megalithic jewel of around 7,000 years old did not move from its place of origin. So it was a matter of time before the waters began to cover it until it returned to the depths. known as the ‘Spanish Stonehenge’ the main menhir, one of the fine-grained granite, which withstands the water much better, we can see since of all its engravings only slight few remains. Fat granite are very eroded, cracked and even flaked, if not already split. Hope you see it before its gone !
Already eight million people have seen La función que sale mal or the function that goes wrong in more than 30 countries around the world since its premiere in 2012 at the London West End, where it received the Olivier Award for best revelation comedy. And rarely can one say that a success is so deserved. Just released at the Teatro La Latina,in my Madrid (see post on it) this disgusting work where everything that can be twisted, as the title announces, ends worse, is a succession of falls, mistakes and scenographic accidents that manages to surprise the viewer and make them laugh out loud for two hours
Be Lover, the first erotic market in Madrid that, with its 200 square meters, has become the largest establishment of its kind. Decorated in pastel pink tones with golden details and some purple light, the spaces can be modified and customized according to the demand of the market and its staff, highly qualified to advise and attend with discretion, offers a unique shopping experience that is supported not only in what is offered on the shelves, also in the free WiFi stations, in the relaxation area or in the corners with special promotions. Be Lover-Erotik Market. Calle de Santa Brígida, 4. Metro: Tribunal (lines 1 and 10)
Metropol Parasol, this wooden building is located in the Plaza de la Encarnación. Cetas or mushrooms named for their enormous white structure, reminiscent of the shape of these mushrooms occupy the total of what a market was more than a century ago. Visitors can enter this five-story complex to enjoy beautiful views of the city. Before climbing, they have the possibility to discover the Roman archaeological remains of the Antiquarium, found during the construction of this huge terrace. Once up, its meandering heights, with 250 meters up, allow you to know different perspectives of Seville.This immense gothic Cathedral of Sevilla, ( Santa María de la Sede) built between the 15C and 16C. Although the beauty of the interior is beyond reproach, it may be more interesting to access, through its narrow spiral staircase, the upper floor of the Cathedral. There, you can fully enjoy its architecture and its views, which overlook the beautiful Patio de los Naranjos and the Avenida de la Constitución, as well as all the artistic elements that make it up: gargoyles, domes, stained glass and outriggers. The best panoramas can be made with the illuminated rosette that crowns the bottom of the Puerta de Asunción or Assumption gate, placed on the main altar.
The Palacio de Liria, residence of Carlos Fitz-James Stuart, XIX Duke of Alba. Tickets for visits, which will be made in groups of up to 20 people and will have an estimated duration of 65 minutes, are already on sale and can be purchased by accessing the website of the Casa de Alba Foundation. You should not miss the Salon de Goya: In addition to Goya’s portraits of the XIII Duchess of Alba and the Marquise de Lazán, as well as those made by Tiziano and Rubens of the Duke of Alba, the collection also includes important canvases signed by Velázquez (Infanta Margarita) , Murillo (Juan de Miranda), Zurbarán (Santo Domingo de Guzmán) or El Greco (Christ on the Cross), among other artists. The Salon Flamenco: Painting, sculpture, tapestries, furniture, prints, documents and books spread over the 14 rooms that make up the visit round out this unique collection, which today exists thanks to the patronage and collecting work of the Dukes of Berwick and Alba for more 500 years .The Salon Estuardo: The battle of the Amazons against the Greeks and death of Queen Pantasilea is one of the most watched tapestries in the route. In this same dependence also rests the bronze bust that Mariano Benlliure made on behalf of Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart. The Biblioteca or Library Its interior has about 18,000 volumes, including bibliographic and documentary jewels of incalculable value. La Biblia de la Casa de Alba or the Bible of the House of Alba: Made in parchment, handwritten in the Castilian language and elaborated between 1422 and 1431, the Bible of the House of Alba is one of the most valuable jewels that welcomes the stay. This piece was commissioned by the master of the Order of Calatrava, Luis de Guzmán, the rabbi of Guadalajara Mosé Arragel. In addition to its importance for language and culture, the codex, in the house of Alba since the 17C, contains beautiful illustrations.
