1.
Santiago de Compostela Cathedral
–
The cathedral is the reputed burial place of Saint James the Great, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ. The cathedral has historically been a place of pilgrimage on the Way of St. James since the Early Middle Ages, the building is a Romanesque structure, with later Gothic and Baroque additions. According to legend, the apostle Saint James the Great brought Christianity to the Iberian Peninsula, in 44 AD, he was beheaded in Jerusalem. His remains were brought back to Galicia, Spain. Following Roman persecutions of Spanish Christians, his tomb was abandoned in the 3rd century, according to legend, this tomb was rediscovered in 814 AD by the hermit Pelagius, after he witnessed strange lights in the night sky. Bishop Theodomirus of Iria recognized this as a miracle and informed king Alfonso II of Asturias, the king ordered the construction of a chapel on the site. Legend has it that the king was the first pilgrim to this shrine, in 997 the early church was reduced to ashes by Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir, army commander of the caliph of Córdoba. The Al-Andalus commander was accompanied on his raid by his vassal Christian lords, the gates and the bells, carried by local Christian captives to Córdoba, were added to the Aljama Mosque. Construction of the present cathedral began in 1075 under the reign of Alfonso VI of Castile and it was built according to the same plan as the monastic brick church of Saint Sernin in Toulouse, probably the greatest Romanesque edifice in France. It was built mostly in granite, construction was halted several times and, according to the Liber Sancti Iacobi, the last stone was laid in 1122. But by then, the construction of the cathedral was not finished. The cathedral was consecrated in 1211 in the presence of king Alfonso IX of Leon, according to the Codex Calixtinus the architects were Bernard the elder, a wonderful master, his assistant Robertus Galperinus and, later possibly, Esteban, master of the cathedral works. In the last stage Bernard, the younger was finishing the building and he also constructed a monumental fountain in front of the north portal in 1122. The church became a see in 1075 and, due to its growing importance as a place of pilgrimage. A university was added in 1495, the cathedral was expanded and embellished with additions in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Each of the façades along with their adjoining squares constitute a magnificent urban square, the Baroque façade of the Praza do Obradoiro square was completed by Fernando de Casas Novoa in 1740. Also in baroque style is the Acibecharía façade by Ferro Caaveiro and Fernández Sarela, the Pratarías façade, built by the Master Esteban in 1103, and most importantly the Pórtico da Gloria, an early work of Romanesque sculpture, were completed by Master Mateo in 1188. The Pórtico da Gloria of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is a Romanesque portico by Master Mateo, to commemorate its completion in 1188, the date was carved on a stone and set in the cathedral, and the lintels were placed on the portico
2.
Spain
–
By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
3.
Spanish Baroque architecture
–
Spanish Baroque is a strand of Baroque architecture that evolved in Spain, its provinces, and former colonies. As early as 1667, the facades of Granada Cathedral and Jaén Cathedral suggest the artists fluency in interpreting traditional motifs of Spanish cathedral architecture in the Baroque aesthetic idiom and its gardens still remain as El Retiro park. This sober brick Baroque of the 17th century is well represented in the streets of the capital in palaces and squares. In contrast to the art of Northern Europe, the Spanish art of the period appealed to the rather than seeking to please the intellect. Within half a century, they transformed Salamanca into an exemplary Churrigueresque city, the development of the style passed through three phases. Between 1680 and 1720, the Churriguera popularized Guarinis blend of Solomonic columns and composite order, between 1720 and 1760, the Churrigueresque column, or estipite, in the shape of an inverted cone or obelisk, was established as a central element of ornamental decoration. The years from 1760 to 1780 saw a shift of interest away from twisted movement and excessive ornamentation toward a neoclassical balance. In this case as in others, the