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 v

CONVERSTo convert..................... multiply by

RIC IO gallons to liters....................... 3.8
U.S.
ET Liters to U.S. gallons...................... .26
M

NS

U.S. gallons to imperial gallons.... .83

110˚F
Imperial gallons to U.S. gallons...1.20
40˚C
100˚F Imperial gallons to liters..............4.55
Liters to imperial gallons............... .22
90˚F
30˚C 1 liter = .26 U.S. gallon
80˚F 1 U.S. gallon = 3.8 liters

70˚F 20˚C
60˚F To convert..................... multiply by
inches to centimeters...................2.54
50˚F 10˚C
centimeters to inches......................39
40˚F feet to meters................................ .30
meters to feet...............................3.28
32˚F 0˚C
yards to meters.............................. .91
meters to yards.............................1.09
20˚F
miles to kilometers.......................1.61
-10˚C
10˚F kilometers to miles........................ .62

0˚F -18˚C 1 ft. = .30m 1 mile = 1.6km

1m = 3.3 ft. 1km = .62 mile
-10˚F
-20˚F -30˚C
To convert..................... multiply by
Ounces to grams........................ 28.35
To convert F to C: Grams to ounces.......................... .035
subtract 32 and multiply Pounds to kilograms...................... .45
by 5/9 (.555) Kilograms to pounds................... 2.20
To convert C to F: 1 ounce = 28 grams
multiply by 1.8 1 pound = .4555 kilogram
and add 32 1 gram = .04 ounce
32˚F = 0˚C 1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds
 Spain 2010

by Darwin Porter & Danforth Prince

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5   4   3   2   1
 CONTENTS

LIST OF MAPS viii

WHAT’S NEW IN SPAIN 1

1 THE BEST OF SPAIN 5

1 The Best Travel Experiences . . . . . . . .5 7 The Best Vineyards & Wineries . . . . .14
2 The Best Small Towns . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 8 The Best Festivals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
3 The Best Beaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 9 The Best Paradores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
4 The Best Castles & Palaces. . . . . . . . .11 10 The Best Luxury Hotels . . . . . . . . . . . .19
5 The Best Museums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 11 The Best Hotel Bargains . . . . . . . . . . .21
6 The Best Cathedrals & Churches. . .13 12 The Best Restaurants . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

2 SPAIN IN DEPTH 24

1 Spain Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 3 Spain’s Art & Architecture . . . . . . . . .32

The Spectacle of Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 4 Spain in Books, Film & Music . . . . . .35
2 Looking Back at Spain. . . . . . . . . . . . .26 5 Eating & Drinking in Spain . . . . . . . .41
Dateline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

3 PLANNING YOUR TRIP TO SPAIN 45

1 When to Go. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 6 Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Spain Calendar of Events. . . . . . . . . . . . 46 7 Specialized Travel Resources . . . . . .62
2 Entry Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 8 Sustainable Tourism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
3 Getting There & Getting General Resources for Green
Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4 Money & Costs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 9 Special-Interest Trips & Escorted
What Things Cost in Madrid . . . . . . . . 58 Tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
Major Change in Credit Cards. . . . . . . 59 10 Staying Connected. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
5 Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 11 Tips on Accommodations . . . . . . . . .71
iv
4 SUGGESTED SPAIN ITINERARIES 74

1 The Regions in Brief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 4 Spain for Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85

2 Spain in 1 Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 5 Andalusia in 1 Week. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89
3 Spain in 2 Weeks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

5 MADRID 93

1 Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94 5 Seeing the Sights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

The Neighborhoods in Brief . . . . . . . . . 96 Frommer’s Favorite Madrid
2 Getting Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97 Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143
Fast Facts: Madrid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 6 Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
3 Where to Stay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 7 Madrid After Dark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
S PA I N 2010

4 Where to Dine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 The Sultry Sound of Flamenco . . . . .155

An Early-Evening Tapeo . . . . . . . . . . . .121

6 SIDE TRIPS FROM MADRID 161

1 Toledo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 6 Chinchón . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

2 Aranjuez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 7 Avila . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
CO N T E N T S

3 San Lorenzo de El Escorial. . . . . . . 176 8 Cuenca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

4 Segovia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 9 Soria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
5 Alcalá de Henares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

7 OLD CASTILE & LEON 199

1 Ciudad Rodrigo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 4 León . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

2 Salamanca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 5 Valladolid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
3 Zamora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 6 Burgos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

8 EXTREMADURA 224

1 Guadalupe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 3 Cáceres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Land of the Conquistadors. . . . . . . . .226 4 Mérida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
2 Trujillo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 5 Zafra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

9 ANDALUSIA 240

1 Jaén, Baeza & Ubeda . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 3 Seville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

2 Córdoba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 4 Jerez de la Frontera . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
 v
5 Cádiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 8 Granada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
6 Costa de la Luz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 9 A Driving Tour of the
7 Ronda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 Pueblos Blancos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Prehistoric Cave Paintings. . . . . . . . . .291

10 THE COSTA DEL SOL 323

1 Algeciras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 A Marbella Tasca-Crawl. . . . . . . . . . . .337

Beaches: The Good, the Bad & 5 Fuengirola & Los Boliches . . . . . . . 339
the Ugly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .326 6 Mijas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
2 Estepona. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 7 Torremolinos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
3 Puerto Banus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 8 Málaga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

S PA I N 2010
4 Marbella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 9 Nerja. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

11 VALENCIA & THE COSTA BLANCA 357

1 Valencia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 3 Alicante (Alacant) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

2 Benidorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 4 Elche (Elx). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

CO N T E N T S
12 BARCELONA 382

1 Catalonian Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 5 Where to Dine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

2 Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384 6 Seeing the Sights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
The Barcelona Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .386 Frommer’s Favorite Barcelona
The Neighborhoods in Brief . . . . . . . .388 Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .432
3 Getting Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392 7 Active Pursuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Fast Facts: Barcelona. . . . . . . . . . . . . 394 8 Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
4 Where to Stay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395 9 Barcelona After Dark . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

13 CATALONIA 453

1 Montserrat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 The Beaches of the Costa

A Journey to Andorra . . . . . . . . . . . . . .456 Dorada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .462
2 Tarragona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457 3 Sitges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Catalonia Remembers Pablo
Casals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .459
vi
14 GIRONA & THE COSTA BRAVA 468

1 Girona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468 The Mad, Mad World of

2 Lloret de Mar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476 Salvador Dalí . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .482
3 Tossa de Mar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478 5 Cadaqués . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
4 Figueres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

15 ARAGON 488

1 Zaragoza. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 3 Nuévalos/Piedra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

2 Tarazona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494 4 Sos del Rey Católico. . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

16 NAVARRE & LA RIOJA 497

S PA I N 2010

1 Pamplona. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497 4 Sangüesa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

The Running of the Bulls . . . . . . . . . . .502 5 Vitoria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
2 Olite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505 6 Logroño . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
3 Tudela . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507 7 Haro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
CO N T E N T S

17 THE BASQUE COUNTRY 518

1 Laredo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519 4 Guernica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

2 San Sebastián . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521 5 Bilbao. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
3 Fuenterrabía . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

18 CANTABRIA & ASTURIAS 545

1 Santander. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545 Driving Tour 3: Cangas de Onis

2 Santillana & Altamira Caves. . . . . . 551 to Panes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .557
3 Los Picos de Europa. . . . . . . . . . . . . 555 4 Gijón. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
Driving Tour 1: Panes to Potes. . . . . .556 Jurassic Park in Asturias . . . . . . . . . . . .563
Driving Tour 2: Potes to 5 Oviedo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Cangas de Onis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .557

19 GALICIA 567

1 A Coruña . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567 4 Rías Bajas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

2 Santiago de Compostela . . . . . . . . 572 5 Pontevedra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Europe’s Oldest Hotel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .575 6 El Grove & La Toja . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
3 Rías Altas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580 7 Túy (Tui) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
 vii
20 THE BALEARIC ISLANDS 590

1 Majorca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590 3 Formentera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

2 Ibiza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621 4 Minorca. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640

APPENDIX A: FAST FACTS 656

1 Fast Facts: Spain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656 2 Airline, Hotel & Car Rental

Websites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662

APPENDIX B: USEFUL TERMS & PHRASES 665

1 Basic Words & Phrases. . . . . . . . . . . 665 3 Hotel Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669

2 Menu Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668 4 Travel Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669

S PA I N 2010
INDEX 671

CO N T E N T S
viii
LIST OF MAPS

Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Valencia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Spain in 1 Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Barcelona at a Glance. . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Spain in 2 Weeks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Barcelona Metro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Spain for Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Where to Stay in Barcelona . . . . . . 396
Andalusia in 1 Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Where to Dine in Barcelona . . . . . . 410
Madrid Metro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 The Barri Gòtic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Where to Stay in Central What to See & Do in Barcelona . . . 430
Madrid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Catalonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Where to Dine in Central Girona & the Costa Brava . . . . . . . . 469
Madrid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Aragón . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
What to See & Do in Central
Navarre & La Rioja . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Madrid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Pamplona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Madrid Environs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
The Basque Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
Toledo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
San Sebastián . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
Old Castile & León . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Bilbao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
Salamanca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Cantabria & Asturias . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
Extremadura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Galicia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
Andalusia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Santiago de Compostela . . . . . . . . . 573
Córdoba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
The Balearic Islands . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
Seville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Majorca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
Seville Environs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Palma de Majorca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
Granada & the Alhambra . . . . . . . . 295
Ibiza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623
Where to Stay & Dine in Granada . 304
Ciudad de Ibiza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
The Costa del Sol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Minorca. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641
Marbella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
The Costa Blanca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
A B O U T T H E AU T H O R S
As a team of veteran travel writers, Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince have produced various
titles for Frommer’s, including guides to Italy, France, England, and Germany. A film critic,
columnist, and broadcaster, Porter is also a Hollywood biographer. His recent releases include
Brando Unzipped, documenting the private life of Marlon Brando, and Jacko: His Rise and Fall,
the first complete biography ever written on the tumultuous life of Michael Jackson. Prince
was formerly employed by the Paris bureau of the New York Times and is today the president
of Blood Moon Productions. Porter and Prince’s latest non-travel-related venture, jointly
co-authored and published in 2008 by Blood Moon, is Hollywood Babylon—It’s Back!, which
one critic described as “the hottest compilation of intergenerational scandal in the history of
Hollywood.”

H OW TO CO N TAC T U S
In researching this book, we discovered many wonderful places—hotels, restaurants, shops,
and more. We’re sure you’ll find others. Please tell us about them, so we can share the informa-
tion with your fellow travelers in upcoming editions. If you were disappointed with a recom-
mendation, we’d love to know that, too. Please write to:
Frommer’s Spain 2010
Wiley Publishing, Inc. • 111 River St. • Hoboken, NJ 07030

A N A D D I T I O N A L N OT E
Please be advised that travel information is subject to change at any time—and this is espe-
cially true of prices. We therefore suggest that you write or call ahead for confirmation when
making your travel plans. The authors, editors, and publisher cannot be held responsible for
the experiences of readers while traveling. Your safety is important to us, however, so we
encourage you to stay alert and be aware of your surroundings. Keep a close eye on cameras,
purses, and wallets, all favorite targets of thieves and pickpockets.

Other Great Guides for Your Trip:

Frommer’s Barcelona
Frommer’s Madrid
Frommer’s Seville, Granada & the Best of Andalusia
Frommer’s Europe
Frommer’s Road Atlas Europe
Pauline Frommer’s Spain
F R O M M E R ’S S TA R R AT I N G S, I CO N S & A B B R E V I AT I O N S
Every hotel, restaurant, and attraction listing in this guide has been ranked for quality, value,
service, amenities, and special features using a star-rating system. In country, state, and
regional guides, we also rate towns and regions to help you narrow down your choices and
budget your time accordingly. Hotels and restaurants are rated on a scale of zero (recom-
mended) to three stars (exceptional). Attractions, shopping, nightlife, towns, and regions are
rated according to the following scale: zero stars (recommended), one star (highly recom-
mended), two stars (very highly recommended), and three stars (must-see).
In addition to the star-rating system, we also use seven feature icons that point you to the
great deals, in-the-know advice and unique experiences that separate travelers from tourists.
Throughout the book, look for:

Finds Special finds—those places only insiders know about

Fun Facts Fun facts—details that make travelers more informed and their trips more fun

Kids Best bets for kids, and advice for the whole family

Moments Special moments—those experiences that memories are made of

Overrated Places or experiences not worth your time or money

Tips Insider tips—great ways to save time and money

Value Great values—where to get the best deals

The following abbreviations are used for credit cards:

AE American Express DISC Discover V Visa
DC Diners Club MC MasterCard

T R AV E L R E S O U R C E S AT F R O M M E R S.CO M
Frommer’s travel resources don’t end with this guide. Frommer’s website, www.frommers.com,
has travel information on more than 4,000 destinations. We update features regularly, giving
you access to the most current trip-planning information and the best airfare, lodging, and
car-rental bargains. You can also listen to podcasts, connect with other Frommers.com members
through our active-reader forums, share your travel photos, read blogs from guidebook editors
and fellow travelers, and much more.
 What’s New in Spain
Spain, along with France and the It’s got everything from an efficient black-
United States, stands at the forefront of clad staff to a chic Asian restaurant. See
world tourism in terms of numbers of p. 398.
visitors. As such, Spain is constantly on Lying near the landmark Sagrada Famí-
the scene with late-breaking developments. lia cathedral, Hispanos Siete Suiz, Sicilia
After the long, bleak years of the Franco 255 (& 93-208-20-51; www.hispanos
dictatorship, it has moved deeper into the 7suiza.com), offers little apartments or
21st century. In hotels, restaurants, mod- junior suites, each with a fully equipped
ern art, whatever—even same-sex mar- kitchen and such features as a hydromas-
riages—once-sleepy Spain is now on the sage shower. See p. 404.
cutting edge, especially in Barcelona and Only a 3-minute walk from the Ram-
Madrid. blas, Hotel A dvance D esign Collection
Barcelona, Calle Sepúlveda (& 93-289-
AVILA 28-92; www.hoteladvance.com), is a new
DINING In a restored 15th-century boutique hotel installed in a restored 19th-
mill, El Molino de la Losa, Bajada de la century building in the Eixample. Stylish,
Losa 12 (& 92-021-11-01), has emerged spacious bedrooms, filled with tasteful fur-
as the favorite for Castilian cooking in this nishings, make this one a winner. The hotel
walled city. In a stately building with ele- bills itself as gay friendly. See p. 405.
gant rustic furnishings, it serves a sublime Only 50m (165 ft.) from the beach,
cuisine using market-fresh ingredients. Hotel AB S kipper, Litoral 10 (& 93-
Lamb is roasted in a wooden oven from 221-65-65; www.hotelabskipper.com), is
the Middle Ages. See p. 191. trend-setting and contemporary, opening
onto a view of a private garden. It lies at
BARCELONA Port Olímpic and contains many luxuri-
PLANNING YOUR TRIP High-speed ous touches. Its executive junior suites are
trains now link Madrid with Barcelona, designed in the style of modern yacht
with some 25 daily connections. The non- cabins. If you wish, your bathtub will be
stop service takes only 2 hours, 38 min- filled with flower petals. See p. 408.
utes. Trains are spacious and comfortable,
DINING At Barceloneta, Lluçanes, at
with reclining seats and individual TVs.
Place de la Font, Mercat de la Barceloneta
ACCOMMODATIONS A new hipster (& 93-224-25-25), serves some of the
address in the heart of Barcelona is Hotel finest and freshest seafood in the city. A
Murmuri, Rambla de Catalunya 104 Michelin-starred restaurant, it occupies an
(& 93-5500-6000; www.murmuri.com), upstairs corner of the local market and is
a boutique hotel imbued with urban chic. graced with an open-to-view kitchen. The
chef is in love with truffles. See p. 421.
2 BENIDORM DINING A classically decorated restau-
ACCOMMODATIONS At the leading rant, Albereda, Albereda 7 (& 97-222-
resort along the Costa Blanca, Belroy, Av. 60-02), serves the finest and the most
del Mediterráneo 13 (& 96-585-02-03; expensive food within the city center. Its
www.belroy.es), has been a success since chef is a specialist in Catalan cuisine, using
the day it opened. Each of its spacious often forgotten herbs and coming up with
bedrooms is furnished in a minimalist surprising—and pleasing—taste sensa-
style, and each opens onto a panoramic tions. Platters appear before you as “works
view of the sea. A good beach is nearby. of art.” See p. 474.
See p. 373.
GRANADA
DINING The above-mentioned Belroy ACCOMMODATIONS A popular chain
is also the setting for Kataria G as- has taken over one of the plushest of the
tronómica, Av. del Mediterráneo 13 boutique hotels of Granada. Today it’s
(& 96-683-13-72), which has a deluxe called Room M ate M igueletes, at Calle
menu, with meals served in a dramatic
W H AT ’S N E W

Benelua 11 (& 95-821-07-00; www.casa

modern setting with large windows. The migueletes.com). The hotel is installed
Mediterranean cuisine with market-fresh within one of the restored medieval houses
ingredients is divine, and dishes are art- of the Albaicín. Some of the rooms are
fully presented and full of harmonious baronial with high ceilings and Andalusian
flavors. See p. 374. accessories. See p. 303.
CORDOBA JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA
PLANNING YOUR TRIP Getting to ACCOMMODATIONS Even though
this old Moorish city by bus is easier than one of the most elegant hotels has come
ever now that Alsina Graells Sur (& 95- under new chain management, standards
740-40-40) has taken over many smaller are expected to remain the same, if not
companies and improved service under a improve. Hipotel Sherry Park, Av. Alcade
new network. Buses now arrive at the city’s Alvaro Domecq (& 05-631-76-14; www.
new bus station behind the train depot on hipotels.com), has kept most of the staff,
Glorieta de las Tres Culturas. The bus ser- which made this modern hotel of taste,
vice has been improved to such an extent elegance, and style so great in the first
that many visitors are using it to reach place. Each of its guest rooms was exten-
Córdoba from other points within Spain, sively renovated in 2008, and today the
such as Granada, Madrid, or Seville. See property is more comfortable and inviting
chapter 9. than ever. See p. 281.
GIRONA LEON
ACCOMMODATIONS In this leading ATTRACTIONS The most avant-garde
city of northeast Spain, Ciutat de Girona, museum of modern art in Castile, MUSAC
Calle Nord 2 (& 97-248-30-38; www. (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Cas-
hotel-ciutatdegirona.com), is the most tilla y León), has opened at Av. de Los
modern hotel in town, with all the latest Reyes Leoneses 24 (& 98-709-00-00). It’s
gadgets. The bedrooms are midsize to spa- housed in a complex of structures deco-
cious and furnished in a Japanese minimal- rated with stained glass, billing itself as a
ist style, appealing to today’s modern “Museum of the 21st Century.” Changing
traveler. Its on-site restaurant, serving a exhibitions are presented along with a
refined cuisine, is decorated with hundreds series of films and concerts. See p. 212.
of multicolored glass bottles. See p. 472.
MADRID MAJORCA 3
ACCOMMODATIONS Five antique DINING At the deluxe Hotel Arabella
town houses were combined to form Sheraton Golf Hotel Son Vida, Carrer de
Vincci Soho, Calle Prado 18 (& 91-141- la Vinagrella (& 97-178-71-00), the Plat
41-00; www.vinccihoteles.com), in the d’Or R estaurant, with its refined Medi-
Huertas district near the Prado. It has terranean cuisine, has moved to the fore-
whimsical touches in decor, a spacious front of island dining. Its award-winning
courtyard, and many well-furnished rooms chef, Rafael Sánchez, blends traditional
with balconies, plus a restaurant with a recipes with modern ones to concoct a
Mediterranean flair. See p. 106. finely honed cuisine with the best of avail-
One of the finest boutique hotels in able ingredients. See p. 606.
Madrid, Hospes M adrid, Plaza de la
Independencia 3 (& 91-422-29-11; www. MINORCA
hospes.com), has been installed in a ACCOMMODATIONS On the outskirts
restored 19th-century town house facing of Mahón, Biniarroca Countr y H ouse

W H AT ’S N E W
Puerta de Alcalá. Rooms feature floor- Hotel, Cami Vella 57, Sant Lluis (& 97-
to-ceiling windows and marble-clad bath- 115-12-50; http://biniarroca.com), is the
rooms, plus a first-rate restaurant. See most romantic hotel on the island and it’s
p. 115. set in a flower-filled garden. On the
grounds are two Roman-style pools. There
DINING A posh import from Peru,
are both rustic and contemporary touches
Astrid y Gaston, Paseo de la Castellana 13
throughout, including the individually
(& 91-702-62-62), brings a new taste
designed bedrooms with private terraces.
sensation to Madrid, with its chefs turning
See p. 646.
out a rainbow of tastes and flavors. Com-
Also south of Mahón stands Sant Joan
binations may seem odd—corn crepes
de Binissaida, Cami di Binissaida 108, at
topped with suckling pig skin, for exam-
Es Castell (& 97-135-55-98; http://
ple, and chili-and-honey marmalade—but
santjoan.binissaida.com), a beautifully
serious foodies praise the harmony of
restored antique farmhouse. All the rooms
flavors and the new sensations to the pal-
are named after composers in the main
ate. See p. 125.
house, and the stables out back have been
In the above-mentioned Hospes
converted into comfortable bedrooms as
Madrid, Senzone Restaurant, Plaza de la
well. The hotel has a first-rate chef, turn-
Independencia 3 (& 91-432-29-11),
ing out a savory Mediterranean cuisine.
serves one of the finest international cui-
See p. 646.
sines in Madrid. The culinary statements
are made by a young and talented chef, RONDA
Francisco Morales. Platters are presented ACCOMMODATIONS With a new
as works of art. See p. 127. name, La R ondeña, José Aparicio 3
In the Barrio de Salamanca, Sula, 33 (& 95-287-34-88), is still one of the best
Calle Jorge Juan (& 91-781-61-97), has value hotels in this stunning mountain
become a favorite celebrity hangout, town. It has kept its prices more or less in
attracting the likes of David Beckham and line in spite of its upgrade by the govern-
Penelope Cruz. The food isn’t ignored in ment from a two-star hotel to a three-star
this chic setting—it’s a first-rate interna- choice. The location is next to the famous
tional cuisine with a lot of imaginative Plaza de Toros, the bullring so beloved by
flavors and a sometimes-surprising “mar- Ernest Hemingway. See p. 293.
riage” of ingredients. See p. 128.
4 SAN SEBASTIAN TARAZONA
DINING In the sparkling Palacio de ACCOMMODATIONS Deep in the
Congresos, Kursaal, Zurriola Pasealekua heart of Aragón, in the small city of Tara-
1, Gros (& 93-300-31-62), is a bastion of zona, a top-rated hotel has opened,
gourmet Basque cookery, arguably the best Condes de Visconti, Calle Visconti
type of cuisine in Spain. Dining is on two 15 (& 97-664-00-74; www.condesde
levels, with the haute cuisine served on the visconti.com), which was installed in a
upper floor. Supervision of the menus is restored 1500s palace. Modern and tradi-
under the direction of Martín Berasategui, tional decor fills the hotel, which offers
an acclaimed Michelin-starred local chef. spacious bedrooms, many decorated in a
See p. 527. romantic style with fabric-draped beds.
See p. 494.
SEVILLE
ACCOMMODATIONS On its 80th VALENCIA
birthday, Gran Meliá Colón, Canalejas 1 ATTRACTIONS A grand opera house
W H AT ’S N E W

(& 95-450-55-99; www.gran-melia- has opened in this city of the Levante,

colon.com), has been restored to its for- Palau de les Ar ts Reina Sofia, Autopista
mer neo-Baroque glory. The original dome del Saler 1 (& 96-197-58-00), a futuris-
over its lobby, an artistic monument, has tic, helmet-shaped structure that is part of
been left intact. The hotel is once again the City of Arts and Sciences. Some of the
plush; even a sensory rejuvenation spa was world’s most prestigious opera companies
installed along with a hydromassage swim- perform in this new and dramatic setting.
ming pool. See p. 269. See p. 372.
 1
The Best of Spain
Spain is one of the most div erse and visually stunning nations of
Europe. As you plan your trip, you may find yourself overwhelmed by the number of
fascinating sights, beautiful landscapes, and off-the-beaten path towns to fit into your
limited time. So let us give you a hand. We’ve scoured the country in search of the best
places and experiences, and we’ve listed our favorites below, admittedly very personal and
opinionated choices.