Some news from Spain LXXXVII October 22, 2019
The Museo Nacional del Prado (museum) advances in its attempt to amend the women’s lagoon in the museums of the world with a new exhibition, which is inaugurated this Tuesday, October 22 and can be visited until February 2, 2020. This is Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana. History of two painters’, which comes three years after the first exhibition dedicated exclusively to a woman. they represent two ways of feeling and positioning in the Europe of the 16-17C. The exhibition presents a total of 65 works from more than twenty European and American collections. On the one hand, Sofonisba Anguissola (ca. 1535-1625), a noble woman, used painting as a way of occupying the social position, while Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) followed a professional profile closer and even the one of the great part of the women artists, and it became the first professional woman of painting.
The director of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), has advanced on Tuesday October 22 that he hopes to have the new edition of the dictionary of the Spanish language for the year 2026, in digital and on paper, although in the latter format could be “on demand”. The publication of this 24 edition would coincide with the 300th anniversary of the publication of the first dictionary of the Spanish language. Participants who will go through the congress include names such as Mario Vargas Llosa, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Luisa Valenzuela, Leonardo Padura or Carmen Riera.
Located at the height of the no. 53 Calle Embajadores, in the middle of the roundabout, the history of the old tobacco factory (tabacalera) in Madrid is also that of the Lavapiés neighborhood. Initially conceived as the Royal Factory of Aguardiente and Naipes, (or cane base liquor and cards) The building changed its purpose in 1809. From that time on, the hundreds of operators that met daily between its walls to make tobacco were its tenants for decades. After the cessation of activity in 2000 and a period of abandonment that lasted for almost a decade, today it continues to write its story. In addition, certain spaces are reserved to house site specific projects, residences or works with artists. Calle Embajadores ,53.metro: Embajadores.
The last tenants to settle on the coveted Golden Mile in Madrid are the Masaveu. A family saga of Asturian businessmen and patrons who are passionate about art and collecting, who treasure one of the best private art collections in Spain. The headquarters of the María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation (FMCMP), which since 2013 manages the Masaveu Collection, owned by the Masaveu Corporation and formed by several generations of this family of entrepreneurs, has been inaugurated at Calle Alcalá Galiano,6. From 2005 to 2018, a 19C neoclassical palace was rehabilitated, converted over the years into a hotel (the Galiano hotel) The result is a sustainable building, distributed over three floors, in which concrete and wood predominate. It has exhibition halls, multipurpose spaces, and an auditorium with capacity for 150 people, patios and terraces. For its inauguration the Spanish painting of the 19C has been chosen, which will be seen until December 31, 2020. The next one will be focused on the art of the 20th century. It has been selected 117 works by 47 artists from about 350 of the 19C that treasures the Masaveu legacy: some very famous and others little known or unpublished. Almost a hundred come from the Masaveu Collection, about twenty from the María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation and one, from Fernando Masaveu Herrero’s personal collection: «Geneva», the last painting painted by Darío de Regoyos, who was unaccounted for until its recent appearance in the market and its acquisition. The exhibition starts with a work by Goya, «Banderilleros», painted in 1793 during his convalescence from a serious illness. 25 Sorollas from the collection hang: among them, the best copy he made of a painting by Velázquez, the “Portrait of Mariana de Austria”; or «The Errázuriz family», a tribute to «Las Meninas» In addition, canvases by Zuloaga, Romero de Torres, Rusiñol, Casas (a portrait of his niece Catalinita, superb whites), Anglada-Camarasa, Nonell, Mir. Admission to the exhibition is free. María Cristina Masaveu Peterson . Calle Alcalá Galiano, 6.
