Calatayud

Yesterday I really wanted to get away from Zaragoza for a while, so we went to Calatayud. It's 90kms drive, on motorway, but rather an old one which wouldn't get a seal of approval these days; steep slopes and sharp bends-often both at the same time. It's the road to Madrid and there was much more traffic than we're used to on the motorway to Huesca.
I wanted to see the castle in Calatayud; from the motorway it makes an impressive silhouette. Don't bother trying to get close to it! We did; struggling up a steep track finally to find a rather broken down wreck. Not romantic or picturesque, just broken down.
The town itself was rather nice. On the route up to the castle there were two Mudejar towers.

nice statue of man reading and dog

Statue of the Baron de Warsage

Detail of the Mudejar tower of the church of St Andrew

Really impressive Plateresque doorway, 16th cen

Outside the Modernist bullring

La Almunia de Doña Godina; another Mudejar tower

One thing we noticed: in these towns of Mudejar towers, where the Moorish inhabitants were evicted from their homes by the reconquest, their "descendants" are there again in considerable numbers, enriching the cultural "mix".

Zaragoza

On Saturday we went on a guided tour of Rennaissance buildings in Zaragoza. Here are some things I took photos of along the way.

La Lonja

La Seo

My favourite, Mudejar wall, la Seo

El Arco del Dean

Group

Teruel exists!

Teruel is a long way from Jaca. Over 300 kms makes it more than a day-trip. We stayed overnight in Zaragoza and left quite early in the morning. The journey was just two hours on the lovely new motorway; what a difference it makes!

When we first went there, about ten years ago, the citizens of Teruel had started the "Teruel Exists" campaign to give their city a well-needed boost. It was rather disappointing because all the monuments were closed and most of the inhabitants were in the country celebrating the feast of the "sermon of the omelette". A few years later things had improved and the cathedral was opened to the public once more.

There are two glories in the cathedral, a great carved altarpiece and a wonderful medieval panelled ceiling, painted with people, animals, flowers, anything and everything.

On this trip we were able to see the ceiling from quite close in the galleries. The paintings are wonderful. I've put a detail in the text, but it doesn't show just how much there is.

Teruel is really open for business these days. There are plenty of parts of the city just as decrepit as they were before, but it gives a great impression of growth and youth and pride in the history of the place . Good for them! They also have four Mudejar towers, all of which have arches at the bottom, and one of which, San Salvador, is open to visitors.

We were lucky with the weather; this April it has varied between snow and 30 degree sunshine. In Teruel it was warm and sunny without being unbearable.