design involves a play of tectonic and decorative elements with little relation to structure. The focus of the ornamentation is an elaborately sculptured surround to a main doorway. The Royal Palace of Madrid and the interventions of Paseo del Prado in the same city and they were constructed in a sober Baroque international style, often mistaken for neoclassical, by the kings Philip V and Charles III. In the richest imperial province of 17th-century Spain, Flanders, florid decorative detailing was more tightly knit to the structure, a remarkable convergence of Spanish, French and Dutch Baroque aesthetics may be seen in the Abbey of Averbode. Six decades later, the architect Jaime Bort y Meliá, was the first to introduce Rococo to Spain. The greatest practitioner of the Spanish Rococo style was a master, Ventura Rodríguez. Even more than its Spanish counterpart, American Baroque developed as a style of stucco decoration, even then, the new style hardly affected the structure of churches. The Peruvian Baroque was particularly lush, as evidenced by the monastery of San Francisco in Lima, in the eighteenth century, the architects of the region turned for inspiration to the Mudéjar art of medieval Spain. The late Baroque type of Peruvian facade first appears in the Church of Our Lady of Mercy, similarly, the Iglesia de La Compañia, Quito suggests a carved altarpiece with its richly sculpted facade and a surfeit of spiral salomónica. To the north, the richest province of 18th-century New Spain — Mexico — produced some fantastically extravagant and this ultra-Baroque approach culminates in the works of Lorenzo Rodriguez, whose masterpiece is the Sagrario Metropolitano in Mexico City. Other fine examples of the style may be found in the remote silver-mining towns, there are about sixty churches whose facades and domes display glazed tiles of many colours, often arranged in Arabic designs
4.
Ornament (art)
–
In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. A wide variety of styles and motifs have been developed for architecture. In textiles, wallpaper and other objects where the decoration may be the justification for its existence. The vast range of used in ornament draw from geometrical shapes and patterns, plants. In a 1941 essay, the architectural historian Sir John Summerson called it surface modulation, the earliest decoration and ornament often survives from prehistoric cultures in simple markings on pottery, where decoration in other materials has been lost. Ornament implies that the object has a function that an unornamented equivalent might also fulfill. Where the object has no function, but exists only to be a work of art such as a sculpture or painting. In recent centuries a distinction between the arts and applied or decorative arts has been applied, with ornament mainly seen as a feature of the latter class. Ornament increased over the Romanesque and Gothic periods, but was reduced in Early Renaissance styles. While the concept of the Kunstwollen has few followers today, his analysis of the development of forms has been confirmed and refined by the wider corpus of examples known today. Styles of ornamentation can be studied in reference to the culture which developed unique forms of decoration. The Ancient Egyptian culture is arguably the first civilization to add decoration to their buildings. Their ornament takes the forms of the world in that climate, decorating the capitals of columns and walls with images of papyrus. Assyrian culture produced ornament which shows influence from Egyptian sources and a number of themes, including figures of plants. Ancient Greek civilization created many new forms of ornament, with variations from Doric, Ionic. The Romans Latinized the pure forms of the Greek ornament and adapted the forms to every purpose, a few medieval notebooks survive, most famously that of Villard de Honnecourt showing how artists and craftsmen recorded designs they saw for future use. As printing became cheaper, the single ornament print turned into sets, from the 16th to the 19th century, pattern books were published in Europe which gave access to decorative elements, eventually including those recorded from cultures all over the world. Napoleon had the great pyramids and temples of Egypt documented in the Description de lEgypte, owen Jones published The Grammar of Ornament in 1856 with colored illustrations of decoration from Egypt, Turkey, Sicily and Spain
5.
