Wrong Turn – Alquezar, Spain

There are times when taking a wrong turn can yield something wonderful. Alquezar is a wonderful place to explore. Thirty miles northeast of Huesca is the beautiful village of Alquezar. Small winding streets and cafes combined with churches and a castle make Alquezar a wonderful place to photograph people and history.

Alquezar was established by the Moors. It name derives from the Arabic al-qasr meaning “the fortress”. A castle (depicted below) was built in Alquezar in the 9th century by Jalaf ibn-Rasid.

In my next blog entry I’ll give you a tour of the castle and the wonderful Eighteenth Century Cloisters and frescoes that can be found sketched on the walls. The image below depicts an example of a wall in the castle with several fresco sketches.

Happy Holidays

Hope you have a Happy Holiday and a wonderful New Year!

What is this????  In Seattle not far from Pike Place Market is an alley.  In the alley is a back stage door of a theater.  The rumor is that the performers chew gum outside of the alley and right before them go on to perform they take their gum and stick it on the wall.  Over the years the wall has become a place to visit and “stick your own gum”.  Some cleaver person, using green gum, spelled the word “Joy”.  I found it only fitting that it become my “Happy Holiday” card from me to you.

Steve

Santa Cruz de la Serós, Spain

Travelling to the Monasterio de San Juan de la Pena we passed through the village of Santa Cruz de la Serós. The village of Santa Cruz de la Serós is famous for its traditional architecture, with its houses made of stone and finished with the typical roof of slabs and the spectacular trunkconic chimneys. The image below depicts a typical simple walkway between buildings in the village.

Its surname, "de la Serós", comes from its secular connexion with the noons (sorores or serores, in Aragonese) that, until the end of the XVI Century, lived in the Monastery of Santa María. The  Monastery was founded by Ramiro I of Aragón around 1060. It was used as a Monastery reserved only to the kings and the principal Aragonese nobles' daughters. The Church of Santa María (depicted to the right) is the jewel of the Aragonese Romanesque of the XII Century has remained intact.

The Parochial Church (depicted below), dedicated to San Caprasio, is at the exit of the village. This is a typical Lombard construction that dates back to the X-XI Centuries.

The countryside is beautiful. The trees were starting to change color and what caught my eye were the shades of green in the trees depicted in lower right hand corner of the image depicted to the right.

I highly recommend visiting Santa Cruz de la Serós. It’s a small sleepy village with a well run hostel owned and run by a single family. I observed several generations at the hostel… even small children darting from the kitchen to the restaurant.

Monasterio de San Juan de la Pena, Jaca, Spain

It was this time last year that I was returning from Spain.  I thought I would go back and review the photographs that I had taken during the Thanksgiving holidays.  I discovered that I had not posted many of the photographs.  So I thought I would pick up from my last blog about Spain, which was February this year, and finish blogging about my trip.

One area of Spain that we visited was the area around Jaca.  The countryside is amazing and there are several monasteries that you do not want to miss.  If you have the chance, find an opportunity to strike up a conversation with some locals in the area.  I had the opportunity to strike up a wonderful conversation with this sheep herder, depicted in the image below, and his grandson.

Not far from Jaca is Monasterio de San Juan de la Pena.  The history of Monasterio de San Juan de la Pena dates from the Moorish invasion, when monks, fleeing the Moors, settled in a cave and built a church in 920 on the site of an earlier rock-hewn shrine dedicated to St John the Baptist.

According to legend, the chalice used at the Last Supper was hidden in the monastery to prevent it’s capture by the Moors.  The image below depicts a replica of the chalice in the lower church.

The cloistered courtyard at the monastery was meant to symbolize the New Jerusalem.  The Romanesque capitals on each of the columns date back to the 12th and 13th century.  The capitals tell the story of Genesis, the childhood of Jesus and the public life of Christ.

It’s a great place to explore.  For a small fee you can take a guided tour through the old monastery, the Royal Pantheon and visit the resting place of abbots who had built this beautiful monastery.