Zaragoza weekend, Aula Dei

Aula Dei
I heard about this place years ago when it housed a closed order of  Carthusian monks and access was very restricted. Nowadays it's run by le Chemin Neuf, a different type of order, and anyone can visit. The monastery was built in the 16th century. I've never seen anything like it , but apparently that's how Carthusians lived.  Each "father" had an apartment with a garden. They lived and worked there, coming out for the offices of the day. You can see the gardens in the photo.

The Aula Dei, God's Dwelling (or court, or hall) is some way out of Zaragoza; about 30 minutes' drive away, in the country. In this photo you can't see the city at all. Opening time is 12, and just before that there was quite a crowd of tourists waiting outside the gate. Once it opened there was a walk down a long, tree-lined drive to the entrance, where we paid for our tickets and were led into the monastery. It's a fairly long guided tour with detailed explanations by a French lady who is a member of the community there.

What is special about this place is the massive wall paintings. They were done by Francisco de Goya when he was only 26 years old. When the monasteries in Spain were disestablished-sold off in 1836, this chapel was used for drying fabric, and many years of drying caused terrible damage to the paintings. Some were completely ruined. These were replaced by some French painters, the Buffet brothers at the beginning of the 20th century. To me, the replacements look like slightly fuzzy Rosettis.

You are not allowed to take photos in the chapel. These are taken from Google; if anyone objects, please tell me and I will remove them.

One week later

https://videos.heraldo.es/aragon/el-monrepos-se-reabre-al-trafico-QkdpKy/
Just a week later, working 24 hours a day, they've reopened the mountain pass. It's a temporary solution but looks useable.
The alternative route is so long!

Broken road, floods

On Friday morning we set off for Jaca. Arriving at the top of the Monrepos mountain pass at about 11.30, we were made to turn round and go back to Huesca. They closed the road to traffic and 15 minutes later part of that road fell off; yes, fell off!

Here are some photos from the Heraldo de Aragón

This one is before, going south

https://m.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=762520357469014&id=100011331690062&notif_id=1523878307609549&notif_t=story_reshare&ref=notif

As you can see, there is snow on the ground and it's very wet. There have been roadworks here for years, and we had hoped that part of the new motorway would be ready soon. However, it looks further off than ever. The mountain pass will be closed for at least ten days until they rig up an alternative lane.

In the meantime our route in and out of the Pyrenees is the pass of Santa Barbara. Rather narrow and wiggly, but al long as it isn't raining rather pretty. Only, in the last four days, Santa Barbara has been closed by rockfalls twice. There has been a lot of rain this week, and there will be a lot of melting snow. It seeps through the rocks and earth and causes these avalanches of rocks. We went back to Zaragoza that way this afternoon. It was clear, but you could see where the rocks had fallen and there was a waterfall over the road.  It's worrying, because it's not a good road and the traffic  will be far too heavy. It takes an extra half-hour to get from Jaca to Huesca, with no heavy vehicles.

The mountain roads have suffered, but down in the valley, there are worse floods than 2015

Spring!

What a joke! Officially it's spring, but the weather is extreme. In Jaca:

In Senegüé, near Saniñánigo:

(this one, taken by my friend Elena, is perfect!)

Meanwhile, in Zaragoza, the wind is blowing. Opposite our flat an aerial got blown over by a gust of wind and the fire brigade had to come and take it down. They were there for at least 45 minutes.

Excitement for Tuesday dinnertime!

Tarazona revisited

Yesterday we had a day trip from Zaragoza to Tarazona. It's just over an hour's drive, first on a toll motorway and then a winding country road with quite a lot of lorries on it.
Since our last visit in 2013 they have done a bit more work on the cathedral restoration. Everything looked clean and well-cared for.

Mudejar tower with stork's nest

you can just see the stork in this one

the well in the cloister

Tarazona has a bullring which is made of an octagon of 32 homes. It was built in the 1790s and used as a bullring until 1870. The first time I saw it, it was being used as a car park, but now you can see the elegant structure perfectly.

Where in Zaragoza?

Here are some snaps of things in Zaragoza.

by the Imperial Canal in Casablanca.

Independencia, modernist building.

another modernist building in Independencia.

palm trees at the end of Goya. Plaza De Los Zagries.

Here's another one of the elegant Modernist buildings in Independencia.

Larrés Castle, museum of drawing Julio Gavin

Saturday 13th January turned out fine so we went on a short excursion to a place we hadn't been for 20 years; the drawing collection in a 14-16th century castle in the Serrablo near Sabiñánigo. It was pretty much as cold inside thee stone building as out, and as we were moving slowly to look at the drawings, after the hour it took us to see everything we were chilled through.
We enjoyed the drawings, which ranged from Dali to Beulas to Juan Gris, Penagós and the museum's founder, Julio Gavin.
We also enjoyed the castle itself-a simple two-storied set of rooms surrounding a central patio and two towers, one with the narrowest stone staircase imaginable leading to an exhibition of cartoons, and the other a viewing platform from which you can see the snowy mountains. (although the dirty windows made it impossible to take photos). All-in-all a good trip.
Here's a link for the museum:
http://www.serrablo.org/museodibujo