1 T H E B E S T T R AV E L E X P E R I E N C E S
• Sitting in Sol or Sombra at the B ull- stomping, castanet rattling, hand clap-
fights: With origins as old as pagan ping, and sultry guitar chords. Some say
Spain, the art of bullfighting is the its origins lie deep in Asia, but the
expression of Iberian temperament and Spanish Gypsy has given the art an
passions. Detractors object to the sport original style dramatizing inner conflict
as cruel, bloody, and savage. Fans, how- and pain. Performed by a great artist,
ever, view bullfighting as a microcosm of flamenco can tear your heart out with
death, catharsis, and rebirth. If you strive its soulful, throaty singing.
to understand the bullfight, it can be one • Seeing the Masterpieces at the Prado:
of the most evocative and memorable One of the world’s premier art muse-
events in Spain. Head for the plaza de ums, the Prado is home to some 4,000
toros (bullring) in any major city, but masterpieces, many of them acquired
particularly in Madrid, Seville, or Gran- by Spanish kings. The wealth of Span-
ada. Tickets are either sol (sunny side) or ish art is staggering—everything from
sombra (pricier, but in the shade). Goya’s Naked Maja to the celebrated
• Feasting on Tapas in the Tascas: Tapas, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor) by
those bite-size portions washed down Velázquez (our favorite). Masterpiece
with wine, beer, or sherry, are reason after masterpiece unfolds before your
enough to go to Spain! Tapas bars, eyes, including works by Hieronymus
called tascas, are a quintessential Span- Bosch, Goya, Caravaggio, Fra Angelico,
ish experience. Originally tapas were and Botticelli. See p. 135.
cured ham or chorizo (spicy sausage). • Sipping S herry in J erez de la F ron-
Today they are likely to be anything— tera: In Spain, sherry is called jerez, and
gambas (deep-fried shrimp); anchovies it’s a major industry and subculture in
marinated in vinegar; stuffed peppers; a its own right. Hispanophiles compare
cool, spicy gazpacho; or hake salad. the complexities of sherry to those of
• Getting Caught Up in the Passions of the finest wines produced in France and
Flamenco: It’s best heard and watched make pilgrimages to the bodegas in
in an old tavern, in a neighborhood like Andalusia that ferment this amber-col-
Barrio de Triana in Seville. From the ored liquid. More than 100 bodegas are
lowliest taberna to the poshest night- available for visits, tours, and tastings,
club, you can hear the staccato foot opening their gates to visitors interested
6 Spain

tas Costa Verd

e
Al Ribadeo
o
R íi A Coruña
Gijón
Santander

Oviedo
Santiago de CANTABRIA
Lugo
C. Finisterre Compostela Reinosa
GALICIA Cantabr
ian Mts.

o
R íi o

ñ
ASTURIAS

Mi
León
Pontevedra
Baj

Vigo Orense Burgos

as
T H E B E S T O F S PA I N

Túy Benavente
Palencia

Aranda
ATLANTIC Valladolid
de Duero
OCEAN Zamora
Porto Douro CASTILLA-
LEÓN
Salamanca
Segovia

1 Ciudad
Ávila
San Lorenzo
Guadalajara

Coimbra Rodrigo de El Escorial

T H E B E S T T R AV E L E X P E R I E N C E S

MADRID
Talavera
Plasencia de la Reina Chinchón
PORTUGAL Aranjuez
Coria
us Toledo
Tag
Guadalupe
Cáceres
Valencia de Trujillo
Alcántara
EXTREMADURA
Badajoz Ciudad Real
LISBON
Mérida
CASTILLA-
a
dian

LA MANCHA
Peñarroya-
a
Moren
ua

Zafra Pueblonuevo
G
rra
Sie Linares
Córdoba Ubeda
vir
a lqui Jaén
G uad
Seville G
en
Ayamonte il Guadix
Huelva ANDALUCÍA Granadá
Cape St. Vincent Co
Faro sta
de Antequera
la
Jerez de Motril
Gulf of Málaga
Lu

la Frontera
z

Cádiz Marbella
del Sol
Cádiz Costa
Estepona

Strait Algeciras
of Gibraltar Gibraltar (U.K.)
MOROCCO Ceuta (Spain)
 7

Bay
of Montpellier
Biscay Toulouse
Bilbao San Sebastián FRANCE
(Bilbo) (Donostia)
Gulf
BASQUE of
COUNTRY Lions
Pamplona Andorra
Vitoria (Iruñea) la Vella
Py
ren ANDORRA Port-Bou
Logroño
NAVARRA ees
Figueres

T H E B E S T O F S PA I N
LA RIOJA Huesca Gerona
(Girona)

a
Eb

av
Tudela ro CATALONIA

Br
Soria Lérida
Zaragoza (Lleida) Tàrrega

a
st
Co
Duero BARCELONA
Calatayud Tarragona
ARAGON Do
rada
Tortosa sta
T Monreal Co
del Campo
1
ag

C. de Tortosa
us

Vinaròs
ar

Teruel Balearic s Minorca

nd

T H E B E S T T R AV E L E X P E R I E N C E S
ah

sla
Castellón
z

Sea
l A

Cuenca de la Plana I
de

Tarancón Inca Artá

ic
sta

Mota del a r Palma de

Co

le

Cuervo Valencia Majorca Majorca

Ba

Gulf of
Júcar Valencia Cabrera
Ibiza
Ciudad
Albacete de Ibiza
Benidorm Formentera
Segura
Alicante ca
n
a

Elche
Bl

Villacarrillo
Torrevieja
M U R C I A Murcia
sta

MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Co

Lorca
Cartagena
ada
Nev id
a
Si erra C ál
a
st
Co

Almería

ALGERIA
0 100 mi

Alborán N
0 100 km
(Spain)
8 in a process that dates from the coun- Sacred Family” will be Europe’s largest
try’s Roman occupation. See chapter 9. cathedral. See chapter 12.
• Wandering the C rooked S treets of • Running with the Bulls in Pamplona:
Barcelona’s G othic Q uarter: Long Okay, maybe it’s smarter to watch the
before Madrid was founded, the king- bulls, rather than run with them. The
dom of Catalonia was a bastion of art Fiesta de San Fermín in July is the most
and architecture. Whether the Barri dangerous ritual in Spain, made even
Gòtic, as it’s called in Catalan, is truly more so by copious amounts of wine
Gothic is the subject of endless debate, consumed by participants and observ-
but the Ciutat Vella (Old City) of Barce- ers. Broadcast live on TV throughout
lona is one of the most evocative neigh- Spain and the rest of Europe, the festi-
borhoods in Spain. Its richly textured val features herds of furious bulls that
streets, with their gurgling fountains, charge down medieval streets, at times
T H E B E S T O F S PA I N

vintage stores, and ancient fortifications, trampling and goring some of the hun-
inspired such artists as Pablo Picasso and dreds of people who run beside them.
Joan Miró (who was born in this neigh- Few other rituals in Spain are as breath-
borhood). See chapter 12. taking or as foolhardy. And few others
• Going Gaga over Gaudí: No architect as memorable. See chapter 16.
in Europe was as fantastical as Antoni • Following the Ancient P ilgrimage
Gaudí y Cornet, the foremost propo- Route to S antiago de Compostela:
nent of Catalan modernisme (or, in Span- Tourism as we know it began during the
1 ish, modernismo). Barcelona is studded Middle Ages, when thousands of Euro-
with the works of this extraordinary art- pean pilgrims journeyed to the shrine of
T H E B E S T S M A L L TO W N S

ist, all of which UNESCO now lists as Santiago (St. James), in Galicia, in north-
World Trust Properties. A recluse and a western Spain. Even if you’re not moti-
celibate bachelor as well as a fervent vated by faith, you should see some of
Catalan nationalist, he lived out his fan- Spain’s most dramatic landscapes and
tasies in his work. Nothing is more stun- grandest scenery by crossing the north-
ning than La Sagrada Família, Barcelona’s ern tier of the country—all the way from
best-known landmark, a cathedral on the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela.
which Gaudí labored for the last 43 years Some of the country’s most stunning
of his life. The landmark cathedral was architecture can be viewed along the
never completed, but work on it still way, including gems in Roncesvalles,
proceeds. If it’s ever finished, “The Burgos, and León. See chapter 19.

2 T H E B E S T S M A L L TO W N S
• Cuenca: Set amid a landscape of rugged is considered one of the finest modern
limestone outcroppings at the junction art museums in Spain. See chapter 6.
of two rivers, Cuenca is a fascinating • Zafra: Zafra’s 15th-century castle is the
combination of medieval masonry and largest and best preserved in the region. It
cantilevered balconies that seem to float is set within the angular, stark white archi-
above the steep gorges below. The angu- tecture of Zafra, which is also said to have
larity of the architecture here is said to inspired the cubists. See chapter 8.
have inspired early versions of cubism, a • Baeza: After it was wrenched away
fact commemorated in Cuenca’s Museo from the Moors in 1227, Baeza became
de Arte Abstracto Español. This museum a frontier town between the Christian
 and Moorish worlds, and a die-hard sym- Iberia, La Dama de Elche, now exhib- 9
bol of the Catholic ambition to occupy all ited in Madrid’s archaeological museum.
of Iberia. Today, a wealth of architecture These days, you can still see date palms
survives as evidence of the splendor of planted originally by the Phoenicians. A
Iberian history. See chapter 9. “mystery play” celebrating the Assump-
• Carmona: Pint-size, sleepy Carmona tion of the Virgin has been performed
packs a historical wallop, evoking the in the village church every year since
Roman occupation of Iberia. The town the 1300s. See chapter 11.
claims an architectural legacy from • Sitges: South of Barcelona is Spain’s
every occupying force since 206 b.c., most romantic Mediterranean beach
when the Romans defeated the resident town, with a 2.5km-long (11/2-mile)
Carthaginian army. See chapter 9. sandy beach and a promenade studded
• Ronda: The site appears inhospitable— with flowers and palm trees. Sitges is a

T H E B E S T O F S PA I N
a gorge slices through the town center town with a rich connection to art;
and its twin halves are connected with Picasso and Dalí both spent time here.
bridges that are antiques in their own Wander its small lanes and inspect the
right. But the winding streets of this old old villas of its Casco Antiguo, the Old
Moorish town are perfect for wander- Quarter. When not at the beach, you
ing, and the views of the surrounding can view three good art museums.
Andalusian countryside are stupendous. Nowadays, thousands of gays and lesbi-
Ronda is also revered by bullfighting ans flock to Sitges, which attracts a wide
fans, both for its bullring (the oldest spectrum of visitors of all persuasions.
1
and most beautiful in Spain) and the See chapter 13.

T H E B E S T S M A L L TO W N S
region’s skill in breeding the fiercest • Cadaqués: The 16th-century church
bulls in the country. See chapter 9. that dominates this town from a nearby
• Mijas: Wander through streets and hilltop isn’t particularly noteworthy, but
alleys once trod by the Phoenicians, the Cadaqués—on the Costa Brava near
Celts, and the Moors. Today, the town the French border—still charms visitors
offers a welcome dose of medieval flair with its whitewashed, fishing-village
on the Costa del Sol, a region otherwise simplicity. The azure waters of the
filled with modern, anonymous, and Mediterranean appealed to surrealist
often ugly resort hotels. See chapter 10. master Salvador Dalí, who built a suit-
• Nerja: On the Costa del Sol at the Bal- ably bizarre villa in the adjoining ham-
cón de Europa (Balcony of Europe) lies let of Lligat. See chapter 14.
this Mediterranean gem and its palm- • Santillana del M ar: Jean-Paul Sartre
shaded promenade jutting into the sea. called it “the prettiest village in Spain.”
Lined with antique iron lampposts, the Only 6 blocks long and just 5km
village overlooks a pretty beach and (3 miles) from the sea, Santillana del
fishing fleet. The resort town is on a Mar perfectly captures the spirit of
sloping site at the foot of a wall of jag- Cantabria. It’s also near the Cuevas de
ged coastal mountains. You can snuggle Altamira (Altamira Caves), often called
up in the parador or lodge at one of the “the Sistine Chapel of prehistoric art.”
little inns on the narrow streets. See Romanesque houses and mansions line
chapter 10. the ironstone streets. People still sell
• Elche: Although famed as a charming fresh milk from their stable doors, as if
medieval village, Elche is best known as the Middle Ages had never ended,
the excavation site of one of the premier but you can live in comfort at one of
sculptures of the Roman Empire in Spain’s grandest paradores, Parador de
10 Santillana, a converted 17th-century to this haven of natural beauty, 27km
mansion. See chapter 18. (17 miles) northwest of Palma. The
• Deià: On the island of Majorca, you’ll views of the sea and mountains are
find this lovely old village (also spelled panoramic. Gnarled and ancient olive
Deyá), where the poet Robert Graves trees dot the landscape. You can book
lived until his death in 1985. Following into cozy nests of luxury like La Resi-
in his footsteps, artists and writers flock dencia or Es Molí. See chapter 20.

3 T H E B E S T B E AC H E S
Spain may be flanked to the east by France the charming, sandy-bottomed coves
and the Pyrenees and to the west by Portu- that dot the coast. Although there are
T H E B E S T O F S PA I N

gal, but most of the country is ringed with fewer undiscovered beaches here than
sand, rock, and seawater. That, coupled along Spain’s Atlantic coast, the Costa
with almost year-round sunshine, has Brava retains a sense of rocky wilderness.
attracted many millions of beachgoers. One of the more eccentric-looking villas
• Costa del S ol: Stretching east from along this coast belonged to the late Sal-
Gibraltar along the southernmost coast vador Dalí, the region’s most famous
of Spain, the Costa del Sol is the most modern son who lived much of his life
famous, party-hearty, overdeveloped near Cadaqués. See chapter 14.
1 string of beaches in Iberia. The beaches • Costa Verde: Radically different from
feature superb sand, and the Mediter- the dry and sunbaked coastline of Andalu-
T H E B E S T B E AC H E S

ranean waters are calm and warm sia, the rocky Costa Verde (Green Coast)
throughout most of the year. But these resembles a sunny version of Ireland’s
charms have brought throngs of visi- western shore. It’s temperate in summer,
tors, making this the most congested when the rest of Spain can be unbearably
string of coastal resorts in Europe. The hot. Much of the coast lies within the
most important resorts here are Mar- ancient province of Asturias, a region rife
bella, Torremolinos, Málaga, and Nerja. with Romanesque architecture and medi-
Look for soaring skyscrapers, eye-pop- eval pilgrimage sites—and one that has
ping bikinis, sophisticated resorts and not yet been overwhelmed with tourism.
restaurants, lots of sunshine, and inter- Premier resorts include some districts of
minable traffic jams. See chapter 10. Santander, Gijón and, a short distance
• Costa Blanca: This southeastern coast inland, Oviedo. See chapter 18.
embraces the industrial city of Valencia, • The Balearic Islands: Just off the coast
but its best-known resorts, Benidorm of Catalonia and a 45-minute flight
and Alicante, are packed with northern from Barcelona, this rocky, sand-fringed
European sun-seekers every year. The archipelago attracts urban refugees seek-
surrounding scenery isn’t particularly ing the sun, jet-set glitterati, and exhibi-
dramatic, but the water is turquoise, the tionists in scanty beachwear. The
sand is white, and a low annual rainfall Mediterranean climate is warmer here
virtually guarantees a sunny vacation. than on the mainland. The city of
See chapter 11. Palma de Majorca has the greatest num-
• Costa Brava: Rockier, more serpentine, ber of high-rises and the most crowded
and without the long stretches of shorelines. Much of Ibiza is party cen-
sand that mark the Costa Blanca, the tral for young people and gay visitors
cliff-edged Costa Brava extends from during the summer. Sleepy Minorca
Barcelona to the French border. Look for offers more isolation. See chapter 20.
 11
4 T H E B E S T C A S T L E S & PA L AC E S
• Palacio R eal (Madrid): No longer The gardens are even more fascinating
occupied by royalty, but still used for than the palace. The gem of the com-
state occasions, the Royal Palace sits on plex is the Casita del Labrador, an
the bank of the Manzanares River. It annex as rich and ornate as its model—
was built in the mid–18th century over Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon at Ver-
the site of a former palace. It’s not Ver- sailles. See p. 174.
sailles, but it’s still mighty impressive, • Alhambra (Granada): One of Spain’s
with around 2,000 rooms. No one has grandest sights, the Alhambra was orig-
lived here since 1931, but the chande- inally conceived by the Muslims as a
liers, marble columns, gilded borders, fortified pleasure pavilion. Its allure was

T H E B E S T O F S PA I N
paintings, and objets d’art, including instantly recognized by the Catholic
Flemish tapestries and Tiepolo ceiling monarchs after the Reconquest. Despite
frescoes, are well preserved. The empty the presence of a decidedly European
thrones of King Juan Carlos and Queen palace at its center, the setting remains
Sofía are among the highlights of the one of the most exotic (and Moorish) in
tour. See p. 139. all of Europe. See p. 298.
• Alcázar (Segovia): Once the most • Alcázar (Seville): The oldest royal resi-
impregnable castle in Spain, El Alcázar dence in Europe still in use was built by
rises dramatically from a rock spur near Peter the Cruel (1350–69) in 1364, 78
1
the ancient heart of town. Isabella’s years after the Moors left Seville. Ferdi-

THE BEST MUSEUMS

marriage to Ferdinand at this forebod- nand and Isabella once lived here. The
ing site eventually led to Spain’s unifica- Alcázar is one of the purest examples of
tion. Today, it’s the single most the Mudéjar, or Moorish, style, and its
photographed and dramatic castle in decoration is based on that of the
Iberia. See p. 180. Alhambra in Granada. A multitude of
• Palacio Real (Aranjuez): Built at enor- Christian and Islamic motifs are com-
mous expense by the Bourbon cousins bined architecturally in this labyrinth of
of the rulers of France, the palace was gardens, halls, and courts, none more
designed to emulate the glories of Ver- notable than the Patio de las Doncellas
sailles in its 18th-century neoclassicism. (Court of the Maidens). See p. 263.

