Weekly Travel Feature

Spain for Its Art and Culture

Prepared by Harold Stephens

Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International

Just mention “The Costa del Sol” and Europeans from the cold climate of the north come flocking to Spain by the millions making Spain the second most visited country of the world after France. In 2007 almost 60 million foreign tourists visited the country. For Europeans it’s the sandy beaches and a mild climate all year long. For these who come for fun in the sun, there follows a vibrant nightlife when the sun goes down. And, of course, there’s the excellent gastronomy of Spain.

Many visitors come too for its sports, from football to bull fighting, and others for its theme parks like Port Aventura or diverse Water-fun parks that are star attractions.

But let us not forget Spain is more than nightlife, football, the running of the bulls and fun in the sun. Spain is popular for its cultural tourism and this centers around the country’s historical importance and its beautiful cities—Madrid, Seville, Granada, Cordoba and Toledo. The cities of Spain must have something to offer when thirteen of them have been declared World Heritage Cities by the UNESCO: Alcalá de Henares, Ávila, Cáceres, Córdoba, Cuenca, Ibiza, Salamanca, San Cristóbal de la Laguna, Santiago de Compostela, Segovia, Tarragona and Toledo

Thai Airways has direct flights from Bangkok to Madrid, and Royal Orchid Holidays has a programme, ROHS52, that takes visitors to the art centres of the capital and, to see the cities of Spain, ROH can arrange these tours too. The possibilities are endless.

Each city in Spain is a living museum. Some can claim their heritage back to the Greeks and Romans. The Iberian Peninsula (that includes both Spain and Portugal) is the history of invasions, migrations, expansion, and conquest, with each leaving behind its customs, architecture and art. As one critic pointed out: “Spanish artistic creativity has always been determined by the tension between what came from abroad and what already existed in Spain.”

Each wave that had swept over the peninsula has given Spain its Celtic fortresses, Romanesque monasteries, Gothic cathedrals and Renaissance palaces. If we scratch deep enough we can even find prehistoric art in the form of cave paintings that mark man’s beginning.

Imagine the cave paintings of Altamira in northern Spain and the cubism of Picasso, and the only thing that separates them is 25,000 years of time. And during this span of time came the invaders with each leaving traces of its arts and culture behind. First were the Phoenicians followed by the Greeks. But it was from the Romans, who came after the Greeks, that we see the colossal growth.

The Romans remained for more than six centuries and their influence on everything from law and language to art and agriculture was everlasting. They gave Spain paved roads, built bridges across rivers and aqueducts to carry water. And they built triumphal arches, including those at Bara (Tarragona), Medinaceli (Soria), and Caparra (Caceres) that can be seen today, as can many of the roads and aqueducts that are still in use. Spain is blessed with many examples of well-preserved Roman buildings—towers, walls and fortifications, baths and waterworks, tombs and mausoleums and above all, theatres and amphitheatres. And there are the arts of Rome that can be seen on display in the museums of Barcelona, Zaragoza, Seville, Madrid, and Toledo.

Christianity had taken root in Hispania and the new movement was to affect artistic output with the building of basilicas, baptisteries and cathedrals. But there was no change more significant than that which came with the invasion by the Moors. Arab and Berber armies arrived from North Africa in 711, defeating King Roderick, and, within a few years, had occupied the entire peninsula save for a few isolated pockets of resistance in the mountains of northern Spain.

The Moors, as the Muslims of Spain are properly called, remained for nearly eight centuries. Their influence on Spanish art and culture was tremendous, resulting in the meeting of Western and Oriental culture. The Moors brought their own styles and at the same time they influenced that of the Christians. The Moors' greatest moment of cultural splendor is the Cordoba period. The most beautiful work of the period is the Cordoba mosque. It’s an easy train trip from Madrid to Cordoba to see this most outstanding work of Muslim art. Other than the Cordoba mosque there is the fabulous palatial city of Madinat al-Zahra outside Cordoba. The opulence of its halls astounds anyone who sees it.

The Moorish influence is seen everywhere in Spain but their crowning achievement is the palatial complex of the Alhambra in Granada, with its intricate wall decorations, patios, trickling fountains, mosques, defense towers and adjoining gardens.

The Christians' southward advance was unstoppable, however, and by the middle the middle of the 14th century, with Seville, Cordoba and most of western Spain falling into Christian hands, the Moors' presence in Spain was reduced to the small kingdom of Granada, and in time that too vanished.

The Spanish tourist office has produced an excellent 44-page booklet with the title “Art In Spain” that takes readers into the very art and culture of Spain, with emphasis on its history

From the artistic and cultural point of view, the winds of change blew again, and we now see the rise of the visual arts.  Next week I will take readers into the museums of Spain for new discoveries. Here we will meet artists like Murillo, Goya, Dali and Picasso, all Spanish painters.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q. Dear Harold, This is in answer to your question about accommodation in Beijing during the Olympics. As you might read there are a lot of publications that are covering how the Beijing room condition is for the coming Olympics. Although my hotel is fully booked since the beginning of 2007, we do have other sister hotels that is still available. By August 2008, IHG will have at least 15 hotels open across Beijing, with more than 5,000 rooms. This will make IHG the international hotel company with the largest number of rooms in Beijing during the Olympics.

I strongly suggest that those who plan to travel on their own to the Olympic Games make hotel reservations as quickly as possible. Sincerely, Adhiyanto Goen (Mr.) Assistant Manager, Marketing Communications, Intercontinental, Beijing.

A. Dear Mr. Goen. Thank you for your information about accommodation at the Olympic. Do keep me post so that I can relay important information to readers of Weekly Travel Feature—HS

Harold Stephens

Bangkok

E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)

Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited.


See Royal Orchid Holiday booklet for more on Spain

Join a ROH tour in Madrid

Gothic style of architecture throughout Spain

Baroque is also part of Spanish architecture

Some bridges date back to Roman days

Poor village below with a castle on the hill above

The streets of Spain evoke past architecture

Every town, every village, interesting streets

Example of Romanesque in every town in Spain

The Moors left the arch and El Hambra

A street can display many mixtures of styles

Tiny restaurants in every town but all with good food

For more about off beat Spain read the Who Needs a Road

Next week we meet Dali and Picasso in the Prado Museum