Stucco
–
Stucco or render is a material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a dense solid. It is used as coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural. Stucco may be used to cover less visually appealing construction materials such as metal, concrete, cinder block, or clay brick and adobe. In English, stucco usually means a coating for the outside of a building, and plaster one for interiors, as described below, but other European languages, importantly including Italian, do not have the same distinction, stucco means plaster in Italian and serves for both. This has led to English often using stucco for interior decorative plasterwork in relief, especially in art history, the difference in nomenclature between stucco, plaster, and mortar is based more on use than composition. Animal or plant fibers were often added for additional strength, in the latter nineteenth century, Portland cement was added with increasing frequency in an attempt to improve the durability of stucco. At the same time, traditional lime plasters were being replaced by gypsum plaster, traditional stucco is made of lime, sand, and water. Modern stucco is made of Portland cement, sand, and water, lime is added to increase the permeability and workability of modern stucco. Sometimes additives such as acrylics and glass fibers are added to improve the properties of the stucco. This is usually done with what is considered a one-coat stucco system, lime stucco is a relatively hard material that can be broken or chipped by hand without too much difficulty. The lime itself is white, color comes from the aggregate or any added pigments. Lime stucco has the property of being self-healing to a degree because of the slight water solubility of lime. Portland cement stucco is very hard and brittle and can easily crack if the base on which it is applied is not stable, typically its color was gray, from the innate color of most Portland cement, but white Portland cement is also used. Todays stucco manufacturers offer a wide range of colors that can be mixed integrally in the finish coat. As a building material, stucco is a durable, attractive and it was traditionally used as both an interior and exterior finish applied in one or two thin layers directly over a solid masonry, brick or stone surface. The finish coat usually contained a color and was typically textured for appearance. The lath added support for the wet plaster and tensile strength to the brittle, cured stucco, while the increased thickness, the traditional application of stucco and lath occurs in three coats — the scratch coat, the brown coat and the finish coat
6.
Madrid
–
Madrid is the capital city of the Kingdom of Spain and the largest municipality in both the Community of Madrid and Spain as a whole. The city has a population of almost 3.2 million with an area population of approximately 6.5 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union after London and Berlin, the municipality itself covers an area of 604.3 km2. Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid, this community is bordered by the communities of Castile and León. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political, economic, the current mayor is Manuela Carmena from Ahora Madrid. Madrid is home to two football clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid. Madrid is the 17th most liveable city in the according to Monocle magazine. Madrid organises fairs such as FITUR, ARCO, SIMO TCI, while Madrid possesses modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets. Cibeles Palace and Fountain have become one of the monument symbols of the city, the first documented reference of the city originates in Andalusan times as the Arabic مجريط Majrīṭ, which was retained in Medieval Spanish as Magerit. A wider number of theories have been formulated on possible earlier origins, according to legend, Madrid was founded by Ocno Bianor and was named Metragirta or Mantua Carpetana. The most ancient recorded name of the city Magerit comes from the name of a built on the Manzanares River in the 9th century AD. Nevertheless, it is speculated that the origin of the current name of the city comes from the 2nd century BC. The Roman Empire established a settlement on the banks of the Manzanares river, the name of this first village was Matrice. In the 8th century, the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula saw the changed to Mayrit, from the Arabic term ميرا Mayra. The modern Madrid evolved from the Mozarabic Matrit, which is still in the Madrilenian gentilic, after the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba, Madrid was integrated in the Taifa of Toledo. With the surrender of Toledo to Alfonso VI of León and Castile, the city was conquered by Christians in 1085, Christians replaced Muslims in the occupation of the centre of the city, while Muslims and Jews settled in the suburbs. The city was thriving and was given the title of Villa, since 1188, Madrid won the right to be a city with representation in the courts of Castile. In 1202, King Alfonso VIII of Castile gave Madrid its first charter to regulate the municipal council, which was expanded in 1222 by Ferdinand III of Castile
7.