5 THE BEST MUSEUMS

The spectacular Prado in Madrid is no around 1920, and formerly displayed in
mere museum but a travel experience. In Lugano, Switzerland, its 700 canvases,
itself, it’s worth a journey to Spain. (See with works by artists ranging from El
“The Best Travel Experiences,” earlier in Greco to Picasso, are arranged in chrono-
this chapter.) logical order. The collection rivals the
• Museo Thyssen-B ornemisza (Madrid): legendary holdings of the queen of Eng-
Madrid’s acquisition of this treasure trove land herself. See p. 139.
of art in the 1980s was one of the greatest • Museo de Ar te A bstracto Español
coups in European art history. Amassed (Cuenca): The angular medieval archi-
by a central European collector beginning tecture of the town that contains the
12 museum is an appropriate foil for a star- innovative brick building. Designing
tling collection of modern masters. A the building on a grand scale, he freely
group of some of Spain’s most celebrated borrowed from Roman motifs and dar-
artists settled in Cuenca in the 1950s ingly incorporated an ancient Roman
and 1960s, and their works are displayed road discovered when the foundations
here. They include Fernando Zobel, were dug. See p. 236.
Antoni Tàpies, Eduardo Chillida, Luis • Museo de Bellas Ar tes de S evilla
Feito, and Antonio Saura. See p. 193. (Seville): The Prado doesn’t own all the
• Museo-Hospital de S anta C ruz great Spanish art in the country. Located
(Toledo): Built by the archbishop of in the early-17th-century convent of La
Toledo as a hospital for the poor, this is Merced, this museum is famous for its
the most important museum in New works by such Spanish masters as Val-
Castile. It’s known for its Plateresque dés Leal, Zurbarán, and Murillo. Spain’s
T H E B E S T O F S PA I N

architecture—notably its intricate Golden Age is best exemplified by

facade—and for the wealth of art inside. Murillo’s monumental Immaculate Con-
Among its noteworthy collection of ception and Zurbarán’s Apotheosis of St.
16th- and 17th-century paintings are Thomas Aquinas. See p. 265.
18 works by El Greco, including his • Museu P icasso (Barcelona): Picasso,
Altarpiece of the Assumption, completed who spent many of his formative years
in 1613 during his final period. The in Barcelona, donated some 2,500 of
gallery also contains a collection of his paintings, drawings, and engravings
1 primitive paintings. See p. 167. to launch this museum in 1970. It’s
• Museo N acional de Escultura (Vall- second only to the Picasso Museum in
THE BEST MUSEUMS

adolid): The greatest collection of gilded Paris. Seek out his notebooks, which
polychrome sculpture—an art form contain many sketches of Barcelona
that reached its pinnacle in Valladolid— scenes. The pieces are arranged in
is on display here in the 15th-century roughly chronological order, so you’ll
San Gregorio College. Figures are first discover that he completely mastered
carved in wood and then painted with traditional representational painting
great artistry to achieve a lifelike appear- before tiring of it and beginning to
ance. The most remarkable exhibit is an experiment. Watch for numerous por-
altarpiece designed by Alonso Berru- traits of his family, as well as examples
guete for the Church of San Benito. Be from both his Blue Period and his Rose
sure to see his Martyrdom of St. Sebas- Period. His obsessive Las Meninas
tian. See p. 216. series—painted in 1959—offers exag-
• Museo N acional de Ar te R omano gerated variations on the theme of the
(Mérida): A museum that makes most famous Velázquez work hanging in
archaeologists salivate, this modern Madrid’s Prado Museum. See p. 428.
building contains hundreds of pieces of • Teatre M useu D alí (Figueres): The
ancient Roman sculpture discovered in eccentric Salvador Dalí is showcased
and around Mérida. The Roman trea- here as nowhere else. The surrealist art-
sures included theaters, amphitheaters, ist—known for everything from lobster
racecourses, and hundreds of tombs full telephones to Rotting Mannequin in a
of art objects, many of which are on Taxicab—conceived of his art partly as
display here. In 1986, the well-known theater. But be warned: As Dalí’s final
and award-winning architect Rafael joke, he wanted the museum to spew
Moneo designed this ambitious and forth “false information.” See p. 483.
 13
6 T H E B E S T C AT H E D R A L S & C H U R C H E S
• Catedral de A vila: One of the earliest an urgent restoration is needed to
Gothic cathedrals in Castile, this rug- strengthen the walls to prevent collapse.
ged, plain edifice was called “a soldier’s The well-preserved cloisters are also
church.” A brooding, granite monolith, worth a visit. See p. 212.
which in some ways resembles a for- • Catedral de S anta M aría (Burgos):
tress, it is the centerpiece of a city that After its cornerstone was laid in 1221,
produced St. Teresa, the most famous this cathedral became the beneficiary of
mystic of the Middle Ages. The interior creative talent imported from England,
of the cathedral, with its High Gothic Germany, and France. It is the third-
nave, is filled with notable works of art, largest cathedral in Spain, after Seville

T H E B E S T O F S PA I N
including many Plateresque statues. See and Toledo. Art historians claim that
p. 189. among medieval religious buildings, it
• Catedral de Toledo: Ranked among the has the most diverse spectrum of sculp-
greatest of all Gothic structures, this ture in Gothic Spain—so diverse that a
cathedral was built on the site of an old special name has been conjured up to
Arab mosque. A vast pile from the 13th describe it: the School of Burgos. El Cid
to the 15th centuries, it has an interior is buried here. See p. 220.
filled with masterpieces—notably an • Catedral de Sevilla: The Christians are
immense polychrome retable carved in not the only occupants of Seville who 1
flamboyant Gothic style, and magnifi- considered this site holy; an enormous

T H E B E S T C AT H E D R A L S & C H U R C H E S
cent 15th- and 16th-century choir stalls. mosque stood here before the Recon-
In the treasury is a splendid 16th-century quest. To quote the Christians who
silver-and-gilt monstrance, weighing built the cathedral, they planned one
about 500 pounds. See p. 166. “so immense that everyone, on behold-
• Real M onasterio de S an Lor enzo de ing it, will take us for madmen.” They
El Escorial (near Madrid): Philip II, succeeded. After St. Peter’s in Rome and
who commissioned this monastery in St. Paul’s in London, the cathedral of
the 1530s, envisioned it as a monastic this Andalusian capital is the largest in
fortress against the distractions of the Europe. Among its most important
secular world. More awesome than features are the tomb of Columbus,
beautiful, it’s the world’s best example Patio de los Naranjos (Courtyard of the
of the religious devotion of Renaissance Orange Trees), Giralda Tower, and Cap-
Spain. This huge granite fortress, the illa Real (Royal Chapel). See p. 264.
burial place for Spanish kings, houses a • Mezquita-Catedral de Cór doba: In
wealth of paintings and tapestries— the 1500s, the Christian rulers of Spain
works by everyone from Titian to tried to convert one of the largest and
Velázquez. See p. 177. most elaborate mosques in the Muslim
• Catedral de León: Filled with more world, the Mezquita, into a Catholic
sunlight than any other cathedral in cathedral. The result, a bizarre amalgam
Spain, this one was begun in 1250 with of Gothic and Muslim architecture, is
a design pierced by 125 stained-glass an awesomely proportioned cultural
windows and 57 oculi, the oldest of compromise that defies categorization.
which date from the 13th century. The In its 8th-century heyday, the Mezquita
architectural achievement is stunning was the crowning Muslim architectural
but also dangerous: Architects fear that achievement in the West. See p. 249.
14 • Catedral de B arcelona: Completed in wide, it is one of the three most impor-
1450, this cathedral grew to represent tant pilgrimage sites in Spain. See chap-
the spiritual power of the Catalan ter 12.
empire. With its 81m (266-ft.) facade • Museo C atedralicio de S antiago de
and flying buttresses and gargoyles, it is Compostela: During the Middle Ages,
the Gothic Quarter’s most stunning this verdant city on the northwestern tip
monument. The interior is in the Cata- of Iberia attracted thousands of religious
lan Gothic style with slender pillars. See pilgrims who walked from as far away as
p. 427. Italy to seek salvation at the tomb of St.
• Montserrat (near Barcelona): Since its James. The cathedral itself shows the
inauguration in the 9th century by architectural influences of nearly 800
Benedictine monks, Montserrat has years of religious conviction, much of it
been the preeminent religious shrine of financed by donations from exhausted
T H E B E S T O F S PA I N

Catalonia and the site of the legendary pilgrims. Its two most stunning features
statue of La Moreneta (the Black are its Obradoiro facade (a baroque mas-
Madonna). Its glory years ended in terpiece) and its carved Doorway of
1812, when it was sacked by the armies Glory behind the facade. An enormous
of Napoleon. Today, sitting atop a silver censor, called the Botafumeiro,
1,200m (3,936-ft.) mountain, 11km (7 swings from the transept during major
miles) long and 5.5km (31/2 miles) liturgical ceremonies. See p. 574.
1
7 T H E B E S T V I N E YA R D S & W I N E R I E S
T H E B E S T V I N E YA R D S & W I N E R I E S

Spanish wines are some of the best in the • Bodegas S eñorío de N ava, Nava de
world and are remarkably affordable here. Roa (& 98-720-97-12; www.senorio
Below is a list of bodegas that receive visi- denava.es): This is one of the region’s
tors. For more information about the 10 best examples of a once-sleepy and
wine regions—and the 39 officially recog- now-booming vintner. Merlot and cab-
nized wine-producing Denominaciones de ernet sauvignon grapes are cultivated, as
Origen scattered across those regions— are more obscure local varieties such as
contact Wines from Spain, c/o the Com- Tinta del País (also known as Tempra-
mercial Office of Spain, 405 Lexington nillo) and Garnacha (or Grenache, as
Ave., 44th Floor, New York, NY 10174- it’s called across the border in France).
4499 (& 212/661-4959). Some of the wines bottled here are dis-
tributed under the brand name Vega
RIBERA DEL DUERO Cubillas.
Halfway between Madrid and Santander,
this region near Burgos is the fastest devel- JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA
oping wine district in the country and the This town of 200,000 (most of whose
beneficiary of massive investments in the residents work in the wine trade) is sur-
past few years. Cold nights, sunny days, rounded by a sea of vineyards, which
the highest altitudes of any wine-produc- thrive in the hot, chalky soil. Ninety-five
ing region in Spain, and fertile alkaline soil percent of the region is planted with the
produce flavorful, award-winning wines. hardy and flavorful Palomino Fino to pro-
Among the noteworthy individual vine- duce sherry, one of the most beloved
yards is: products of Spain. Few other regions con-
tain so many bodegas, any of which can be
visited. See chapter 9 for more information; world. In fact, Freixenet is the largest sell- 15
outstanding choices include the following: ing sparkling wine in the world.
• Emilio L ustau, Jerez de la Frontera • Codorníu, Sant Sadurní d’Anoia (& 93-
(& 95-634-15-97; www.emilio-lustau. 505-15-51; www.codorniu.com): With
com): This bodega was established in a history dating from the mid-1500s,
1896 by a local lawyer, and ever since it this vineyard became famous after its
has produced exotic forms of sherry owner, Josep Raventós, produced Spain’s
snapped up as collectors’ items by afi- first version of sparkling wine. During
cionados everywhere. the harvest, more than 2.2 million
• González B yass, Jerez de la Frontera pounds of grapes, collected from about
(& 95-635-70-00; www.gonzalezbyass. 1,000 growers, are pressed daily. The
com): Flourishing since 1835, this company’s headquarters, designed

T H E B E S T O F S PA I N
bodega has gained enormous recogni- around the turn of the 20th century by
tion from one of the most famous Puig i Cadafalch, a contemporary of
brand names and the world’s best-sell- Gaudí, sits above the 31km (19 miles)
ing sherry, Tío Pepe. It isn’t as pictur- of underground tunnels where the
esque as you might hope, because product is aged.
modernization has added some rather • Freixenet, Sant Sadurní d’Anoia (& 93-
bulky concrete buildings to its historic 891-70-00; www.freixenet.es): Codor-
core. Nonetheless, it’s one of the most níu’s largest and most innovative
visible names in the industry. competitor began in 1861 as a family- 1
• Pedro D omecq, Jerez de la Frontera run wine business that quickly changed
(& 95-615-15-00; www.casa-pedro- its production process to incorporate

T H E B E S T V I N E YA R D S & W I N E R I E S
domecq.com): The oldest of all the the radical developments in sparkling
large sherry houses was established in cava. Today, although still family
1730 by Pedro Domecq, a young owned, it’s an awesomely efficient fac-
French nobleman. Its bodega contains tory pressing vast numbers of grapes,
casks whose contents were once des- with at least a million cases sold to the
tined for such sherry lovers as William United States every year. Award-win-
Pitt, Lord Nelson, and the duke of Wel- ning brand names include Cordon
lington. If you visit this sprawling com- Negro Brut and Carta Nevada Brut.
pound, look for La Mezquita bodega, The company now operates a vineyard
whose many-columned interior recalls in California. It produces the sparkling
the famous mosque in Córdoba. wine Gloria Ferrer, which has won
awards in the United States.
PENEDES • Miguel Torres, Vilafranca del Penedés
In ancient times, thousands of vessels of (& 93-817-74-00; www.torreswines.
wine were shipped from this region of com): This winery was established in
Catalonia to fuel the orgies of the Roman 1870 by a local son (Jaime Torres), who
Empire. Much of the inspiration for the returned to his native town after mak-
present industry was developed in the ing a fortune trading petroleum and oil
19th century by French vintners, who in Cuba. Today, you can see what was
found the climate and soil similar to those once the world’s largest wine vat
of Bordeaux. The region produces still (132,000 gal.); its interior was used as
wines, as well as 98% of Spain’s sparkling the site of a banquet held in honor of
wines (cava), which stand an excellent the Spanish king. Thanks to genera-
chance of supplanting French champagne tions of management by French-trained
in the minds of celebrants throughout the specialists, Miguel Torres is now one of
16 the region’s most sophisticated and French oak. Production is small, eclectic,
advanced vineyards. Like the other bode- and choice.
gas, its location permits side trips to • La Rioja Alta, Haro (& 94-131-03-
Barcelona, the beach resort of Sitges, and 46; www.riojalta.com): Another bodega
the ancient monastery of Montserrat. in the winegrowing community of
Haro, La Rioja Alta is set near the rail-
LA RIOJA way station. Founded in 1890, it has
Set in the foothills of the Pyrenees close to the dank and atmospheric cellars you’d
the French border, La Rioja turns out what expect. It was graced in 1984 by a visit
most people have in mind when they from Spain’s royal family. About 85% of
think of Spanish wines. The region pro- the production at this small but quality
duced millions of gallons during the outfit is bottled as reservas (aged at least
regime of the ancient Romans, and it 3 years) and gran reservas (aged at least
T H E B E S T O F S PA I N

boasts quality-control laws promulgated 5 years).

by a local bishop in the 9th century. Here
are some of the best vineyards for a visit: GALICIA
• Herederos de M arqués de Riscal, This Celtic outpost in the northwestern
Elciego (& 94-560-60-00; www.marques corner of Spain produces white wines
deriscal.com): This vineyard was praised by connoisseurs as the perfect
founded around 1850 by a local entre- accompaniment to local seafood. The
preneur who learned winegrowing tech- marketing name for the product, appro-
1 priately, is El Vino del Mar (Sea Wine),
niques in France. The modern-day
enterprise still bases most of its income although the Denominación de Origen
T H E B E S T V I N E YA R D S & W I N E R I E S

on the 199 hectares (492 acres) acquired includes the appellations Rias Baixas and
by the organization’s founding father. Ribeiro. Per-capita wine consumption in
Despite several disappointing years Galicia is the highest in Spain; a majority
between 1975 and 1985, it remains one of the wine produced here was formerly
of the most respected in the region. consumed locally. Massive investments
• Bodegas Riojanas, Cenicero (& 94- during the 1980s changed all that.
145-40-50; www.bodegasriojanas. • Bodega M orgadio, Albeos-Crecente
com): Set on the main street of the (& 98-826-12-12; www.morgadio.
winegrowing hamlet of Cenicero, this com): This vineyard, near Pontevedra,
century-old bodega expanded massively launched the Denominación de Origen
in the 1980s and upgraded its visitor Rias Baixas in 1984. Four friends whom
information program. You’ll be received locals referred as “madmen” bought 28
in a mock-feudal tower where you can hectares (69 acres) of land that, with the
learn the nuances of the wine industry. Albariño grape, they transformed into
• Bodegas M uga, Haro (& 94-131-18- one of the most respected and award-
25; www.bodegasmuga.com): This winning vineyards in the district. Fertil-
bodega adheres more to 19th-century izer for each year’s crop comes from the
old-world craftsmanship than any of its bodega’s own flock of sheep. The suc-
competitors do. It was founded in 1932 cess of old-fashioned farming methods,
by Isaac Muga and his wife, Aurora Cao, coupled with state-of-the-art fermenta-
who both came from a long line of fami- tion tanks, is a model of entrepreneurial
lies in the winemaking industry. The courage in an otherwise economically
winery contains an assortment of old- depressed outpost of Spain.
fashioned casks made from American or
 17
8 T H E B E S T F E S T I VA L S
• Autumn Festival, Madrid (& 91-720- costumes worn by the Moors are as
81-83): Held in October and Novem- absurdly anachronistic as possible.
ber, the Festival de O toño is the best When the Christians win, a statue of
music festival in Spain, with a lineup the Virgin is carried proudly through
that attracts the best of the European the city as proof of Alcoy’s staunchly
and South American musical communi- passionate role as a bastion of Christi-
ties. The usual roster of chamber music, anity. See p. 47.
symphonic pieces, and orchestral works • La Tomatina (Battle of the Tomatoes),
is supplemented by a program of zarzu- Buñol, Valencia (& 96-250-01-51):
ela (musical comedy), as well as Arabic Every year on the last Wednesday in

T H E B E S T O F S PA I N
and Sephardic pieces composed during August, nearly everyone in the town,
the Middle Ages. See p. 50. along with thousands from neighboring
• Feria del C aballo, Jerez de la Frontera towns and villages, joins this 2-hour-
(& 95-633-11-50): Few events show long tomato war (11am–1pm). The
off Spain’s equestrian traditions in such local government sponsors the festival,
a flattering light. Costumes are appro- bringing in truckloads of tomatoes
priately ornate; riders demonstrate the totaling more than 88,000 pounds of
stern, carefully controlled movements vegetable artillery. Local bands provide
the music for dancing and singing, and 1
developed during medieval battles; and
the entire city of Jerez becomes one there’s plenty of drinking. Portable

T H E B E S T F E S T I VA L S
enormous riding ring for the presenta- showers are installed for the partici-
tion of dressage and jumping events. pants. See p. 49.
Horse buying and trading are common- • La R apa das Bestas (the C apture of
place at this May event. See p. 48. the Beasts), San Lorenzo de Sabucedo,
• Las Hogueras de S an Juan (St. John’s Galicia (& 98-154-63-51): In the ver-
Bonfires), Alicante (& 98-120-24- dant hills of northwestern Spain, horses
06): Bonfires blaze through the night graze at will. On the first weekend of
on June 20 as a celebration of a festival July, they are rounded up and herded
revered by Celtic pagans and Romans into a corral. Here, each is branded and
alike—the summer solstice. Stacks of then released back into the wild after a
flammable objects, including discarded few days of medical observation. For
finery and cardboard replicas of sinners information, contact the Office of
and witches, are set ablaze. The bonfire Tourism in Pontevedra. See p. 48.
signals the beginning of 5 days of • Misteri d ’Elx (Mystery of E lche),
parades and 5 nights of fireworks, dur- Elche (& 96-741-11-00): Based on the
ing which normal business comes to a reputed mystical powers of an ancient,
virtual standstill. See p. 48. black-faced statue of the Virgin, the
• Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Chris- citizens of Elche have staged a mystery
tians), Alcoy, near Alicante (& 96-514- play in the local church every year for
34-52): The agonizing, century-long more than 6 centuries. The chanting
process of evicting the Moors from and songs that accompany the plot line
Iberia is re-created during 3 days of are in an archaic dialect that even Cas-
simulated, vaudeville-style fighting tilians can barely understand. Competi-
between “Moors” and “Christians” tion is fierce for seats during the August
every April (dates vary). Circus-style event, and celebrations precede and fol-
low the play. See p. 49.
18
9 T H E B E S T PA R A D O R E S
Funded and maintained by the govern- • Parador H ostal S an M arcos, León
ment, Spain’s paradores are hostelries that (& 98-723-73-00): Originally home
showcase a building or setting of impor- to the Order of Santiago—a group of
tant cultural and historical interest. Some knights charged with protecting jour-
are much older and grander than others. neying pilgrims—the building was
Below are the country’s most interesting expanded and converted into a monas-
and unusual. For more information, visit tery some 400 years later. These days,
www.parador.es. set beside the Bernesga River and with
• Parador de A vila, Avila (& 92-021- a lavishly decorated church on the
13-40): Built as an enlargement of a grounds, it’s one of Spain’s most deluxe
T H E B E S T O F S PA I N

15th-century palace (Palacio de Piedras paradores. The public areas are pure
Albas, also known as Palacio de Bena- medieval grandeur: a dramatic lobby, a
vides), this parador features gardens that huge cast-iron chandelier, and stone
flank the northern fortifications of this staircases. See p. 214.
well-preserved, 11th-century walled • Parador de Z amora, Zamora (& 98-
city. While only some of the comfort- 051-44-97; www.parador.es): This one-
able, airy guest rooms are in the original time Moorish fortress-turned-Renaissance
palace is among the most beautiful and
1 palace, it’s still the region’s most intrigu-
richly decorated paradores in Spain. A
ing hotel. In the parador’s restaurant,
try the roast suckling pig, a regional medieval aura is reflected in the details:
T H E B E S T PA R A D O R E S

specialty. See p. 190. armor, coats of arms, tapestries, and

• Parador de C uenca, Cuenca (& 96- attractive four-poster beds. A swim-
923-23-20): This 16th-century build- ming pool enhances the tranquil back
ing, once a Dominican convent, is one garden. Castilian fare such as stuffed
of the newer paradores in Spain. Like roast veal typifies the restaurant’s offer-
the medieval houses for which Cuenca ings. See p. 210.
is famous, the balconies here jut over • Parador de C áceres, Cáceres (& 92-
rocky cliffs, overlooking swift-moving 721-17-59): Live like royalty at this
rivers below. The sight of casas colgadas, palace, built in the 1400s on the site of
or “suspended houses,” is unforgettable. Arab fortifications. The parador is in
An adjoining restaurant specializes in the city’s Old Quarter, recently declared
seasonal wild game. See p. 194. a World Heritage site. The spacious
• Parador de Turismo de Toledo, Toledo public areas are decorated with soft
(& 92-522-18-50): Although this is a cream shades and rough-hewn ceiling
relatively modern building, the archi- beams. Venison with goat cheese and
tecture subtly evokes much older mod- roast kid with rosemary are typical of
els. Views from the windows, boasting the varied Extremaduran cuisine served
faraway glimpses of the city’s historic in the parador’s restaurant. See p. 233.
core, evoke the scenes El Greco painted • Parador de Trujillo, Trujillo (& 92-
in his View of Toledo. A swimming pool 732-13-50): Set in the inviting 16th-
is a welcome relief in blistering Toledo. century convent of Santa Clara, this
Such regional dishes as stewed partridge parador was originally built in a combi-
are featured in the hotel restaurant. See nation of medieval and Renaissance
p. 169. styles. The building was transformed
into a hotel in 1984; the guest rooms
 are considerably more lavish than they Sistine Chapel of prehistoric art”—the 19
were during their stint as nuns’ cells. The Caves of Altamira. See p. 552.
cuisine is the best in town. See p. 230. • Parador M olino Viejo (P arador de
• Parador de M érida, Mérida (& 92- Gijón), Gijón (& 98-537-05-11): As
431-38-00): A 16th-century building the name implies, this hotel was built
that was at various times a convent and around the decrepit remains of a molino,
a prison, this parador once hosted a or cider mill (and the antique presses are
meeting between the much-hated dicta- still at hand). Close to San Lorenzo
tors of Spain (Franco) and Portugal Beach, it’s the only parador in the north-
(Salazar) in the 1960s. Mudéjar, Roman, ern province of Asturias. The dining
and Visigothic elements adorn the inte- room serves typical Asturian cuisine,
rior in unusual but stunning juxtaposi- including the famous fabada, a rich stew
tion. The inner courtyard and Mozarabic of white beans and pork. See p. 562.