The garden or Jardin del Intercontinental Hotel , Paseo de la Castellana, 49. Inside the luxury hotel terrace full of trees and plants unfolds. It has a glazed covered area overlooking the square. At the plate, the proposals of chef Miguel de la Fuente average price: 55 euros. A great hotel chain and wonderful property where we had stayed and eaten. Recommended.
Some news from Spain LXXXVIII November 27, 2019
The extensive Sierra de Gredos, to facilitate observation there is a network of stellar viewpoints, which is deployed by the towns of San Martín del Pimpollar, Navarredonda de Gredos, Hoyos del Espino, Navalperal de Tormes, Santiago de Tormes, Zapardiel de la Ribera, Navatejares, Puerto Castilla, Umbrías and Nava del Barco. And although it is the night views that give the singular touch, in the light of day the views in which Unamuno defined the “Castile roof and stone heart of Spain”, declared a regional park in 1996, the Natural Reserve of the Sierra de Gredos is one of the greatest natural and tourist attractions in the province of Ávila, which highlights not only its relief, but also the diversity that is within it.
The paradox nests in the gaze of the artist Andrés Rábago, in his incarnation of El Roto, which admire so many readers. This week, the Prado Museum inaugurated the exhibition «No se puede mirar» (Can’t Look), that shows thirty-six drawings in which El Roto talks with Francisco de Goya, the paradoxical genius caught these days in an impressionist debate about whether he was anti-bullfighting or not.
Such day as today, 27 November, 200 years ago, the most important art gallery in Spain opened its doors. Between the corridors of the Prado Museum, the immortals of El Greco, Velázquez or Rubens continue to exchange glances as a remembrance of a past of patrons on this side of the Atlantic and conquests to the other, but as in every story in history, there is a part that it is left out: specifically, the basements of the Villanueva building guard more than 2,500 works that the general public does not see, except on exceptional occasions. The key to access these 6,000 square meters of warehouses is only in the hands of the ‘brigade’ , a team of just seven people with the delicate work of transporting and escorting centuries of artistic creation, and the museum’s security personnel. Yes many museum have the same including the Louvre kept as far as Chartres, no different here. If only there is more space and money to show them ! I have seen the Louvre collection underground.
A determined Rafael Campallo, (22 Nov) dressed in a burgundy red suit, pays homage to the mining origin of Flamenco over the starry sky of the Isabel II Ballroom of the Royal Theater. Without hesitation, with a tense face, a collected and sober dance begins. The Isabel II Ballroom was initially used for parties and masked balls, in fact between 1841 and 1850 it was the provisional headquarters of the General Courts. But since 2018 it has become a flamenco tablao.
Today Tordesillas has about 8,000 inhabitants and, at first sight, nothing invites you to think of a link with America, not least with lands as far away as the Moluccas, the final destination of a mythical journey, of the homeric odyssey of the Renaissance. You are in Castilla la Vieja (old name for what today is mostly Castilla y Léon) A small museum without too many pretensions recalls the treaty signed in this noble village on June 7, 1494, by which Spain and Portugal divided the world as was known. Negotiations took place in the oldest of these two noble masonry and brick buildings that now house the museum dedicated to the agreement and that stand next to the imposing Church of San Antolin. The treaty came to calm the tensions between both powers by agreeing the dividing line of the territories to be discovered in the meridian located 370 leagues (2,054 kilometers) from Cape Verde. As seen in the maps and simple explanations of the museum, all the lands to the west of the meridian would belong to Castilla-Aragón, while those located in the east would correspond to Portugal. The original of the Treaty of Tordesillas (the Portuguese version), in fact, is not found here, but in the Archivo de Indias, in Sevilla, in a safe that only two people have access to. On the occasion of the ephemeris, the valuable document was during three weeks of this past July in the houses where it was signed. Other events related to the V Centenary include the theatrical visits organized by the Tourist Office of Tordesillas.
There you go folks, a big task but a work of love to keep the best, me think of these wonderful older posts over the years, These are what I think worth keeping of my older Some news from Spain series, and I thank you, Again, hope you enjoy this post as I
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 