Catalans
–
The Catalans are a Romance ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia, who form a nationality in northern Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are included in this definition, also, Catalan is sometimes used to define people from the so-called Catalan Countries, expression used to include other areas where the Catalan is spoken. The aforementioned territories are often designated Països Catalans, Catalan Countries, the area that now is known primarily as Catalonia was, as the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, invaded in 1500 BCE by Proto-Celtic Urnfield people who brought the rite of burning the dead. These Indo-European people were absorbed by the Iberians beginning in 600 BCE in a process that would not be complete until the fourth century BCE. These groups came under the rule of various invading groups starting with the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, following the Punic Wars, the Romans replaced the Carthaginians as the dominant power in the Iberian eastern coast, including parts of Catalonia, by 206 BCE. Rome established Latin as the language and imparted a distinctly Roman culture upon the local population. An early precursor to the Catalan language began to develop from a form of popular Latin before. Various Germanic tribes arrived following nearly six centuries of Roman rule, the Visigoths established themselves in the fifth century and would rule the area until 718 when Muslim Arabs and Berbers conquered the region and held it for close to a century. The Franks held back small Muslim raiding parties, which had penetrated virtually unchallenged as far as central France, larger wars with the Muslims began with the Spanish March which led to the beginnings of the Reconquista by Catalan forces over most of Catalonia by the year 801. Barcelona became an important center for Christian forces in the Iberian Peninsula, Catalonia emerged from the conflicts in Muslim Spain as a regional power, as Christian rulers entrenched themselves in the region during the Carolingian period. Rulers such as Wilfred the Hairy became masters of a territory encompassing Catalonia. The Crown of Aragón included Catalonia, Aragón, Valencia, some sporadic regional unrest led to conflicts such as the Revolt of the Germanies in Valencia and Majorca, and the 1640 revolt in Catalonia known as the Reapers War. This latter conflict embroiled Spain in a war with France as many Catalan nobles allied themselves with Louis XIII. The Catalan government took sides with the Habsburg pretender against the Bourbon one during the War of the Spanish Succession that started in 1705 and ended in 1714. The Catalan failure to defend the perpetuation of Habsburg dynasty in Spain culminated in the surrender of Barcelona on 11 September 1714, which came to be commemorated as Catalonias national day. During the Napoleonic Wars, much of Catalonia was seized by French forces by 1808, in France, strong assimilationist policies integrated many Catalans into French society, while in Spain a Catalan identity was increasingly suppressed in favor of a national identity. The Catalans regained autonomy during the Spanish Second Republic from 1932 until Francisco Francos nationalist forces retook Catalonia by 1939. It was not until 1975 and the death of Franco that the Catalans as well as other Spaniards began to regain their right to cultural expression, which was restarted by the Spanish Constitution of 1978
8.
Salamanca
–
Salamanca is a city in northwestern Spain that is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the community of Castile and León. The city lies on several hills by the Tormes River and its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. It is one of the most important university cities in Spain, Salamanca attracts thousands of international students, generating a diverse environment. It is situated approximately 200 kilometres west of the Spanish capital Madrid and 80 km east of the Portuguese border, with its 30,000 students, the university is, together with tourism, a primary source of income in Salamanca. In the 3rd century BC, Hannibal laid siege to the city, with the fall of the Carthaginians to the Romans, the city of Helmantica, as it was known, began to take more importance as a commercial hub in the Roman Hispania due to its favorable location. Salamanca lay on a Roman road, known as the Vía de la Plata and its Roman bridge dates from the 1st century, and was a part of this road. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the Alans established in Lusitania, later the city was conquered by the Visigoths and included in their territory. The city was already an episcopal see, and signatures of bishops of Salamanca are found in the Councils of Toledo, Salamanca surrendered to the Moors, led by Musa bin Nusair, in the year 712 AD. For years, this area between the south of Duero River and the north of Tormes River, became the battlefield between the Christian kingdoms and the Muslim Al-Andalus rulers. The constant fighting of the Kingdom of León first, and the Kingdom of Castile and León later against the Caliphate depopulated Salamanca, after the battle of Simancas the Christians resettled this area. After the capture of Toledo by Alfonso VI of León and Castile in 1085, raymond of Burgundy, instructed by his father-in-law Alfonso VI of León, led a group of settlers of various origins in 1102. Soon it became one of the most significant and prestigious academic centres in Europe, during the 16th century, the city reached its height of splendour. During that period, the University of Salamanca hosted the most important intellectuals of the time, in 1551, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V ordered an inquiry to find out if the science of Andreas Vesalius, physician and anatomist, was in line with Catholic doctrine. Vesalius came to Salamanca that same year to appear before the board and was acquitted, Salamanca suffered the general downturns of the Kingdom of Castile during the 17th century, but in the 18th century it experienced a rebirth. In this period, the new baroque Cathedral and main square were finished, the battle which raged that day is famous as a defining moment in military history, many thousands of men were slaughtered by cannon fire in the space of only a few short hours. During the devastating Spanish Civil War the city went over to the Nationalist side and was used as the de facto capital. The Nationalists soon moved most of the departments to Burgos. Like much of fervently Catholic and largely rural Leon and Old Castile regions, Salamanca was a supporter of the Nationalist side
9.