T H E B E S T O F S PA I N
gardens add graceful notes. The kitchen • Parador de P ontevedra, Pontevedra
serves the area’s best, including gazpa- (& 98-685-58-00): The building is a
cho, calderetas extremeñas (stews), and 16th-century Renaissance palace built
the famous Almoharin figs. See p. 237. on foundations at least 200 years older
• Parador de Jaén, Jaén (& 95-323-00- than that. It’s famous as one of Spain’s
00): In the 10th century, Muslims built first paradores. Inaugurated in 1955, its
this fortress on a cliff high above town. success led to the amplification of the
Later, Christians added Gothic vaulting parador program. The hotel is still allur-
and touches of luxury, which remain in ing today, with its delightful terrace
1
place thanks to renovation by the gov- garden and stately dining room, which

T H E B E S T LU X U R Y H OT E L S
ernment. Guest rooms provide sweep- serves the fresh fish and seafood for
ing views over Andalusia. A swimming which Galicia is known. See p. 585.
pool is a welcome retreat from the • Hostal de Los Reyes Católicos, Santiago
burning sun. Sample such dishes as cold de Compostela (& 98-158-22-00): We
garlic soup and partridge salad in the saved the best for last—this is one of the
panoramic restaurant. See p. 243. most spectacular hotels in Europe. Origi-
• Parador de Santillana Gil Blas, Santil- nally a hospice for wayfaring pilgrims, it
lana del Mar (& 94-202-80-28): This boasts a lavish 16th-century facade, four
bucolic parador recalls the manor houses open-air courtyards, and a bedchamber
that dotted northern Spain’s verdant once occupied by Franco. Today, the hotel
hillsides more than 400 years ago. is a virtual museum, with Gothic, Renais-
Composed of thick stone walls and sance, and baroque architectural elements.
heavy timbers, it’s pleasantly isolated It boasts four beautiful cloisters, elegant
and elegantly countrified. A bonus is its public areas, and spectacular guest rooms.
proximity to what has been called “the See p. 576.

1 0 T H E B E S T LU X U R Y H OT E L S
• The Ritz M adrid (& 800/237-1236 at the turn of the 20th century. In the
in the U.S., or 91-701-67-67; www.ritz. luxurious bedrooms, you can live the
es): This is the most famous hotel in pre–World War I glory days of the Belle
Spain, and arguably the best, at least for Epoque. See p. 113.
those who want the grand style of living • The Westin Palace, Madrid (& 888/
enjoyed by aristocrats and Spanish dons 625-4988 in the U.S., or 91-360-81-
00; www.westinpalacemadrid.com):
20 Flawless service is the hallmark of furnishings, big mirrors, and marble
Madrid’s most distinguished hotel. floors and bathrooms. During summer,
Guest rooms contain antiques, gracious flamenco dancers entertain here. See
marble bathrooms, and elegant detail- p. 332.
ing. This Edwardian grand hotel is • Barceló La Bobadilla, Loja (& 95-832-
more relaxed than it once was, the old 18-61; www.barcelolabobadilla.com):
haughtiness of former management The most luxurious retreat in the south
gone with the wind—it long ago of Spain, this secluded oasis lies in the
rescinded its policy of not allowing foothills of the Sierra Nevada, an hour’s
movie stars as guests. Men still may drive northeast of Málaga. White-
have to wear a coat and tie, however. washed casas (small individual villas)
See p. 106. cluster around a tower and a church.
• Hotel Alfonso XIII, Seville (& 800/ Each individually designed casa is com-
T H E B E S T O F S PA I N

221-2340 in the U.S., or 95-491-70- plete with roof terrace and balcony
00; www.starwoodhotels.com): The overlooking olive groves. Guests live in
royal family stayed here when the luxury within the private compound of
Infanta Elena, daughter of Juan Carlos, 708 hectares (1,749 acres). See p. 350.
married in Seville in 1995. Built to • Neri, Barcelona (& 93-304-06-55;
house visitors for the Iberoamerican www.hotelneri.com): Tucked away in
Exposition of 1929, this grand hotel the Gothic quarter, this restored palace
features Moorish-style rooms with near the cathedral is the most romantic
1 doors opening onto small balconies; place to stay in Barcelona, ideal for
they overlook a Spanish courtyard with honeymooners. From its creeper-cov-
T H E B E S T LU X U R Y H OT E L S

a bubbling fountain and potted palms. ered terrace to its crystal chandeliers, to
Set in front of the city’s fabled Alcázar, its plush bedrooms, the Neri hotel is for
the Alfonso XIII is one of Spain’s most those seeking the good life. See p. 398.
legendary hotels. See p. 269. • Hotel M aría C ristina, San Sebastián
• Marbella Club, Marbella (& 800/448- (& 800/221-2340 in the U.S., or 94-
8355 in the U.S., or 95-282-22-11; 343-76-00; www.westin.com): One of
www.marbellaclub.com): Built during the country’s great Belle Epoque trea-
the Golden Age of the Costa del Sol sures, this old-world seafront hotel has
(the 1950s), this bastion of chic is com- sheltered discriminating guests since
posed of ecologically conscious clusters 1912. Oriental rugs, antiques, potted
of garden pavilions, bungalows, and palms, high ceilings, formal lounges,
small-scale annexes. The luxurious marble pillars, and marble floors show
rooms are modeled after those displayed off a turn-of-the-20th-century glamour.
in a European design magazine. The The guest rooms are traditional in style,
Marbella Club has many competitors with wood furnishings and tasteful pas-
but remains an elite retreat. See p. 332. tel fabrics. Nothing else in the Basque
• Puente Romano, Marbella (& 95-282- country quite measures up to this old
09-00; www.puenteromano.com): On charmer. See p. 525.
manicured and landscaped grounds fac- • La Residencia, Deià, Majorca (& 97-
ing the beach, Puente Romano evokes a 163-90-11; www.hotel-laresidencia.
highly stylized Andalusian village. com): Set amid 12 hectares (30 acres) of
Exotic bird life flutters through lush citrus and olive groves, this tranquil
gardens planted with banana trees and hotel was converted from two Renais-
other vegetation. Villas are spacious and sance-era manor houses. Jasmine-
beautifully outfitted with tasteful wood scented terraces open onto panoramas
 of surrounding villages and mountains. fed by mountain spring water. Many of 21
Pampered guests are served a creative the guest rooms have regal four-poster
cuisine that features local produce. Lei- beds. The hotel is a haven from the rest
sure facilities include a swimming pool of overcrowded Majorca. See p. 613.

1 1 T H E B E S T H OT E L B A R G A I N S
• Hostal del C ardenal, Toledo (& 92- man built this Victorian charmer in
522-49-00; www.hostaldelcardenal. 1906 to honor his recently deceased
com): The summer residence of Toledo’s monarch, Queen Victoria. See p. 292.
18th-century Cardinal Lorenzano, built • Hotel América, Granada (& 95-822-
right into the walls of the Old City next 74-71; www.hotelamericagranada.

T H E B E S T O F S PA I N
to Bisagra Gate, this just happens to have com): This former private villa, within
Toledo’s best restaurant. But the set- the walls of the Alhambra, is one of the
ting—rose gardens, cascading vines, and most popular small hotels in Granada.
Moorish fountains—makes it an ideal Its cozy guest rooms are filled with
place to stay as well. Spanish furniture reproductions of Andalusian antiques.
and a scattering of antiques recapture the Plants cascade down the white plaster
aura of Old Castile. See p. 169. walls and the ornate grillwork onto the
• Hostería R eal de Z amora, Zamora shaded patio. Good-tasting, inexpen-
1
(& 98-053-45-45): Once the dreaded sive meals are served in the hotel restau-
headquarters of the local Spanish Inqui- rant. See p. 306.

T H E B E S T H OT E L B A R G A I N S
sition, today this hotel offers a far • Hotel M ijas, Mijas (& 95-248-58-00;
friendlier welcome. Guests enjoy coffee www.trhhoteles.info): The most charm-
on the patio and the pleasures of a gar- ing affordable hotel along the Costa del
den planted along the city’s medieval Sol, the Mijas is designed in typical
fortifications. Imagine if these 15th- Andalusian style, with flowering terraces,
century walls could talk. See p. 210. wrought-iron accents, and sun-flooded
• Hotel Doña María, Seville (& 95-422- guest rooms. Although built in the 1970s,
49-90; www.hdmaria.com): Near the it blends perfectly with the region’s gleam-
fabled cathedral, this hotel boasts a ing white buildings. See p. 341.
rooftop terrace with unmatched views • Huerto del C ura, Elche (& 96-661-
of the Andalusian capital. A private villa 00-11; http://hotelhuertodelcura.com):
that dates from the 1840s, the Doña From your room you’ll have a pan-
María has a swimming pool ringed with oramic view of Priest’s Grove, a formi-
garden-style lattices and antique dable date-palm forest. Between
wrought-iron railings. Guest rooms are Alicante and Murcia, this is one of the
uniquely designed with tasteful Iberian choice addresses in the south of Spain.
antiques. See p. 270. Guest rooms are handsomely main-
• Husa R eina Victoria, Ronda (& 95- tained and beautifully furnished; a
287-12-40; www.hotelhusareinavictoria swimming pool separates the rooms
ronda.com): This country-style hotel is from the palm grove. The regional cui-
best known as the place where the Ger- sine in the hotel’s restaurant is excellent.
man poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote The See p. 380.
Spanish Trilogy. Its terrace, perched on a • Mesón Castilla, Barcelona (& 93-318-
dramatic precipice, offers commanding 21-82; www.mesoncastilla.com): This
views of the countryside. An English- two-star charmer with an Art Nouveau
22 facade is right in the heart of Barcelona. come with large terraces. Only breakfast
It is well maintained and well managed, is served, but many nearby taverns serve
with prices that are blessedly easy on excellent food. See p. 402.
the wallet. Comfortable rooms often

1 2 T H E B E S T R E S TAU R A N T S
• El Ampar o, Madrid (& 91-431-64- suspended over a precipice. The food is
56): In the old days of Franco, gastro- Spanish and international, with an
nomes flocked to Jockey or Horcher. emphasis on regional ingredients. The
Today their savvy sons and daughters dishes can be ingenious, but the culinary
head to El Amparo, the trendiest of repertoire usually includes proven clas-
T H E B E S T O F S PA I N

Madrid’s gourmet restaurants. It serves sics that might have pleased your grand-
haute Basque cuisine against a back- parents. See p. 195.
drop of cosmopolitan glamour. Patrons • Chez Víctor , Salamanca; & 92-321-
sample everything from cold marinated 31-23): In the historic center of this
salmon with a tomato sorbet to ravioli university town, Chez Víctor is the most
stuffed with seafood. See p. 125. glamorous Continental restaurant
• Sobrino de Botín, Madrid (& 91-366- around. Chef Victoriano Salvador gives
42-17): Since 1725, this restaurant has customers terrific value for their euros
1 been celebrated for its roast suckling pig, with his imaginative, oft-renewed menus.
prepared in a 200-year-old tile oven. The freshly prepared fish and his tradi-
T H E B E S T R E S TAU R A N T S

Hemingway even mentioned it in The tional version of roast lamb are especially
Sun Also Rises. The roast Segovian lamb tempting. Regionally rooted but modern
is equally delectable. There is little sub- in outlook, Salvador has a finely honed
tlety of flavor here—the food is prepared technique and isn’t afraid to be inventive
according to time-tested recipes that on occasion. See p. 207.
have appealed to kings as well as Castil- • El Caballo Rojo, Córdoba (& 95-747-
ian peasants. The aromas waft clear 53-75): Begin your evening with a
across Madrid’s Old Town. See p. 132. sherry in the popular bar, followed by a
• Mesón de C ándido, Segovia (& 92- visit to the traditional dining room.
142-59-11): Foodies from around the Not only Andalusian dishes are served
country flock to this 19th-century Span- here; some classics are based on ancient
ish inn, the “House of Cándido,” for one Sephardic and Mozarabic specialties.
dish: roast suckling pig, acclaimed as the Most guests begin with a soothing gaz-
best in Spain (even by Hemingway, who pacho and wash everything down with
might otherwise have been seen at Botín sangria. Finish off the meal with one of
in Madrid). In Spanish it’s called cochini- the homemade ice creams—we recom-
llo asado, and it’s delectable—prepared mend pistachio. See p. 259.
according to a century-old recipe. The • Torrijos, Valencia (& 96-373-29-49):
cordero asado, or roast baby lamb, is not The Costa Levante’s best restaurant, in
as well known, but it’s equally flavorful. the city that’s said to have “invented”
See p. 183. paella, this stellar restaurant serves a
• Mesón Casa Colgadas, Cuenca (& 96- Mediterranean and international cui-
922-35-09): Without a doubt, this is the sine, and does so superbly well. Expect
most spectacularly situated restaurant in a flavor-filled cuisine based on the
Spain—a “hanging house” precariously freshest of ingredients. See p. 369.
• Jaume de Provença, Barcelona (& 93- chef ’s treatment of fish is the most 23
430-00-29): The Catalan capital has intelligent and subtle in town—but
more great restaurants than even Madrid. don’t expect such quality to come cheap.
At the western end of the Eixample dis- See p. 419.
trict, this Catalan/French restaurant is • Empordá, Figueres (& 97-250-05-
the domain of one of the city’s most tal- 62): Although ordinary on the outside,
ented chefs, Jaume Bargués. He serves this hotel restaurant is one of the finest
modern interpretations of traditional on the Costa Brava. It was a favorite of
Catalan and southern French cuisine— Salvador Dalí, who once wrote his own
such dishes as pigs’ feet with plums and cookbook. Haute Catalan cuisine is the
truffles, or crabmeat lasagna. His per- specialty—everything from duck foie
sonal cooking repertoire is distinctive, gras with Armagnac to suprême of sea
and he has been known to create new bass with flan. The flavors are refined

T H E B E S T O F S PA I N
taste sensations when he’s feeling experi- yet definite. See p. 484.
mental. See p. 416. • Akelare, San Sebastián (& 94-321-20-
• La D ama, Barcelona (& 93-202-06- 52): The Basques are renowned for
86): Among the most acclaimed restau- their cooking, and the owner-chef of
rants in Spain, this “dame” serves one of this San Sebastián restaurant, Pedro
the most refined Catalan and interna- Sabijana, pioneered the school of nueva
tional cuisines along the country’s east cocina vasca (modern Basque cuisine).
coast. Stylish and well managed, it turns His restaurant has attracted gourmets
out masterpieces based on the season’s from around Europe. Sabijana trans-
1
best in food shopping. See p. 415. forms such seemingly simple dishes as

T H E B E S T R E S TAU R A N T S
• Botafumeiro, Barcelona (& 93-218- fish cooked on a griddle with garlic and
42-30): The city’s finest seafood is pre- parsley into something magical. No
pared here, in a glistening, modern other eatery in northern Spain comes
kitchen visible from the dining room. close to equaling the superb viands dis-
The king of Spain is a frequent patron, pensed here. There are those (and we
enjoying paellas, zarzuelas, or any of the are among them) who consider Subi-
100 or so ultrafresh seafood dishes. The jana the best chef in Spain. See p. 527.
2
Spain in Depth
The onc e-accepted adage that “Europe ends at the Pyr enees” is no
longer true. Today, the two countries forming the Iberian Peninsula at the southwestern
end of the Continent—Spain and Portugal—are totally integrated into Europe as mem-
bers of the European Union (E.U.), with democratic governments and vibrant economies
of their own. In fact, Spain has the second-fastest-growing economy in the E.U.; new
industries and an expanding infrastructure continue to alter its ancient landscape.
Political changes adopted after the 1975 death of Gen. Francisco Franco, Europe’s
remaining prewar dictator, contributed to a remarkable cultural renaissance. This rebirth
has transformed Spain’s two largest cities—Madrid, the capital, and Barcelona—into
major artistic and intellectual centers. Amid some of the world’s most innovative archi-
tecture and contemporary movements, art, literature, cinema, and fashion are constantly
finding new and original expression; at night the cafes and bars hum with animated
discussions on politics, the economy, and society. In every aspect of urban life, a visitor
can feel the Spanish people’s reawakened self-confidence and pride in their newfound
prosperity.
These developments contrast with Spain’s unhappy experiences last century, particu-
larly during the devastating Civil War of 1936 to 1939, and Franco’s subsequent long,
iron-fisted rule. During the Franco years, political and intellectual freedoms were
squelched, and Spain was snubbed by most of Europe.
Of course, Spain was previously a major world player. In the 16th century, it was the
seat of a great empire; the Spanish monarchy dispatched fleets that conquered the New
World, returning with its riches. Columbus sailed to America, and Balboa sailed to the
Pacific Ocean; Cortés conquered Mexico for glory; and Pizarro brought Peru into the
Spanish fold. The conquistadors too often revealed the dark side of the Spanish character,
including brutality in the name of honor and glory, but they also represented boldness
and daring.
It’s difficult to visit this country without recalling its golden past: Those famous
“castles in Spain” really do exist. Many Spaniards believe that Spain isn’t a single country
but a series of nations, united the way Yugoslavia used to be. Many groups, especially the
Basques, the Catalans, and the Gallegos in the northeast, are asserting their individuality
in everything from culture to language. For certain Basque separatists, that regional,
“nationalistic” pride has at times taken violent turns. Castile and Andalusia, in the south,
remain quintessentially Spanish. While linguistic and cultural differences are great, to the
foreign visitor they are also subtle.
As the inheritors of a great and ancient civilization dating from before the Roman
Empire, Spaniards inhabit a land that is not only culturally rich but also geographically
varied, with wooded sierra, arid plateaus, and sandy beaches. It is this exciting variety in
landscape—as well as in art, architecture, music, and cuisine—that makes Spain one of
the top countries in the world to visit.
 25
1 S PA I N TO D AY
In early-21st-century Spain, tourism con- government, progress has been made. The
tinues to dominate the economy. Spain’s country’s debt is some 70% of the gross
vibrancy and up-and-coming changes are domestic product. Inflation is about 3.5%,
expected to propel it into position as a an all-time low in the post-Franco era.
major destination alongside such front- Consumer spending remains cautious,
runners as France, the United States, and however, because most of the new jobs
Italy, even though those countries are not being created are on short-term contracts.
expected to attract the number of visitors Spain continues to change as it moves
they did during the years immediately fol- deeper into the 21st century. A drug cul-
lowing the millennium. ture and escalating crime—things virtually
Increasingly, North Americans are unheard of in Franco’s day—are unfortu-
becoming part of the changing landscape. nate signs of Spain’s entry into the modern
While many European visitors head for world. The most remarkable advance has

S PA I N I N D E P T H
Spain’s beach resorts, Americans occupy been in the legal status of women, who
the number-one positions in visits to three now have access to contraception, abor-
top Spanish cities: Madrid, Barcelona, and tion, and divorce. Sights once unimagina-
Seville. ble now take place: an annual lesbian
No longer interested in the “lager lout” “kiss-in” at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, and
image its coastal resorts earned in the women officiating as governors of men’s
1970s and 1980s by hosting so many prisons. Surprisingly, for a Catholic coun- 2
cheap package tours from Britain, Spain try, the birthrate continues to remain one
has reached out to more upscale visitors. of the lowest in the developed world, and

S PA I N TO D AY
Bargain Spain of the $5-a-day variety is the population is aging.
now a distant memory, as prices have sky- Spain’s monarchy seems to be working.
rocketed. The government is trying to lure In 1975, when the king assumed the
visitors away from the overcrowded coasts throne after Franco’s death, he was called
(especially Majorca, the Costa del Sol, and “Juan Carlos the Brief,” implying that his
the Costa Brava) and steer them to the reign would be short. But almost over-
country’s less traveled but more historic night he distanced himself from Franco’s
destinations. Government paradores and dark legacy and became a hardworking
other improved tourist facilities, better and serious sovereign. He staved off a coup
restaurants, and spruced-up attractions attempt in 1981, and he and the other
have sent the message. Spanish royals remain popular. Juan Car-
In 1999, Spain joined other European los even makes do on a meager $7 million
countries in adopting the euro as its salary—less than one-tenth of what Eng-
national currency. Citizens began using land’s Queen Elizabeth II is reputed to
the new coins and bank notes at the begin- earn in a year.
ning of 2002. The peseta, which had been The author John Hooper, in an updated
the Spanish monetary unit since 1868, version of his 1986 bestseller, The New
disappeared completely on March 1, Spaniards, remains optimistic about Spain’s
2002. future, in spite of its economic problems.
Although unemployment, which He suggests that Spaniards not forget that
remains high, continues to plague the “to be true to themselves they may need to
26

The Spectacle of Death

For ob vious r easons, man y people c onsider bullfighting cruel and shock ing,
but as Ernest Hemingway pointed out in Death in the Afternoon, “The bullfight
is not a spor t in the Anglo -Saxon sense of the w ord; that is , it is not an equal
contest or an attempt at an equal c ontest between a bull and a man. R ather it
is a tragedy: the death of the bull, which is played, more or less well, by the bull
and the man in volved and in which ther e is danger f or the man but c ertain
death for the bull.”
When the symbolic drama of the bullfight is ac ted out, some believ e it
reaches a higher plane , the r ealm of ar t. S ome people ar gue that it is not a
public exhibition of cruelty but a highly skilled art form that requires the will to
survive, courage, showmanship, and gallantr y. Regardless of ho w you view it,
the spectacle is an authentic Spanish experienc e and reveals much about the
S PA I N I N D E P T H

character of the land and its people .

T he corrida (bullfight) season lasts fr om early spring until ar ound mid-
October. Fights are held in a plaza de toros (bullring), including the oldest ring
in remote Ronda and the big-time Plaza de Toros in M adrid. Sunday is corrida
day in most major Spanish cities , although M adrid and Bar celona ma y also
have fights on Thursday.
Tickets fall into three classifications, and prices are based on y our exposure
2 to the famed Spanish sun: sol (sun), the cheapest; sombra (shade), the most
expensive; and sol y sombr a (a mix ture of sun and shade), the medium-pric e
LO O K I N G B AC K AT S PA I N

range.
T he corrida begins with a parade . For many viewers, this ma y be the high
point of the af ternoon’s festivities, as all the bullfight ers are clad in their trajes
de luces (suits of lights).

be different from others.” Hooper believes flamenco to bullfighting and from Moor-
that the new Spain will have arrived at ish architecture to pagan ceremonies.
adulthood “not on the day it ceases to be Nowhere—not even in Italy—are the fes-
different from the rest of Europe, but on tival and traditional, flamboyant dress
the day that it acknowledges that it is.” more a part of annual life than in Spain,
Hooper was referring to the exotic, roman- where religious processions are full of
tic, and varied faces of Spain that set it apart intense passion.
from other nations of Europe, ranging from

2 LO O K I N G B AC K AT S PA I N
BARBARIAN INVASIONS, THE MOOR Traces of Roman civilization can still be seen
ISH KINGDOM & THE RECON today. By the time of Julius Caesar, Spain
QUEST Around 200 b.c., the Romans (Hispania) was under Roman law and began
vanquished the Carthaginians and laid the a long period of peace and prosperity.
foundations of the present Latin culture.
 27

Bullfights are divided int o thirds (tercio). The first is the tercio de c apa (cape),
during which the matador t ests the bull with passes and gets ac quainted with
the animal. The second portion, the tercio de varas (sticks), begins with the lance-
carrying picadores on horseback , who w eaken, or “punish,” the bull b y jabbing
him in the shoulder ar ea. The horses ar e sometimes gor ed, even though they
wear protective padding, or the horse and rider might be t ossed into the air b y
the now-infuriated bull. The picadores are followed by the banderilleros, whose
job it is to puncture the bull with pairs of boldly c olored darts.
In the final tercio de muleta, the action narrows down to the lone fighter and
the bull. Gone are the fancy capes. Instead, the matador uses a small r ed cloth
known as a muleta, which t o be eff ective requires a bull with lo wered head.
(The picadores and banderilleros have worked to achieve this.) Using the muleta

S PA I N I N D E P T H
as a lure, the matador wraps the bull around himself in various passes, the most
dangerous of which is the natural; here, the matador holds the muleta in his left
hand, the sword in his right. R ight-hand passes pose less of a thr eat, since the
sword can be used to spread out the muleta, making a larger target for the bull.
After a number of passes, the time comes for the kill, the moment of truth.
After the bull dies, the highest official at the ring may award the matador an
ear from the dead bull, or perhaps both ears, or ears and tail. For a truly extraor-
dinary performance, the hoof is sometimes added. Spectators cheer a superla-
2
tive per formance b y wa ving whit e handker chiefs, imploring the judge t o

LO O K I N G B AC K AT S PA I N
award a priz e. The bullfighter may be carried a way as a her o, or if he has dis-
pleased the cr owd, he ma y be jeer ed and chased out of the ring b y an ang ry
mob. A t a major fight, usually six bulls ar e k illed b y thr ee matadors in one
afternoon.

When Rome fell in the 5th century, great intellectual center, Córdoba became
Spain was overrun, first by the Vandals the scientific capital of Europe; notable
and then by the Visigoths from eastern advances were made in agriculture, indus-
Europe. The chaotic rule of the Visigothic try, literature, philosophy, and medicine.
kings lasted about 300 years, but the bar- The Jews were welcomed by the Moors,
barian invaders did adopt the language of often serving as administrators, ambassa-
their new country and tolerated Christian- dors, and financial officers. But the Moors
ity as well. quarreled with one another, and soon the
In a.d. 711, Moorish warriors led by few Christian strongholds in the north
Tarik crossed into Spain and conquered began to advance south.
the disunited country. By 714, they con- The Reconquest, the name given to the
trolled most of it, except for a few moun- Christian efforts to rid the peninsula of
tain regions around Asturias. For 8 the Moors, slowly reduced the size of the
centuries the Moors occupied their new Muslim holdings, with Catholic monar-
land, which they called al-Andalús, or chies forming in northern areas. The three
Andalusia, with Córdoba as the capital. A powerful kingdoms of Aragón, Castile,
28 and León were joined in 1469, when Fer- Ferdinand and Isabella, was the most pow-
dinand of Aragón married Isabella of erful prince in Europe—king of Spain and
Castile. The Catholic kings, as they were Naples, Holy Roman Emperor and lord of
called, launched the final attack on the Germany, duke of Burgundy and the
Moors and completed the Reconquest in Netherlands, and ruler of the New World
1492 by capturing Granada. territories.
That same year, Columbus landed in But much of Spain’s wealth and human
the West Indies, laying the foundations for resources were wasted in religious and
a far-flung empire that brought wealth and secular conflicts. First Jews, then Muslims,
power to Spain during the 16th and 17th and finally Catholicized Moors were
centuries. driven out—and with them much of the
The Spanish Inquisition, begun under country’s prosperity. When Philip II
Ferdinand and Isabella, sought to eradi- ascended the throne in 1556, Spain could
cate all heresy and secure the primacy of indeed boast vast possessions: the New
S PA I N I N D E P T H

Catholicism. Non-Catholics, Jews, and World colonies; Naples, Milan, Genoa,

Moors were mercilessly persecuted, and Sicily, and other portions of Italy; the
many were driven out of the country. Spanish Netherlands (modern Belgium
THE GOLDEN AGE & LATER and the Netherlands); and portions of
DECLINE Columbus’s voyage, and the Austria and Germany. But the seeds of
conquistadors’ subsequent exploration of decline had already been planted.
Philip, a fanatic Catholic, devoted his
2 the New World, ushered Spain into its
energies to subduing the Protestant revolt
Golden Age.
In the first half of the 16th century, in the Netherlands and to becoming the
LO O K I N G B AC K AT S PA I N

Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean, Cor- standard-bearer for the Counter-Reforma-
tés seized Mexico for Spain, Pizarro took tion. He tried to return England to
Peru, and a Spanish ship (initially com- Catholicism, first by marrying Mary I
manded by the Portuguese Magellan, who (“Bloody Mary”) and later by wooing her
was killed during the voyage) circumnavi- half-sister, Elizabeth I, who rebuffed him.
gated the globe. The conquistadors took When, in 1588, he resorted to sending the
Catholicism to the New World and Armada, it was ignominiously defeated;
shipped cargoes of gold back to Spain. The that defeat symbolized the decline of
Spanish Empire extended all the way to Spanish power.
the Philippines. Charles V, grandson of In 1700, a Bourbon prince, Philip V,
became king, and the country fell under

DATELINE ■ 2nd century B.C.–2nd cen- ish stronghold. Columbus

■ 11th century B.C. Phoeni- tury A.D Rome controls most lands in the New World.
cians settle Spain’s coasts. of Iberia. Christianity spreads. ■ 1519 Cortés conquers Mex-
■ 650 B.C. Greeks colonize the ■ 5th century Vandals, then ico. Charles I is crowned Holy
east. Visigoths, invade Spain. Roman Emperor, as Charles V.
■ 600 B.C. Celts cross the Pyre- ■ 8th century Moors conquer ■ 1556 Philip II inherits the
nees and settle in Spain. most of Spain. throne and launches the
■ 6th–3rd century B.C. ■ 1214 More than half of Ibe- Counter-Reformation.
Carthaginians make Carta- ria is reclaimed by Catholics. ■ 1588 England defeats the
gena their colonial capital,
■ 1469 Ferdinand of Aragón Spanish Armada.
driving out the Greeks. marries Isabella of Castile. ■ 1700 Philip V becomes king.
■ 218–201 B.C. Second Punic ■ 1492 Catholic monarchs The War of Spanish Succes-
War: Rome defeats Carthage. seize Granada, the last Moor- sion follows.
the influence of France. Philip V’s right to On April 14, 1931, a revolution 29
the throne was challenged by a Habsburg occurred, a republic was proclaimed, and
archduke of Austria, thus giving rise to the King Alfonso XIII and his family were
War of the Spanish Succession. When it forced to flee. Initially, the liberal constitu-
ended, Spain had lost Flanders, its Italian tionalists ruled, but soon they were pushed
possessions, and Gibraltar (still held by the aside by the socialists and anarchists, who
British today). adopted a constitution separating church
During the 18th century, Spain’s direc- and state, secularizing education, and con-
tion changed with each sovereign. Charles taining several other radical provisions (for
III (1759–88) developed the country eco- example, agrarian reform and the expul-
nomically and culturally. Charles IV sion of the Jesuits).
became embroiled in wars with France, The extreme nature of these reforms
and the weakness of the Spanish monarchy fostered the growth of the conservative
allowed Napoleon to place his brother Falange party (Falange española, or Spanish

S PA I N I N D E P T H
Joseph Bonaparte on the throne in 1808. Phalanx), modeled after Italy’s and Ger-
THE 19TH & 20TH CENTU many’s fascist parties. By the 1936 elec-
RIES Although Britain and France had tions, the country was divided equally
joined forces to restore the Spanish mon- between left and right, and political vio-
archy, the European conflicts encouraged lence was common. On July 18, 1936, the
Spanish colonists to rebel. Ultimately, this army, supported by Mussolini and Hitler,
tried to seize power, igniting the Spanish
led the United States to free the Philip-
Civil War. Gen. Francisco Franco, coming
2
pines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba from Spain
in 1898. from Morocco to Spain, led the National-

LO O K I N G B AC K AT S PA I N
In 1876, Spain became a constitutional ist (rightist) forces in fighting that ravaged
monarchy. But labor unrest, disputes with the country.
the Catholic Church, and war in Morocco The popular front opposing Franco was
combined to create political chaos. Condi- forced to rely mainly on untrained volun-
tions eventually became so bad that the teers, including a few heroic Americans
Cortés, or parliament, was dissolved in called the “Lincoln brigade.” (For those
1923, and Gen. Miguel Primo de Rivera who want an insight into the era, Ernest
formed a military directorate. Early in Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls is a
1930, Primo de Rivera resigned, but unrest good read.) It took time to turn untrained
continued. militias into an army fit to battle Franco’s

■ 1713 Treaty of Utrecht ends ■ 1898 Spanish-American War and the Nationalists led by
the war. Spain’s colonies are leads to Spain’s loss of Gen. Francisco Franco.
reduced. Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the ■ 1939 Franco establishes dic-
■ 1759 Charles III ascends Philippines. tatorship, which will last 36
throne. ■ 1923 Primo de Rivera forms years.
■ 1808 Napoleon places his a military directorate. ■ 1941 Spain technically stays
brother Joseph on the Span- ■ 1930 Right-wing dictator- neutral in World War II, but
ish throne. ship ends; Primo de Rivera Franco favors Germany.
■ 1813 Wellington drives the exiled. ■ 1955 Spain joins the United
French out of Spain; the ■ 1931 King Alfonso XIII abdi- Nations.
monarchy is restored. cates; Second Republic is ■ 1975 Juan Carlos becomes
■ 1876 Spain becomes a con- born. king. Franco dies.
stitutional monarchy. ■ 1936–39 Civil War between
the governing Popular Front continues
30 forces, and time was something the popu- Franco held 35 of Spain’s provincial capi-
lar front didn’t have. tals. In 1937, the republican forces were
It was a war that would attract the cut in two, and Madrid was left to fend for
attention of the world. By the summer of itself.
1936, the Soviet Union was sending rubles The last great offensive of the war
to aid the revolution by the republicans. began on December 28, 1938, with an
Even Mexico sent war materiel to the attack by Franco’s forces on Barcelona,
popular front. Most—but not all—of the which fell on January 26 after a campaign
volunteers were communists. Italy and of 34 days. Republican forces fled toward
Germany contributed war materiel to France, as a succession of presidents
Franco’s forces. occurred. On March 28, some 200,000
Madrid, controlled by the popular nationalist troops marched into Madrid,
front, held out through a brutal siege that meeting no resistance. The war was over
lasted for 28 months. Eventually, the gov- the next day when the rest of republican
S PA I N I N D E P T H

ernment of the popular front moved to Spain surrendered. Lasting 2 years and
Valencia for greater safety in 1936. 254 days, the war claimed some one mil-
But in the winter of 1936–37, Franco’s lion lives.
forces slowly began to establish power, For memories and a sense of the Span-
capturing the Basque capital of Bilbao and ish Civil War, visitors can travel to El Valle
eventually Santander. The war shocked the de los Caídos (the Valley of the Fallen),
world with its ruthlessness. (World War II outside El Escorial.
2 hadn’t happened yet.) Churches were Although Franco adopted a neutral
burned and mass executions occurred, position during World War II, his sympa-
LO O K I N G B AC K AT S PA I N

especially memorable in the Basque town thies obviously lay with Germany and
of Guernica, which became the subject of Italy. Spain, although a nonbelligerent,
one of Picasso’s most fabled paintings. assisted the Axis powers. This action inten-
By October 1, 1936, Franco was clearly sified the diplomatic isolation into which
in charge of the leadership of nationalist the country was forced after the war’s
Spain, abolishing popular suffrage and end—in fact, it was excluded from the
regional autonomy—in effect, launching United Nations until 1955.
totalitarian rule of Spain. Before his death, Franco selected as his
The republicans were split by internal successor Juan Carlos de Borbón y Bor-
differences, and spy trials were common- bón, son of the pretender to the Spanish
place. At the end of the first year of war, throne. After the 1977 elections, a new

■ 1978 New democratic con- ending its 13-year rule. José World War II. José Luis
stitution initiates reforms. María Aznar is chosen prime Rodríguez Zapatero is elected
■ 1981 Coup attempt by minister. as Socialist prime minister.
right-wing officers fails. ■ 1998 The controversial ■ 2005 Spain legalizes same-
■ 1982 Socialists gain power Guggenheim Museum at Bil- sex marriage.
after 43 years of right-wing bao is inaugurated. ■ 2006 A bomb goes off at
rule. ■ 2002 Spain adopts the euro Madrid’s airport; Basque sep-
■ 1986 Spain joins the Euro- as its national currency. aratist group ETA claims
pean Community (now the ■ 2003 Basque terrorists con- responsibility.
European Union). tinue a campaign of terror ■ 2007 ETA calls an end to
■ 1992 Barcelona hosts the against the government. cease-fire.
Summer Olympics. ■ 2004 Al Qaeda strikes Span- ■ 2009 Spain’s once-buoyant
■ 1996 A conservative party ish trains in the deadliest ter- economy suffers severe
defeats the Socialist party, rorist attack in Europe since downturn. Unemployment
reaches 17%.
constitution was approved by the elector- of the U.S. in the region is being challenged 31
ate and the king; it guaranteed human and for the first time since the Spanish-Ameri-
civil rights, as well as free enterprise, and can War of 1898. In the last tally, Spaniards
canceled the status of the Roman Catholic in 1 year poured $20 billion of investment
Church as the church of Spain. It also value into Latin America.
granted limited autonomy to several Although there were some rough transi-
regions, including Catalonia and the tional periods, and a lot of older citizens
Basque provinces, both of which, however, were bewildered, Spain officially aban-
are still clamoring for more full-fledged doned its time-honored peseta and went
autonomy. under the euro umbrella in March 2002.
In 1981 a group of right-wing military During the transition period, as Spaniards
officers seized the Cortés and called upon struggled to adjust to the new currency,
Juan Carlos to establish a Francoist state. counterfeiters had a field day.
The king, however, refused, and the con- Throughout 2003, Basque terrorists,

S PA I N I N D E P T H
spirators were arrested. The fledgling part of a separatist group (ETA), contin-
democracy overcame its first test. Its sec- ued their campaign of terror against the
ond major accomplishment—under the government. Bombs and death tolls in
Socialist administration of Prime Minister 2003, including attacks in Madrid,
Felipe González, the country’s first leftist brought the total of deaths up to 800 in
government since 1939—was to gain this 3-decade-old campaign aimed at cre-
Spain’s entry into the European Commu- ating an independent Basque homeland in
nity (now European Union) in 1986. northern Spain and southwest France.
2
EARLY 21ST CENTURY The shocking Bombings are usually at vacation resorts,

LO O K I N G B AC K AT S PA I N
news for 2000 was not political but social. as ETA’s announced aim is to disrupt
Spain came under increasing pressure to Spain’s main industry—tourism.
conform to short lunch breaks like those On March 11, 2004, terrorists linked to
in the other E.U. countries. What? No Al Qaeda exploded 10 bombs on four
3-hour siesta? It was heresy. In spite of trains going into Madrid from the sub-
opposition, large companies began to cut urbs, killing 191 passengers and injuring
lunch to 2 hours. Pro-siesta forces in Spain 1,800. This was one of the deadliest ter-
cited the American custom of “power rorist attacks ever to hit Spain.
naps” as reason to retain their beloved Since taking office in April 2004, Prime
afternoon break. Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
So the siesta appears to be under serious vowed to institute deep changes in social
attack, perhaps as a consequence of the issues after 8 years of conservative rule. On
Spanish economy’s upswing, which cre- the day he was confirmed as prime minis-
ated more new jobs than in any other ter, he endorsed gay marriage. In approv-
country in the E.U. More and more fami- ing the resolution in April 2005, the
lies are moving to the suburbs, and more Spanish Parliament became the third
women are joining the workforce. A sur- European country to recognize gay mar-
vey has revealed that only 25% of Span- riage after the Netherlands and Belgium.
iards still take the siesta. Rodríguez Zapatero has also made
On other fronts, Spain moved ahead as peace overtures to ETA, but after the 2006
an economic force in Latin America, where ETA bombing at the Madrid airport,
only 20 years ago Spain was a minor eco- negotiations with the separatist group
nomic presence. Today, it is second only to were stalled. Spanish Interior Minister
the United States. The long-held monopoly Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba told the press that
32 he could not see how the peace process than 3% yearly growth in the previous
could resume. Indeed, in June 2007, ETA decade. In the aftermath of the U.S. sub-
formally called an end to the cease-fire it prime mortgage meltdown, Spain took a
had declared a year earlier. big hit from more difficult financing con-
Like the rest of the world, Spain’s eco- ditions. The New York Times reported that
nomic growth slowed sharply by early unemployment in Spain hit 17 percent in
2009, as many of its companies faced the first quart of 2009, one of the most
financial turmoil. Spain’s 2008 growth rate devastating rates in years. Car sales fell
was a sluggish 1.8%, as opposed to more by 28%.