Alonzo Cano
–
Alonzo Cano or Alonso Cano was a Spanish painter, architect and sculptor born in Granada. He learned architecture from his father, Miguel Cano, painting in the academy of Juan del Castillo, and from Francisco Pacheco the teacher of Velázquez, and sculpture from Juan Martínez Montañés. As a sculptor, his most famous works are the Madonna and Child in the church of Lebrija, and he was made first royal architect, painter to Philip IV, and instructor to the prince, Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias. According to another story, he found his house robbed after coming home one evening, his wife murdered, notwithstanding the presumption against the fugitive, the magistrates condemned Cano, because he was of a jealous temper. Upon this he fled to Valencia, but afterwards returned to Madrid, where he was put to the torture, which he endured without incriminating himself, and the king received him into favour. After the death of his wife he took Holy Orders as a protection from farther prosecution, but still continued his professional pursuits. In his last moments, when the priest held to him a crucifix, he told him to take it away, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, probably this version is spurious as many others about his life and temperament. San Vicente Ferrer Virgin of the Olive Tree Inmaculada del Facistol in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Granada, virgen of Bethlehem Bust of Saint Paul Head of San Juan de Dios Annunciation Christ Bound to the Column in the church of the Convento del Stmo. Cristo de la Victoria de Serradilla, entrance of the Cathedral of Granada Saint John the Baptist as a Youth 1634, in the National Sculpture Museum
10.
Moorish architecture
–
Moorish architecture is the architectural tradition that appeared in the Maghreb region and the Iberian peninsula after the Arab Islamic conquest. Other notable buildings include the palace city of Medina Azahara, the church San Cristo de la Luz in Toledo. The term is used to include the products of the Islamic civilisation of Southern Italy. The Palazzo dei Normanni in Sicily was begun in the 9th century by the Emir of Palermo, there is archeological evidence of an eighth-century mosque in Narbonne, France. Arabic architecture Islamic architecture Arab-Norman culture Islamic influences on Christian art Moorish Revival* Moroccan architecture Mudéjar Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon Curl, a Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
11.
Guarino Guarini
–
Camillo-Guarino Guarini was an Italian architect of the Piedmontese Baroque, active in Turin as well as Sicily, France, and Portugal. He was a Theatine priest, mathematician, and writer and he was accepted as a Theatine novice in 1639, spent his novitiate at the monastery of San Silvestro al Quirinale in Rome, and returned to Modena in 1647, where he was ordained in 1648. He rose quickly in the Theatine hierarchy, becoming first auditor, then superintendent of works, treasurer, lecturer in philosophy, procuratore, prince Alfonso supported another candidate and Guarini was soon replaced and had to leave Modena. The next few years are poorly documented and he wrote four mathematical books in both Latin and Italian, of which Euclides adauctus is a work on descriptive geometry. In 1665, he published a mathematical-philosophical tract Placita Philosophica defending the universe against Copernicus. The Palazzo Carignano is regarded as one of the finest urban palaces of the half of the 17th century in Italy. Guarini appears to have influenced by Borromini. Between 1657 and 1659 he stayed in Spain, where he studied Moorish buildings, in architecture, his successors include Filippo Juvarra, and Juvarras pupil Bernardo Vittone. The latter published his designs in Architettura Civile in 1737 and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Guarini, Camillo-Guarino. Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600–1750, optical Illusion and Projection, A Study of Guarino Guarinis Dome in Santissima Sindone Books on line, http, //architectura. cesr. univ-tours. fr/Traite/Auteur/Guarini. asp. param=en