3 S PA I N ’S A R T & A R C H I T E C T U R E
Spain’s art ranges from Romanesque fres- Significant examples are found in Bar-
coes and El Greco’s warped mannerism to celona’s Museu Nacional d’Art de C ata-
lunya. Most of Catalonia’s great
S PA I N I N D E P T H

Velázquez’s royal portraits and Picasso’s

Guernica; its architecture from Moorish Romanesque paintings were detached
palaces and Gothic cathedrals to Gaudí’s from their village churches in the early
Art Nouveau creations and Frank Gehry’s 20th century and are now housed in this
metallic flower of Bilbao’s Guggenheim museum. In Catedral de S antiago de
Museum. This brief overview should help Compostela, Pórtico de la Gloria is a
you make sense of it all. 12th-century masterpiece of Romanesque
2 sculpture.
ART
Romanesque (10th–13th c.) Gothic (13th–16th c.)
S PA I N ’S A R T & A R C H I T E C T U R E

From the 8th century, most of Spain was The influences of Catalonia and France
under Moorish rule. The Muslims took continued to dominate in the Gothic
the injunction against graven images so era—though, in painting especially, a dol-
seriously that they produced no art in a lop of Italian style and a dash of Flemish
traditional Western sense—though the attention to detail were added. In this
remarkably intricate geometric designs period, colors became more varied and
and swooping, exaggerated letters of Kufic vivid, compositions more complex, lines
inscriptions played out in woodcarving, more fluid with movement, and features
painted tiles, and plasterwork on Moorish more expressive.
palaces are decorations of the highest aes- Significant artists and examples include
thetic order. Jaime H uguet (1415–92), the primary
Starting with the late-10th-century artist in the Catalan School, who left
Reconquest, Christian Spaniards began works in his native Barcelona’s Palau Reial
producing art in the northern and eastern and Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya;
provinces. Painting and mosaics in Cata- and Bartolomé Ber mejo (active 1474–
lonia show the Byzantine influence of 98), the lead painter in the Italianate
northern Italy, while sculptures along the Valencian School, and the first Spanish
northerly pilgrimage route to Compostela painter to use oils. Some of his best early
are related to French models, though they paintings are in Madrid’s Museo del
are often more symbolic (and primitive Prado.
looking) than realistic.
Renaissance (16th c.) Bourbon Rococo & Neo- 33
Renaissance artists strove for greater natu- classical (18th–19th c.)
ralism, using techniques such as linear Spain’s turbulent late 18th and early 19th
perspective to achieve new heights of real- centuries are best seen in the progression
ism. When it finally got rolling in Spain, of work by the unique master Francisco
the style had already mutated into Goya (1746–1828). His works started in
baroque. the prevailing rococo style (a chaotic,
Significant artists include Pedro Ber- frothy version of the baroque) but soon
ruguete (1450–1504), court painter to went off on their own track.
Ferdinand and Isabella; Alonso Berr u- Spain’s neoclassicism was dry, academic,
guete (1488–1561), Pedro’s talented son and rather boring.
who was not only court painter to Charles
V, but also the greatest native sculptor in 20th Century
Spain; and El Greco (1540–1614), Spain’s Spain became an artistic hotbed again at
most significant Renaissance artist from the turn of the 20th century—even if
Barcelona’s own Picasso moved to Paris.

S PA I N I N D E P T H
Crete, known for his broodingly dark col-
ors, crowded compositions, eerily elon- Though both movements were born in
gated figures, and a mystical touch. France, Spanish artists were key in devel-
Toledo’s churches and Casa y Museo de El oping cubism and surrealism. Cubists,
Greco retain many of El Greco’s works, as including Spaniards Picasso and Gris,
does Madrid’s Museo del Prado. accepted that the canvas is flat and painted
objects from all points of view at once,
Baroque (17th–18th c.) rather than using optical tricks like per- 2
The baroque was Spain’s greatest artistic spective to fool viewers into seeing three
era, producing several painters who rank dimensions; the effect is a fractured,

S PA I N ’S A R T & A R C H I T E C T U R E
among Europe’s greatest. The baroque imploded look. Surrealists such as Dalí
style mixes a kind of super-realism based and Miró tried to express the inner work-
on the use of peasant models and the ing of their minds in paint, plumbing
chiaroscuro or tenebrism (the dramatic play their ids for imagery. Significant artists
of areas of harsh lighting off dark shadows) include Joan Miró (1893–1983), greatest
of Italy’s Caravaggio with compositional of the true surrealists in Spain; Pablo
complexity and explosions of dynamic Picasso (1881–1973), the most important
fury, movement, color, and figures. artist of the last century; Juan Gris (1887–
Significant artists include José de Rib- 1927), the truest of the cubists; and Salva-
era (1591–1652), the greatest master of dor D alí (1904–89), the most famous
chiaroscuro and tenebrism after Caravaggio; surrealist. Dalí’s art used an intensely real-
Diego V elázquez (1599–1660), Spain’s istic technique to explore the very unreal
greatest painter, a prodigy who became worlds of dreams (nightmares, really) and
Philip IV’s court painter at 24; Francisco paranoia in an attempt to plumb the
de Zurbarán (1598–1664), Seville’s mas- Freudian depths of his own psyche.
ter of chiaroscuro, and Bartolomé Esteban
Murillo (1617–82), Zurbarán’s Seville ARCHITECTURE
competitor. Murillo created work with a The Moors brought with them an Arabic
distinctly brighter, more saccharine and architectural style that changed over the
sentimental quality. centuries but kept many features that give
their remaining buildings, especially in
34 Ambulatory Spanish Moorish architecture—is Grana-
Apse da’s Alhambra palace and the adjacent
Generalife gardens.
Chancel Chapels
Altar Romanesque (8th–13th c.)
The Romanesque took its inspiration and
rounded arches from ancient Rome (hence
the name). Romanesque architects con-
Transept
centrated on building large churches with
wide aisles to accommodate the pilgrims.
Although the great Catedral de S anti-
Pier Nave ago de Compostela, the undisputed mas-
terpiece of the style, has many baroque
Aisle accretions, the floor plan is solidly Roman-
esque. Other good examples include
Sangüesa’s I glesia de S anta M aría and
S PA I N I N D E P T H

Aisle
Pier
Iglesia de Santiago.
Gothic (13th–16th c.)
Instead of dark, somber, relatively
Church Floor Plan
unadorned Romanesque interiors that
forced the eyes of the faithful toward the
altar, the Gothic interior enticed the
2 Andalusia, a distinctly Eastern flair. The
churchgoers’ gazes upward to high ceilings
Moors built three major structures:
filled with light. The priests still con-
mosques, alcázares, and alcazabas.
S PA I N ’S A R T & A R C H I T E C T U R E

ducted Mass in Latin, but now peasants

Mosques, Islamic religious buildings, were
could “read” the Gothic comic books of
connected to minarets, tall towers from
stained-glass windows.
which the muezzin would call the people
The French style of Gothic was ener-
to prayer. Alcázares were palaces built
getically pursued in Spain in the early to
with many small courtyards and gardens
mid–13th century, first in adapting the
with fountains and greenery. Alcazabas
Romanesque Catedral de Santa María, in
were fortresses built high atop hills and
Burgos, and then in Catedral de Toledo
fortified like any defensive structure.
and Catedral de León, the most ornate.
The early Caliphate style of Córdoba
Fourteenth- and 15th-century Gothic
lasted from the 8th to the 11th centuries,
cathedrals include those at Avila, Segovia,
replaced by the most austerely religious
Pamplona, Barcelona, and Girona. (The
Almohad style in Seville in the 12th and
last is a peculiar, aisleless Catalan plan,
13th centuries.
although the interior is now baroque.) The
Mezquita-Catedral de Cór doba is the
best of the Isabelline style can be seen in
best-preserved building in the Caliphate
Valladolid in the facades of Iglesia de San
style. Of the Almohad period, the best
Pablo and Colegio San Gregorio.
remaining example is Seville’s G iralda
Tower, a minaret but little altered when its Renaissance (16th c.)
accompanying mosque was converted into The rules of Renaissance architecture
a cathedral; the mosque and tower at stressed proportion, order, classical inspi-
Zaragosa’s P alacio de la Aljafería have ration, and mathematical precision to cre-
survived from the era as well. The crown- ate unified, balanced structures based on
ing achievement of the Nasrid—of all Italian models. The earliest—and most
Spanish—Renaissance style (really a tran- simplicity and grandeur of the classical age 35
sitional form from Gothic) was marked by and inaugurated the neoclassical style.
facades done in an almost Moorish intri- The primary neoclassical architect,
cacy and was called Plateresque, for it was Ventura R odríguez (1717–85), designed
said to resemble the work of silversmiths the facade of Pamplona’s C athedral and
(plateros). Madrid’s grand boulev ard of the P aseo
The best of the Plateresque decorates del P rado. On that boulevard is one of
the facades of Salamanca’s Convento de Spain’s best neoclassical buildings, the
San Esteban and Universidad. Charles Museo del Prado.
V’s Summer Palace, built in the middle of
Granada’s Moorish Alhambra, is the Modernisme (20th c.)
greatest High Renaissance building in In Barcelona, architects such as Lluís
Spain. The most monumentally classical Domènech i M ontaner (1850–1923) and
of Renaissance structures was Phillip II’s the great master Antoni G audí (1852–
El Escorial monastery outside Madrid, 1926) developed one of the most appealing,
designed by Juan de Herrera (1530–97), idiosyncratic forms of Art Nouveau, called

S PA I N I N D E P T H
who also started Valladolid’s Cathedral in modernisme. This Catalan variant took a
1580, although the exterior was later fin- playful stab at building with undulating
ished in flamboyant baroque style. lines and colorful, broken-tile mosaics.
Identifiable features of modernisme
Baroque (17th–18th c.) include:
The overall effect of the baroque is to • Emphasis on the uniqueness of craft.
lighten the appearance of structures and
add movement of line and vibrancy to the
Like Art Nouveau practitioners in 2
other countries, Spanish artists and
static look of the classical Renaissance. architects rebelled against the era of

S PA I N I N B O O K S , F I L M & M U S I C
Soon the Churriguera family of architects mass production.
and their contemporaries gave rise to the • Use of organic motifs. Asymmetrical,
overly ornate, sumptuously decorated curvaceous designs were often based on
Churrigueresque style. plants and flowers.
Madrid’s P laza M ayor is the classic • Variety of mediums. Wrought iron,
example of the restrained early baroque. stained glass, tile, and hand-painted
Churrigueresque masterpieces include wallpaper were some of the most popu-
Granada’s Monasterio Cartuja and Sala- lar materials.
manca’s P laza M ayor. The baroque was
largely used to embellish existing build- The best of modernisme is in Barcelona,
ings, such as the fine, ornate facade on including Gaudí’s apar tment buildings
Catedral de Santiago de Compostela. along Passeig de Gràcia, and his massive
unfinished cathedral, La Sagrada Família.
Neoclassical (18th–19th c.)
By the middle of the 18th century, Bour-
bon architects began turning to the austere

4 S PA I N I N B O O K S , F I L M & M U S I C
BOOKS lasted from the late 15th to the early 17th
ECONOMIC, POLITICAL & SOCIAL HIS century, a period when the country reached
TORY Historically, Spain’s Golden Age the height of its prestige and influence.
36 This era is well surveyed in J. H. Elliott’s Biography (Dutton), author Meryle Secrest
Imperial Spain 1469–1716 (New Ameri- asks: Was he a mad genius or a cunning
can Library). manipulator?
Most accounts of the Spanish Armada’s Andrés Segovia: An Autobiography of the
defeat are written from the English point Years 1893-1920 (Macmillan), with a
of view. For a change of perspective, try translation by W. F. O’Brien, is worth
David Howarth’s The Voyage of the Armada seeking out.
(Penguin). Residents of Catalonia truthfully main-
The story of the Spanish Inquisition is tain that their unique language, culture,
told by Edward Peters in Inquisition (Uni- and history have been overshadowed (and
versity of California Press). squelched) by the richer and better-publi-
One of the best accounts of Spain’s cized accomplishments of Castile. Robert
earlier history is found in Joseph F. Hughes, a former art critic at Time maga-
O’Callaghan’s History of Medieval Spain zine, has written an elegant testament to
(Cornell University). the glories of the capital of this region:
In the 20th century the focus shifts to Barcelona (Knopf ). This book offers a
S PA I N I N D E P T H

the Spanish Civil War, recounted in Hugh well-versed and often witty articulation of
Thomas’s classic, The Spanish Civil War the city’s architectural and cultural legacy.
(Harper & Row). For a personal account of According to the New York Times, the
the war, read George Orwell’s Homage to book is destined to become “a classic in the
Catalonia (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich). genre of urban history.”
The poet García Lorca was killed during The richly illustrated Juan de Herrera:
2 the Civil War; the best account of his death Architect to Philip II of Spain, by Catherine
is found in Ian Gibson’s The Assassination of Wilkinson Zerner (Yale University Press),
Federico García Lorca (Penguin). describes (for the first time in English) the
S PA I N I N B O O K S , F I L M & M U S I C

If you like more contemporary history, remarkable 3-decade partnership between

read John Hooper’s The Spaniards (Pen- Herrera (1530–97) and his royal patron.
guin). Hooper provides insight into the Catalan Painting: From the 19th to the
events of the post-Franco era, when the Surprising 20th Century, by Joan Ainaud
country came to grips with democracy de Lasarte (Rizzoli), has a title that tells its
after years of fascism. theme accurately. A lavish volume written
ART & ARCHITECTURE The Moors by the former director of the Art Museums
contributed much to Spanish culture. of Barcelona, it contains more than 100
Their distinct legacy is documented in color plates, from Joan Miró’s The Farm to
Titus Burckhardt’s Moorish Culture in Dalí’s nightmarish prefiguration of the
Spain (McGraw-Hill). Spanish Civil War.
Antoni Gaudí is the Spanish architect TRAVEL Cities of Spain, by David
who most excites visitors’ curiosity. Among Gilmour (Ivan R. Dee), is a collection of
the many illustrated books on his work, perceptive essays on nine Spanish cities.
Gaudí (Escudo de Oro’s “Collection Art at Containing more literary background and
Spain” series) contains 150 photographs. historical lore than most guidebooks have
Spain’s most famous artist was Pablo space to cover, Gilmour ranges from Gran-
Picasso. The most controversial book ada to Santiago de Compostela, from
about the late painter is Picasso, Creator Toledo to Córdoba.
and Destroyer by Arianna Stassinopoulos FICTION & BIOGRAPHY Denounced
Huffington (Simon & Schuster). by some as superficial, James A. Michen-
Spain’s other headline-grabbing artist er’s Iberia (Random House) remains the
was Salvador Dalí. In Salvador Dalí: A
classic travelogue on Spain. The Houston book in Spain, after the Bible and Don 37
Post claimed that this book “will make you Quixote. Some parts are heavy going, but
fall in love with Spain.” the rest is lively.
The most famous Spanish novel is Don Isabel the Queen: Life and Times, by
Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Readily Peggy K. Liss (Oxford University Press),
available everywhere, it deals with the an American historian, is a vividly
conflict between the ideal and the real in detailed study. It provides a “spin” on this
human nature. Despite the unparalleled controversial queen not often taught in
fame of Miguel de Cervantes within Span- Spanish history classes. One of the most
ish literature, very little is known about his influential women in history, the Catho-
life. One of the most searching biogra- lic monarch is viewed as forging national
phies of the literary master is Jean Canav- unity through the holy terror of the
aggio’s Cervantes, translated from the Spanish Inquisition, which was launched
Spanish by J. R. Jones (Norton). in 1478 and resulted in the expulsion of
Although the work of Cervantes has Jews and Moors from Spain and religious
attained an almost mystical significance in intolerance in general. Even her sponsor-

S PA I N I N D E P T H
the minds of many Spaniards, in the words ship of Columbus, it is suggested, led to
of Somerset Maugham, “It would be hard “genocide” in the Caribbean.
to find a work so great that has so many 20TH CENTURY VOICES Winning the
defects.” Nicholas Wollaston’s Tilting at Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922, Jacinto
Don Quixote (André Deutsch Publishers) Benavente is best known for such plays as
punctures any illusions that the half- La Boernadora (1901)—called The Gover-
crazed Don is only a matter of good and nor’s Wife in English—and particularly for 2
rollicking fun. Señora ama (1908), or The Lady of the
The collected works of the famed dra-

S PA I N I N B O O K S , F I L M & M U S I C
House in English, two psychological dra-
matist of Spain’s Golden Age, Pedro mas taking place in a rural atmosphere. Los
Calderón de la Barca, can be read in Plays intereses creados (1907), or The Bonds of
(University Press of Kentucky). Interest, is hailed as his masterpiece.
The major works of pre–Civil War The controversial Don C amilo J osé
playwright Federico García Lorca can be Cela Trulock, the Marquis of Iria Flavia,
enjoyed in Five Plays: Comedies and Tragi- was one of the most influential Spanish
comedies (New Directions). writers of the 1950s, although the Franco
Ernest Hemingway completed many government viewed his work as indecent.
works on Spain, none more notable than Cela’s best known work, La Colmena (The
his novels of 1926 and 1940, respectively: Hive), published in 1951, featured more
The Sun Also Rises (Macmillan) and For than 300 characters. A devotee of Spanish
Whom the Bell Tolls (Macmillan), the latter realism, he was sarcastic, even grotesque in
based on his experiences in the Spanish print. In later years he created scandal,
Civil War. Don Ernesto’s Death in the including a claim he could absorb a liter of
Afternoon (various editions) remains the water via his anus, offering to demonstrate
English-language classic on bullfighting. in public.
For travelers to Granada and the Alham- Mercè Rodoreda, a Catalan novelist of
bra, the classic is Tales of the Alhambra Barcelona, wrote La plaça del diamante, or
(Sleepy Hollow Press) by Washington The Diamond Square, which was trans-
Irving. lated into English in 1962 as The Time of
The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Her- the Doves. It became the most acclaimed
self (Penguin), translated by J. M. Cohen, Catalan novel of all time and is the best
is said to be the third-most widely read
38 novel dealing with the Spanish Civil War roring the social, political, and religious
(forgive us, Ernesto). conflicts that tore Spain apart during most
Adept in such forms as novels, short of the 20th century. In 1928, Salvador
stories, children’s literature, poetry, and Dalí and Buñuel cooperated on the direc-
essays, Carmen Martín Gaite was one of tor’s first movie, Un Chien Andalou (An
the most awarded writers of her genera- Andalusian Dog), considered the most
tion, dying in 2000. A major Spanish important surrealist film. Two years later,
writer, Almudena Grandes, writes about sadistic scenes in L’Age d’Or (The Golden
life in contemporary Spain, including the Age)—again written with Dalí’s help—led
21st century. Her most celebrated work to riots in some movie houses. Buñuel also
was the erotic novel Las edades de Lulú, directed La Mort en ce Jardin (Death in the
translated into English. Garden) with Simone Signoret (1957). In
Finally, Ana R ossetti, a Spanish poet 1960 he made Viridiana, which subse-
born in Cádiz in 1950, is one of the most quently won the prize for best picture at
exuberant female voices in Spanish litera- Cannes, even though Franco banned the
ture. The artist’s repertoire embraces not film in Spain.
S PA I N I N D E P T H

only poetry but opera librettos, novels, In 1982 José Luis García became the
and several works of prose. first Spaniard to win an Oscar for best
foreign film with Volver a Empezar (To
FILMS Begin Again), even though local critics
The first Spanish feature film, Los Guapos considered the film inferior to his earliest,
del Parque (The Dandies of the Park), Asignatura Pendiente (Anticipated Assigna-
directed by Segundo de Chomón, was
2 tion). Volver a Empezar takes a look at an
released in 1903, 7 years after the film exiled writer’s homecoming to Spain.
industry began in Barcelona. One of the biggest box-office hits in
S PA I N I N B O O K S , F I L M & M U S I C

Film studios opened in Madrid in 1920, Spanish film history (and still available on
and by 1926 Spain was producing some DVD) is El Crimen de Cuenca (The Crime
30 feature films a year. Before World War in Cuenca), directed by Pilar Miró, who
II the biggest name was Florian Rey, who went on to become “chief of state of televi-
made both silents and talkies, his most sion.” The film, which derails Civil Guard
notable work being Le Aldea Maldita (The torture, caused a furor when it was released
Damned Village) in 1929. and was suppressed until the coup attempt
After the Civil War and under Franco, of 1981.
Spain produced a lot of mediocre films. The Basque problem reached the movie
Even General Franco, using a pseudonym, screens in 1983 with La Muerte de Mikel
wrote a propaganda piece called Raza (The (Michael’s Death), which dramatizes the
Race) in 1941. tortured love story of a young Basque
In the 1950s, Spanish film achieved nationalist and a transvestite from Bilbao.
world recognition, mainly because of two The 36-year dictatorship of Franco
directors, Luís García Berlanga and Juan imposed on the Spanish arts an anesthetiz-
Antonio Bardem. Both made satirical films ing effect whose aftermath is being
about social conditions in Spain, some- explored cinematically today. One of the
times incurring the government’s wrath. best-acclaimed examples is Vicente Aran-
During the filming of Death of a Cyclist, in da’s steamily entertaining and psychologi-
fact, Bardem was arrested and imprisoned. cally insightful Lovers (1992). A dark,
Upon his release, he finished the film, melodramatic romance set in the Franco
which won acclaim at Cannes. era, it charts the changing eddies of a love
Luis Buñuel became one of the biggest
names in Spanish cinema, his films mir-
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
one tittle the declarations of this British driveller, who, by the way, hadn’t
acquired a single sentence of Spanish in five years! He pictured Buenos Ayres
as the future hub of the world’s civilisation, this purely agricultural country of
the Argentine (featureless and ill adapted for any purpose other than the
growing of luxurious crops and the rearing of vast herds of cattle), as a
teeming land of wondrous industries, before which such things as England,
America, France, and Germany have achieved would have to pale their
ineffectual fires. No argument of sanity that could be advanced disturbed the
calm serenity with which this self-constituted trumpeter of the Argentine
reiterated stupidities that would have put the most perfervid patriot to the
blush.
I have described Mr. Q—— at some little length, because, bore though he
is, he is typical of a certain class of Englishman whom one encounters in the
Argentine, and for whom Argentine and average Englishman alike have a
wholesome contempt. He is one of those aggressive, self-assertive “Anglo-
Argentines” who go home occasionally and blow about this new land of
promise, to the ultimate disillusionment of such as give ear.
The other Englishman I have in mind, who also typifies a certain class, is
less offensively anti-British than Mr. Q——, and his observations being based
upon a little knowledge and a large inexperience, he is more amenable to
reason than the Mr. Q’s, who are mere windbags, that seek to cloak their lack
of success at home by magnifying their changed condition in the new land.
Mr. F——, as I shall call the other, had a little knack from time to time of
dropping such sage remarks as, “Where in the whole of London will you find
such evidence of wealth as you do in a walk along the Avenida
Alvear?”—“Where in London will you see so many beautiful dresses, such
wealth in millinery, as at Palermo on a Sunday afternoon?”—“Talk about the
business of London, what is it in comparison with the business of Buenos
Ayres?”—“Were you not astounded at the magnificent buildings when you
came to Buenos Ayres, all so bright and clean looking, after London?”—and so
on ad nauseam.
We dubbed Mr. F—— “the silly ass observer.” For each of these examples of
his acumen in the art of comparative observation breathes of ignorance and
thoughtlessness. They are, indeed, almost too stupid to call for notice, but as
Mr. F—— was personally a pleasant and amiable young Englishman, I was
often at pains to explain matters to him, and always found that at the root of
his odious comparisons lay the simple fact that he had lived in London with
his eyes shut and his mind untouched by the grandeur that surrounded him.
How many hundreds of thousands of young men are like Mr. F——! They look
on the old familiar things of home with unseeing eyes, and when, perchance,
in some new land they begin to take notice, they lack standards of
comparison to guide them. When I explained to poor Mr. F——, who was
honestly overwhelmed by the glory that is Buenos Ayres, that Threadneedle
Street or Lombard Street in ye antique city of London, though they look as
nothing to the eye that cannot see beyond their drab and smoky walls, might
comfortably purchase the entire Argentine and all that in it is, from the torrid
north to the foggy south, and have something over to be going on with; when
I impressed him with the undoubted fact that most of the wealth which he
saw around him had come into being thanks to British money, and that a very
substantial portion of the profits being derived from the exploitation of the
country went every year into London pockets, he began to see things in a
new light. To compare the Avenida Alvear with Park Lane, merely shows that
one has not observed Park Lane, or that he is not aware that the Avenida
Alvear and the few streets thereabout which represent the Mayfair, Belgravia,
and West End of London, are as an inch to an ell. Mr. F—— is very
representative of the “cable boy” standard of intelligence, but in other
respects a fine, clean English type, that one would value all the more as an
element in the British Colony were it given to a little reflection before it aired
its opinions on Argentine and the world in general, of which its experience has
been notably slight.
Hardly at all does the emigrant class enter into the British Colony. British
workpeople there are occasionally to be met throughout the Argentine, but
the country as a whole is ill adapted for them. Any person who by word of
mouth or writing spreads abroad the idea that artisans or those of the
labouring class of Great Britain will find the Argentine an attractive field, may
be doing a very mischievous thing. The conditions of life in which the Italian
emigrants, the Spaniards, Poles, Russians, Syrians, and all the rest of them
herd together in the cities or make shift to exist in rough shanties in the Camp
are impossible to even the commonest class of English or Scots workpeople, if
the language difficulty did not exist to make matters still worse for them.
But many British workpeople are there under conditions very different from
those of the other emigrants. They are chiefly railway engineers, employed as
foremen or as expert workers in the great workshops of the different railway
companies, or as locomotive drivers. Their conditions of life, although I fail to
see wherein they are greatly superior to those obtaining in their native land
among their class, having regard to the different purchasing value of the
wages earned, are at least made agreeable by association with fellow-workers
of their own race, and the possibility of saving more money than they would
be likely to do at home. For example, where a working man in England might
be able to save £20 ($100) per year, he can at least contrive to save the same
relative proportion from his wages in the Argentine, and as his wages will not
be less than double, and perhaps two and a half times what they would have
been in England, by the same ratio may his savings be increased. These
workmen have also security of employment, and, in fine, must not be
confounded with the emigrant class. They find grievances, none the less, and
even went on strike in the year 1911.

A Modern “Estancia” Homestead built of Concrete.

Owing to the little communities in which they live being almost entirely
British, they do not assimilate with the natives, and few of them, even after
many years in the country, have picked up more than some odd words of the
language. A friend of mine, who was rather shaky in his Spanish, was waylaid
at a railway station in the interior and wished to have a train stopped at a
point along the line where there was no station, to enable him to reach a
certain estancia. He managed to explain this in Spanish to the station-master,
but the latter was unable to interpret it to the engine-driver, who turned out
to be English and did not know a word of what he called “their blooming
lingo!” These sturdy and skilled artisans naturally do not count in the British
Colony of Buenos Ayres, and most of them live in the railway centres of the
provinces, and come only occasionally to the capital for a trip.
What must strike the British visitor in Buenos Ayres with a curious air of
home is the railway bookstall at Retiro, Once, or at Constitución. The former
looks as familiar as a London suburban bookstall, with all sorts of English
periodicals, from the Strand Magazine to Comic Cuts, bundles of “sixpenny”
and “sevenpenny” novels, The Times, weekly edition, Lloyds’ News, and many
another familiar title, though the prices charged are naturally two or three
times those printed on the periodicals. These are evidence of the large English
community residing in the various suburbs served from the stations named.
The English bookshops in the heart of the city are also well-known centres,
being entirely patronised by the “colony,” but the English grocers drive a large
business with the native population, and employ many assistants who only
speak Spanish. Still, British housewives have no need to acquire the language,
as they may transact all their business in their native tongue, and it is no rare
thing to meet a lady who in twenty years of Buenos Ayres has not even got to
know the Spanish names of the common objects of the dinner table. In the
provinces, however, most foreign lady residents have to acquire at least a
smattering of the native lingo.
A further element in the “colony” may be described as the floating
population of British visitors who make periodical journeys to the Argentine in
pursuit of business. The stay-at-home has no faint notion of the extraordinary
trafficking of his race in foreign parts. Veritable battalions of commercial
travellers representing British houses visit the Argentine each year, staying
from two to six months at a time, and the hotels are always sheltering
Englishmen who seem to have nothing to do beyond taking their meals and
playing billiards for weeks on end, but who are really waiting the signing-up of
contracts. One gentleman I knew had put in nearly nine months of this
strenuous work, and eventually left in despair. The contract for which he had
been waiting so long was fixed up about three weeks afterwards, and went to
a German firm whose representative had perhaps been more patient in
waiting, or more liberal (or more discreet) in his bestowal of backsheesh.
Those visitors whose stays are short do not fare badly in the Argentine
capital, and as a rule retain rather pleasant memories of the place, although
not a few with whom I conversed really dreaded the necessity of having to
return, as they found time hang so heavily on their hands. Then there comes
occasionally one of the scribbling fraternity, who fixes a little round of
engagements, hurries to see the sights of the place, and flits away again to
entertain a public quite as well-informed as he or she may be by the little that
he or she has seen in the few days’ stay. I spent some time with an American
correspondent, who did not know a word either of French or Spanish, and yet
had the fortitude to contribute a series of articles to one of the local papers,
giving his valuable impressions of a country and a people into whose mind he
was not able even to peep. His articles, of course, were written in English and
translated into Spanish, and were published with great fanfarronada, although
his literary reputation was unknown even to me, whose business it has been
for many years to keep in touch with literary reputations on both sides of the
Atlantic.
The regulation course for the “globe-trotter” who flits through the Argentine
for a week or so, to write a book thereon, is to motor round the various public
buildings, interview a few of the official heads, endeavouring, if possible, to
have a talk with the President,—a comparatively easy matter in all South
American Republics, the President being sort of ex-officio Chief of Publicity,—
engineer an invitation to a model estancia to stay overnight, and an interview
with a reporter from the Standard to announce the gestation of the great
work that will later see the light in London or New York. The usual practice of
the more or less distinguished visitor is to deliver himself of the most fulsome
flattery of all that he has seen, and to lay on the butter with a trowel. To this
rule there are occasional exceptions, and I gather that the Princess of Pless,
who paid Buenos Ayres a visit in August of 1913, when I was staying in Chili,
was one of these exceptions. The Buenos Ayres correspondent of La Union of
Santiago sent to his paper an amusing little article on the Princess, which I
think worthy of translating, as it will make an acceptable tailpiece to this
chapter. He wrote:

She has gone! A wandering star, seeking a constellation

wherein she may shine with due refulgence and without
suffering eclipse from other stars of greater brilliance. She had
a glimpse of the Argentine in her dreams as the ideal land of
aristocracy by having read in the “British Cyclopædia” (sic)
that in this country there are no titles of nobility other than
those of the wash-tub.
Yesterday she stated in one of her farewell confidences: “I
go away horribly disappointed! Not a sauvage (sic), not a
tiger, not a Paraguayan crocodile!”
What a useless voyage! To confront the dangers of three
thousand leagues of sea and twenty days of poor food and
worse sleep to come to see savages, when these can be found
in thousands within twenty-four hours of London! In this poor
America there remain no other savages than those Europeans
who exploit the miserable natives of Putumayo. The veritable
Indians of the tales of Fenimore Cooper and of Gustave
Aimard, the scalp hunters, the throat cutters, the mutilators of
children, are to be found in the very heart of Europe, in the
countries of “The Merry Widow.” There the Princess ought to
have gone a-hunting for those sanguinary curiosities and to
satisfy her appetite for exotics.
She came here nervously afraid of the prospect of being
carried off by Calufucurá, and even resisted the temptation to
visit the estancia of Pereyra, fearing lest the Cacique Catriel
should force her to prepare the pipe of counsel surrounded by
his tribe, and she goes away disenchanted by not having seen
an Indian even in the distance, and disgusted at having had to
suffer the sugary gallantries of some of our dandies of the old
school, little fortunate in the conquest of princesses.
But, above all, what mortified her most and most
precipitated her departure, rendering her ill at ease during her
stay in Buenos Ayres, is the fact that she did not rank here in
the front file of beauty, nor shine above the rest in fashion,
nor find herself in any sort a protagonist. She was no more
than one among the mass of our women, and less than many
of our distinguished ladies. Thus she has gone as she came,
after having attempted to discover some labyrinthine forest
never visited by man, without encountering more than
cultivated soil and agricultural machines where she had hoped
to see Indians discharging their poisoned arrows and
brandishing their formidable tomahawks. And thus it is that
she says in her despite “America has lost all her virginities,
even the celebrated virginity of her forests!”
Yesterday the Princess embarked, and on seeing her aboard
the Arayaguaya, using her walking-stick like a crutch, to
disguise her mincing gait,—alone, with not even the
companionship of a “snob,” who might have attempted to win
her good-will, not even a lady of honour dazzled by her noble
title,—there came to our mind, though altered by the
circumstances, the lines of that farewell elegy on the remains
of Sir John Moore:
 “Not a drum was heard, not a triumphal note—As she
arrived at the Dársena Norte—Not a soldier discharged his
farwell schot—When the steamer left the Argentine shore!”

The intrinsic merits of this little sketch and the charm of the concluding
effort in English, surely justify its reproduction! What on earth the Princess of
Pless may have said to lead to this display of journalistic courtesy, I do not
know, but I suspect that she must have ventured some words of frank
criticism, and that is precisely what the common, untramelled Argentine does
not want. He asks for butter, and he wants it thick, and if you can add a layer
of sugar,—for he has a sweet tooth—so much the better. Most of the British
Colony know this, and also know on which side their bread is buttered. Thus
the English visitor who is indiscreet enough publicly to express a frank and
honest opinion of anything that does not meet with his approval in Buenos
Ayres or the Argentine, will scarcely expect to be grappled to its bosom by
hooks of steel. I am persuaded, however, that the better-class of native
Argentine opinion is quite capable of sustaining honest criticism and profiting
thereby.
 CHAPTER XV
THE EMIGRANT IN LIGHT AND SHADE

There is a popular story in Buenos Ayres of a Spanish emigrant who had

just arrived with wife and children, and as the group was crossing the Paseo
de Julio, the wife espied a silver coin in the gutter. She called to her husband
to pick it up, but he disdainfully answered, “I have no concern with mere
silver money, when I have come here to gather gold!” The story usually ends
here, but I suspect the frugal wife of picking up that coin herself and thereby
making money more easily than her husband would be like to do for some
time to come. For certain it is that the Argentine is no “land of gold,” such as
our world has had to marvel at in California, Australia, South Africa, and
Alaska. No,—it is something better than any merely auriferous land! So rich is
its soil, it returns to those who work it such wondrous increase of harvest that
it is truly an inexhaustible gold mine. But the first and final essential to the
winning of its gold is Labour. This, as we know, Italy has given to the
Argentine in abundant measure, and those who only know the Italian by such
specimens of his race as grind organs and sell ice-cream in England, have no
least, small notion of what a splendid fellow he is, his many vices
notwithstanding.
Before we take a look at the different classes of emigrants which the
Argentine attracts and their influence on the development of the country, a
word or two on the land system may be in place. The time will come, I doubt
not, when some revolutionary change will be forced upon the country, as the
land is too closely held by the landed aristocracy—the multitudes of small lots
sold by speculative dealers notwithstanding. In this young country, with its
Republican Government and its progressive ideas, we encounter the anomaly
of a mere handful of fabulously wealthy proprietors owning the greatest part
of a vast country—nearly eight times larger than the British Isles. Meanwhile,
these prodigious tracts of territory being so tightly held by a few private
owners, have the effect of increasing the values of the negotiable land, of
which there is evidently still sufficient to meet the demands of the moment.
Double the population, however, and such a change will pass over the scene
that legislation to force the hands of private owners and loosen their grip on
the lion’s share of the Republic’s soil will be inevitable.
 The system on which the land is worked is also charged with danger to the
social development of the community, and some day it, too, must give place
to a better adjustment as between the owner and the worker. I have made
frequent reference in previous chapters to the estancias, without entering into
any detail as to the working of these great agricultural estates, which,
curiously enough, are known by the Spanish word for a dwelling-house or a
sitting-room (estancia in South America means either a farm, a country
house, or the whole area of landed property under one ownership). Here,
however, I must explain something of the peculiar methods of working these
estates.
The owner himself will cultivate at his own cost a certain portion with
alfalfa, wheat, maize, or linseed, as the case may be, and will maintain
immense herds of cattle, sheep, and horses, according as he specialises in
agriculture or in live-stock. But the estancias are usually much too large for
their owners to develop to their full extent, and thus have grown up two
methods of co-operation, neither of which has in it the germ of permanency,
both being based on one man’s need and another’s opportunity. The one
system is worked by the medieros, the other by the colonos. The mediero is a
man who has come out from Spain or Italy with some tiny capital in his
pocket that enables him to purchase certain agricultural implements, seeds,
and probably to knock up a shanty of corrugated iron,—wood for building
purposes being a highly priced commodity. But he cannot afford to purchase
agricultural land in any locality where his crop would be of adequate value to
him once he had raised it, for wherever the land is within reachable distance
of a railway line, it is impossible to purchase it at anything like its actual
market value, the method of the Argentine land-seller being invariably to
demand the price which the land may be worth in ten or fifteen years. The
land-vender takes “long views,” he is big with the future, so confident of it
that he values his possessions of to-day at the dream prices of a somewhat
distant morrow. Now, the mediero cannot come to grips with such as he, and
cap in hand he approaches the estanciero, offering in return for the right to
work so many acres of his land, to “go halves” with him in expenses and in
profits—hence mediero, or “halver.”
The colono (colonist) is a genuine knight of the empty purse, with nothing
to offer save his labour and that of his wife and children; but that is a great
thing, and he is received with open arms throughout the length and breadth
of the Argentine. The estanciero not only grants him as many acres of land as
he may be able to work with his wife and family, but lends him cows for milk,
horses for the plough, and through his almacén supplies to him on credit the
necessary implements, seeds, and food, as well as corrugated iron and planks
of wood for the building of his rancho. It should be explained that the
almacén on every estancia is an important institution, a sort of universal
provider for the hundreds of medieros and colonos who have taken up land
on the estate, selling to them all sorts of commodities at a substantial profit to
the estanciero. The “colonist” is now expected to labour incessantly on the
land allotted to him, so that he may repay to the almacén the pretty heavy
debt he has contracted there, while an agreed percentage of his crops will go
to the owner of the estate.
These medieros and colonos include all nationalities, but are chiefly drawn
from the Italian emigrants, the Spaniards being more commonly tradesmen.
Everything looks couleur de rose to the poor toilers; they set about their task
with high hope, a new feeling of freedom, little recking that they have tied
themselves to a new serfdom by the bond of that initial debt with which they
start. The mediero has a better chance than the colono of “turning the
corner” soon, and it too often happens that the latter, after two or three years
of incessant labour, has no more than cleared his feet, when comes a bad
harvest, and he is back where he was at the beginning. Withered are his
roses, poor fellow. Disgusted at the result, and hoping that a change to some
other part of the country may turn out for the better, he disposes of the few
things he owns, quits his “camp,” and shifts to some other quarter, perhaps
only to repeat this chapter of his history.
Meanwhile, it will be seen the estanciero has had another corner of his
estate brought into cultivation, its value considerably increased thereby, and
the poor Italians have spent their strength for a bare subsistence. That many
of them do succeed in earning some profit, especially those of the mediero
class, and starting in some other business, is undeniable; but the roll of those
who have turned over the soil of the Argentine and brought it into bearing to
the great benefit of its owners, and their own non-success is, I am told,
beyond reckoning. This, then, I submit, is no system that can endure. It
carries its own seeds of decay. So long as the stream of immigration flows as
steadily as of recent years, the system will doubtless continue, but a time will
come when disappear it must, and some method of employment based on a
fairer distribution of profits, or on adequate wages, take its place.
Apart from the ethics of the Argentine land system, which are clearly open
to criticism, one can have nothing but praise for the manner in which
emigration is officially encouraged, and the way in which the emigrants are
handled on arrival at the River Plate. There is a fine saying reported of
President Sáenz Peña when he represented his country at the Pan-American
Congress in Washington on the occasion of the fourth centenary of the
discovery of America. In the course of a speech he was making, some fervid
Pan-American thought it a fit occasion to interject the watchword, “America
for the Americans”! Quick as a flash Dr. Sáenz Peña retorted, “Yes, but Latin
America for humanity!”
This certainly is the spirit that informs the policy of Argentine immigration.
A hearty welcome is given to people of all races, whose only right of entry
into this new land of promise is the possession of brawny muscles and the will
to work. Every week they are arriving in ship-loads, and the manner in which
these cargoes of humanity are received at the docks in Buenos Ayres and
speedily transhipped by rail to different parts of the interior, according to the
demand for brazos, is one of the most businesslike things the visitor will have
an opportunity of noting in the public administration. Ship-load after ship-load
of Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, and other nationalities arrives and melts
away, absorbed into the thirsty country like water into sandy soil.

A “Rodeo,” or Round-up of Cattle in the Argentine Pampa.

During our stay, a splendidly equipped hostel, or shelter, was opened for
the emigrants. Erected by the riverside close to the scene of their
disembarkation, this building is capable of sheltering a large number of
newcomers. Sleeping-rooms fitted with wire mattresses upon which the
emigrants may place their own bedding (always the most precious of their
personal possessions) are provided for the men, and similar accommodation
for the women and children. There is no excuse for any of them to go
unbathed, lavatories specially fitted with showers being provided for those
who care to use them (the superintendent told me it was seldom that an
emigrant ventured on such an experiment), while in the great common
dining-room they may take their meals in comparative comfort and can secure
eatables at a low rate. The accommodation, if I remember correctly, is free,
and the whole place is so admirably clean that it must come with something
like a shock to most of the emigrants who pass through it, habituated as they
have been, almost without exception, to dirty ways of life in their native lands.
Many of the emigrants never see Buenos Ayres at all, as the trains that take
them into the Camp pick them up at a short distance from the vessels which
have borne them oversea, and at the very doors of the shelter where they
may have passed the night of arrival.
Laughter and tears mingle a good deal in the landing of these poor people
from the Old World. Huddled almost like cattle in the steerage of the
steamers, their condition at sea presents what seems an unbridgable abyss
between their lives and those of the saloon passengers. Day after day I have
watched them sitting aimlessly on deck in their dirty, faded clothes, the
effluvia from the mass of them, even tempered by the sea breeze, suggesting
conditions of horror when they “turned in” at night, that might recall the Black
Hole of Calcutta. The captain assured me it was not so very bad, but I never
had the stomach to prove it for myself. Yet, on the morning of arrival at
Buenos Ayres, what a transformation! Girls who have seemed the dirtiest of
sluts throughout the voyage step down the gangway quite neatly attired. The
married women, tricked out with little bits of finery, the men mostly in suits of
black, with sombre soft hats, and every Spaniard armed with an ample
umbrella, are difficult to recognise as the slovenly creatures one has seen for
weeks feeding out of tins and using fingers, for lack of knives and forks. But
even among the emigrants there are many grades, and not all are able to
make this sudden transformation, many having no more than the soiled and
shabby garments in which they have made their voyage, a little handkerchief
tied at the corners being a pathetic index of their worldly gear. But even from
among these, there will be some that one day shall bridge that awful gulf
between the steerage and saloon, and make a voyage home as cabin
passengers to advertise the magic Argentine!
Hope is the prevailing note in the demeanour of every new batch of
fortune-seekers. It shines brightest, perhaps, in the eyes of the alert and wiry
little Italians; the Spaniards, also, step ashore with a firm and confident tread,
but mostly among the Poles, the Bulgars, and the Russians do we see the dull
look of something very like despair. In discussing the character of the
emigrants with M. Huret, Señor Alsina, a former Director of the Emigration
Service, remarked:

What surprises one most in the careful observation of these

people from the four extremes of Europe is the rapidity of
their transformation, Spaniards from Galicia, brutish and
wretched, sordid Jews from Russia, lift up their heads
(levantan la cabeza) at the end of a few months. I have seen
them arrive bent and downcast, with all the timidity of a dog
that has been badly treated, so dejected and timorous,
indeed, that I thought it necessary to engage some Russian
students to lecture them on the dignity of humanity in
general, and the conditions of liberty which they could enjoy
in the Argentine. A few months afterwards, seeing many of
them again, I could observe that they had so entirely changed
that they had become argumentative, noisy, and given to
discussion.
The case of the Armenians is in this respect entirely typical.
Some eighteen years ago they arrived here for the first time.
Becoming pedlars, they travelled all over the Pampa, some
with “bundles” on their backs, others pushing before them
their wares. Little by little they made money, even growing
rich. Many of them went in for politics, and to-day occupy
positions of influence in the public life. Very active in business,
they are in a fair way to surpass the Italians in the retail trade.
Proud of their title as free citizens, they refuse to sell their
vote, which is the common practice among the populace, and
their prosperity is so real, so positive, that the Armenian
Colony is offering to the Argentine a monument which will cost
them 120,000 francs.

I am afraid that appearances are very much inclined to be deceptive in

studying the faces of emigrants. Surely there are none who can look more
dejected than the Armenians and the Poles, who closely resemble each other
in facial appearance, yet the money-making potentialities of these sad-faced
emigrants are relatively much higher than those of the merry, little, guitar-
strumming Italians and Spaniards.
On the arrival of every new contingent, there is always a considerable
group of friends awaiting the vessel, and fortunate are they who have come
out on the initiative of some relative that has gone before and prepared the
way. These emigrants of yesterday, who have already come to grips with
fortune and won the first bout, form one of the pleasantest features of the
disembarkations, as they stand on the quayside in their “Sunday best,” with
their watch chains, tie pins, finger rings, and highly polished boots to
announce to all the world that they are “getting on.” This friendly co-operation
is of immense service to the Emigration Bureau, and is really a sounder sort of
propaganda than the familiar widecast publishing of alluring pictures of the
riches of the country and the ease with which fortunes may be made. The
emigrant who comes because a brother or a friend has already substantially
changed his condition, and will have the advice of that friend to help him in
securing employment, is at least on sure ground, and where labour is in such
demand he cannot well make a mistake, provided he is willing to work.
In this way have grown up the distinctive “colonies” throughout the country,
the majority of the Russians making direct for the neighbourhood of Bahía
Blanca, where their services as agricultural labourers and as craftsmen are in
high demand; the Turks and Syrians concentrating in a district of Buenos
Ayres, where they seem to engage in every variety of occupation in which
there is a minimum of creative work and the possibility of profiting as middle-
men by the labour of others. A great many French find their way to Mendoza,
the centre of the wine-growing, in which business not a few have become
masters of millions. The German emigration is of more recent origin, and
embraces, like the French, a superior class of people, as well as supplying a
modicum to the toiling community. Although all the emigrants, save the
Spanish, are at first conditioned in their occupations and their localities by
their ignorance of the native language, so that they must needs go where
they find their fellow-countrymen and more or less follow the pursuits in
which these are engaged, they speedily pick up the language, and once
acclimatised and furnished with the means of universal intercourse, they
begin to look around, weigh up the possibilities of the country, and strike out
their independent courses. In this movement, the British have practically no
part whatever, and with the exceptions of the scanty Irish emigration of past
years and the Welsh colony settled, with very equivocal success, on the River
Chubut some twenty years ago, the annals of the British in the Argentine
present no parallel whatever to those of the other European nations.
 When we talk of Argentine emigration, we refer chiefly to the Italian and
the Spanish, though the Basque provinces of France and Spain have probably
supplied the very finest element of foreign blood in the Argentine nation to-
day. Italy is sending from eighty to a hundred thousand of her sturdy sons to
swell the Argentine population every year. The newcomers from Italy each
year number about 200,000, but in these later years there has been a very
considerable movement towards repatriation among the Italians and also
among the Spaniards, so that there is an offset of at least 50 per cent. for re-
emigration. The Italian who does not determine to make his home in the
Argentine is quickly satisfied with a comparatively small amount of savings.
Once he has netted from $1000 to $2500, he considers himself a man of
independent means, and is apt to return to his native village with his tiny
fortune, which will enable him there to live far more comfortably than he has
been existing in the Argentine, and to enjoy a life of comparative leisure. The
call of the Homeland is always very strong to the Italian, and if he acquires his
little fortune quickly, before his family have become thoroughly Argentine in
character and sentiment, he will almost surely go back. The hundreds of
thousands of his race who are fixed and rooted in the Republic are they who,
either through superior fortune have come to hold such a stake in the land, or
from longer delay in “turning the corner” and the influence of their children,
have become habituated to their new environment.
The quickest fortunes, the easiest gained wealth, assuredly do not come to
those who take up the life of the colono or the mediero, as above described,
for there are innumerable other ways in which money can be made more
readily, and those who engage in shopkeeping—always a superior class to the
tillers of the soil, as they require some little capital for a start—as well as the
many Spaniards who enter the already established business houses, are in
more immediate touch with money-making possibilities than the braceros. It is
always thus, that they who are of least use in the economical development of
the country should be most speedily rewarded.
I heard of an Italian waiter, who arrived in Buenos Ayres some time in
November of 1911 and immediately went on to Mar del Plata, the fashionable
seaside resort, where he readily secured a situation in one of the hotels. In
one month he netted a thousand pesos in “tips,” and with this vast sum
($420) he incontinently returned to his native country in order to purchase a
piece of land and set up as a small farmer! A coachman, also an Italian,
whose services I occasionally employed during our stay in Buenos Ayres,
informed me that he was making a clear profit of 600 pesos (or $252) per
month. The coach, a very handsome one, and the horse, a splendid animal,
were his own property, and so careful was he of his coach that he did not care
to bring it out on very sunny days, lest the upholstery might fade, while he
disliked driving on very wet days, so that he suited his own convenience as to
the hours and days of work! Withal, he was speedily acquiring a competence.
He assured me he drank as good wine as he got at home, and if he did not
eat so well, it was because nobody did in the Argentine, owing to the difficulty
of getting good food at reasonable prices. He also had been a waiter, but
evidently had his eye on a higher mark than his compatriot who hastened
back from Mar del Plata with his first month’s gratuities.
I do not doubt that if one had gone about, notebook in hand, collecting
experiences from all sorts and conditions of people who had emigrated to the
country, no end of “human interest” stories could have been obtained. Such
as I came by, however, were the fruit of casual conversations, and the
absence of the British and North Americans from the emigration movement
was probably the reason why I did not study it in more than its broadest
aspects. To follow it here in detail would involve so much in the way of
comparative statistics, that I make no apology for touching the subject in the
most sketchy, but I hope not unsuggestive, manner. I did receive, after
leaving Buenos Ayres, some copies of the Herald containing a long and
interesting correspondence, originated by an Englishman in Buenos Ayres,
entitled “Is Argentina as Bright as it is Painted?” Some excellent letters were
written by Britishers while the correspondence continued, and although the
Mr. Q’s and Mr. F’s could not allow the occasion to pass without casting a
stone at the unworthy land of their birth, the whole weight of opinion was in
tune with what I have written. If anything, most of the writers went further,
and some even piously called upon the Almighty to protect the wretched
English workman whose lot it was to live in such places as Bahía Blanca and
Rosario. Personally, I must confess that I have seen worse places to live in
than Rosario, and even considerably worse than Bahía Blanca. I have been in
Antofagasta!
But enough of the British in this connection, for they certainly do not
amount to anything of real consequence in the sum total of Argentine
immigration, the Americans to still less.[2] What is to be noticed, however, is a
very distinct forward movement among the Germans. The German has come
rather late in the day to discover the Britisher very thoroughly established in
all branches of commerce throughout the Republic. But, undismayed, the
German has set himself to the task of undermining British supremacy, laying
his plans to capture a large share of future business. There is, of course, no
comparison in sheer bulk between the German and the Italian immigration, as
the number of Germans arriving in the Argentine in 1912 was only 4,337, (to
which we might add 6,545 Austrians) against 165,662 Italians. But in the
smaller Teutonic group lay greater money-making possibilities than in the
Latin horde.
These Germans represent all classes of the community; there are quite a
few titled Teutons engaged in business in Buenos Ayres to-day. They are
developing their banking connection throughout the Republic with great
energy; German manufacturers are establishing branches everywhere;
German clerks are flooding into all sorts of businesses, their superior working
qualities to the Spaniard, their readiness to accept the lowest wages that will
support an existence, and their ability to acquire speedily the language of the
country, being all sound reasons for the ready demand for their services. The
competition of these German clerks will soon change the complexion of the
office staffs of the railways, for they are even supplanting the British
employees, and, if the cold truth must be told, they are really better
employees. One seldom meets a German who cannot at least contrive to
make himself understood in English, and who, although seldom speaking the
Spanish language with grace or correct pronunciation, will not in a few
months be able to converse in it with a fair degree of fluency.
In addition to those different classes of Teutonic invaders come the hand-
workers—engineers, carpenters, builders, agricultural labourers. In
considerable numbers these work people, who share the ability of their
compatriots in the acquiring of languages, are filtering all over the Argentine
and in certain districts of the southwest, especially around the celebrated Lake
Nahuel Huapi, some thirteen hundred miles distant from the capital, there are
entire settlements of German farmers, with their native school-teachers and
Protestant missionaries. In fine, the Germanising of the Argentine has begun,
and if it is still far from attaining the dimensions it has already assumed in
Chili, I do not doubt that a day is coming when the German will have ousted
the British, the French, and the Italian from their present supremacy in their
respective fields, although never likely to compete with Britain or France in
the matter of invested capital. At the time of writing, it is evident that there is
a further movement to encourage German enterprise in the Argentine. I read
in the London Times this morning that the Kaiser’s brother, Prince Henry of
Prussia, accompanied by his Princess and suite, are sailing on an official visit
to the Republic in one of the fine new passenger steamers with which the
Germans are successfully competing against the British lines for South Atlantic
trade.
 It is not to be supposed, although I have emphasised the fact that the
Italian immigration is essentially a movement of unskilled labour, that it is
exclusively so. For the Argentine offers to the observer a very remarkable
lesson in the industrial progress of Italy, which may entirely escape him in his
travels in Italy itself. To encounter at every step, as one does wherever one
goes throughout the Argentine, the most persistent evidences of Italian
enterprise in every branch of commerce, is to discover the Italian in an
entirely new light. Most of us are in the habit of going to Italy to look at old
things, to revel in the glories of her past, and are apt to come away from
Rome, or Florence, or Venice, and especially from Naples, with an impression
of bygone grandeur and lingering poverty. It is true that we must set against
this the evidence of her prosperity and modern activity, which we find in Milan
and in Turin; but, on the whole, our popular notion of Italy is that of a country
living mainly on its past.
The Italian in the Argentine will speedily dispel this. Not only does he
supply the strong arms that are tilling the soil of countless leagues, but he
maintains many of the great importing establishments in Buenos Ayres and
the principal towns. Italian engineering agencies and workshops abound. A
large proportion of the splendid motor cars that crowd the streets of the
capital hail from Italy. Some of the finest chemists’ establishments are Italian.
Not only are Italian workmen vastly in the majority on all building operations,
but very often Italian brains are directing the whole undertaking; Italian
contractors are paving the streets. In short, Italy stands forth in the life of the
Argentine to-day as a magnificent industrial and commercial force, supported
by the wide-spreading base of Italian emigrant labour.
There is also a very large traffic between the two countries in casual labour,
ship-loads of Italians coming out each year for the harvest season—during
which wages jump up from 40 to 50 pesos a month to 5 or 6 pesos a day—
and return home immediately on its conclusion. The Italian steamers (the
fastest that ply between Europe and South America, some of them doing the
journey from Buenos Ayres to Genoa in twelve days, whereas the average of
the English mail steamer from the River Plate to London or Liverpool takes
nineteen to twenty-one days) provide special facilities for the shipment of
these labourers at a very low head rate. To the remarkable return movement
among Italian emigrants, on which I have already touched, this large element
of casual labour has contributed not a little.
As regards the Spanish emigrant, I had many discussions with Spaniards
settled in the Argentine, from which I gained a good deal more information
than I had ever been able to acquire from any printed source. One of these
gentlemen in particular had studied the question in five or six of the republics,
and was engaged upon a book for circulation among his countrymen at home,
putting the matter in a new light. In his estimation, the Argentine conditions
represent an improvement for only the lowest class of Spaniard. This class of
Spaniard I remember being very fully described in a leading article in La
Prensa. His notions of thrift were there illustrated by his habit, when in his
native country, of journeying about the countryside bare-footed, with his
boots and stockings hung around his neck. When he approaches a village, he
pauses by the roadside to put on his stockings and boots, and so shod
traverses the village; but as soon as he has emerged on the highway again,
he removes them and continues his journey with them around his neck once
more! Such a custom touches the zero of social comfort and those habituated
to it could scarcely fail to do better in almost any other country in the world.
According to my Spanish friend, such of his countrymen immediately
become enthusiasts for the new land, and not only being able to go about
permanently with their boots and stockings, but perhaps to buy a white collar
for themselves and even a pair of silk stockings for their wives, feel they have
suddenly made a magical transition into the very lap of luxury. But for the
craftsmen, the village carpenter, the blacksmith, the modest tradesmen, he
assured me the change was not always for the better. Spaniards of these
classes can, thanks to the cheapness of commodities in their native country,
and despite the lowness of wages, secure infinitely better household
accommodation, and will eat better food, drink better wine, and altogether
live a less strenuous and more satisfactory existence, than the majority, at
least, will be doomed to maintain in the Argentine. As to all this, I can speak
with no exact knowledge, and I do no more than report the opinion of a
Spanish gentleman, confirmed to me, I may add, by several others of his race
who ought to have been in positions to judge.
The gentleman in question was probably somewhat prejudiced, as he was a
patriotic Spaniard, fond of elaborating his theory that Spain to-day had lost
her head over the Argentine and was hastening her decay by orienting her
literature and her journalism towards the lucrative market of South America
instead of towards purely Spanish ideals. Looking to South America as a land
of employment for her children, as in the past her kings had looked to it to fill
their coffers, she was guilty of a crowning folly. If the energy she is pouring
into South America were properly utilised at home, it would return far greater
profit to the nation and the individual. Such, at least, was his line of
reasoning, and I more than half suspect it was well based in fact.
 And withal, from what I could gather, in the annals of Argentine
immigration, the most interesting chapter that might be written would
describe the activities and achievements of the Basques. This splendid race of
people who seem to unite the finest qualities of the French and the Spanish,
have distinguished themselves above all others in the making of modern
Argentine. The geographical position of their homeland, enabling them to
acquire, in addition to their own most difficult language—which polyglot
Borrow found his hardest nut to crack—both French and Spanish, are
peculiarly adapted for making their way in Latin America. But apart from the
language question, their personal characteristics, in which industry joins with
intelligence and imagination, would inevitably carry them to success. They
stand to South American colonisation as the Scot to British Empire-making,
and the peculiar custom of their country, whereby the eldest son inherits all
the family goods and remains at home to maintain the family succession,
while the younger sons have to fare forth into the world to seek their
fortunes, marks them out for colonists.
 Familiar Scenes on an “Estancia.”

In the upper picture, a “Bebedero,” or drinking-place for

the cattle; in the lower, a flock of sheep brought in for
shearing. The windmill pumps seen in both illustrations are
the commonest objects of Argentine landscape.

My acquaintance with the Basques was limited to one family only—a

wonderful family; they are French Basques, and some fifteen or sixteen
brothers and cousins are united in a great business, which has important
warehouses and distributing centres in every large town along the Atlantic
and Pacific Coasts of South America, as well as in many of the business
centres of the interior. But for a typical story of the Basques, I turn to the
pages of M. Huret and translate what is one of the most interesting little
romances of Argentine emigration:

I wish to relate in some detail the story of one of these

French Basques (perhaps the most celebrated of them all), as
I heard it from one of his sons. I admire and sympathise with
the pride of this intelligent plebeian in a country where so
many people think of little more than how to make others
believe in the aristocracy of their blood, as if the most
beautiful and the noblest qualities of “aristocratic” blood did
not potentially exist in the blood of the people!
Pedro Luro was born in 1820 in the little town of Gamarthe,
and in 1837 he arrived at Buenos Ayres with a few francs in
his pocket. Entering as a labourer in a saladero (beef salting
establishment), he contrived to save enough to contemplate
matrimony, but suffered the loss of his little savings by
robbery. He applied himself with new energy to work;
purchasing a horse and a tilt cart, he converted the latter into
an omnibus, and with himself as driver plied between the
Plaza Montserrat and the suburb of Barracas.
He then married a countrywoman, Señorita Pradere, a
relative of his own, and with one of her brothers founded an
almacén (general store) at Dolores, some three hundred
kilometres to the south. But soon this store did not suffice for
his activity, and leaving his wife and her brother in charge of
it, he scoured the Pampa for cattle, wool and hides. Later on,
he made a proposal to a neighbouring estanciero whom he
saw planting trees on his ground, and effected a contract with
him, the conditions of which are famous still in the Argentine.
Luro was to plant as many trees as he liked on two hundred
hectáreas of land, which the estanciero was to place at his
disposal, and was to be paid for the work at the rate of four
centimes for each common tree and twenty-five for each fruit
tree of which the fruit contained stones.
Calling to his aid a number of his fellow Basques, at the end
of five years, Pedro Luro had planted so many trees on these
two hundred hectáreas that the proprietor owed him a sum
not only superior to the value of the ground planted, but of
the whole five thousand hectáreas composing his estancia
(land was sold at that time in this district at 5,000 francs per
league). The estanciero did not care to pay Luro, with the
result that the astute Basque started an action at law and
converted himself into the proprietor of the 5,000 hectáreas.
About the year 1840, the southern part of the province of
Buenos Ayres was still almost desert, the land of small value.
These were the times of the Rosas tyranny, and incessant
revolutions. All around the abandoned estancias dogs had
returned to a state of savagery, and cattle wandered free in
innumerable herds across these immense spaces. It happened
that Luro was assisting at a batida (battue) of these animals,
rendered mad by being entangled in the lassos and pricked
with knives in the hocks. Pondering over the value of all that
flesh and fat wasted, for it was then the custom merely to
secure the skin of the animal and leave its body to decay, the
idea occurred to buy from the landowner all the animals of the
class that were thus to be hunted and killed, at the rate of ten
pesos of the old Argentine money, equivalent to little more
than one peso of the present currency. The proprietor was
highly amused at the suggestion. “I quite believe I will
accept,” he exclaimed, laughing, “but do you really think it
would be good business?”
It was with the only system of capture known to the
gauchos, that is to say the lasso and the bolas (three balls
attached by long leather thongs, which, thrown with great
dexterity at the legs of an animal, entangle these and bring it
to the ground), necessitating months and an enormous
number of men, that he would be able to bring some
thousands of cattle—and in what sad state—to the salting
factory.
All the same, Luro insisted with perfect coolness, and the
contract was signed.
Now the tactics conceived by the intelligent Basque were as
follow: He began by prohibiting the gauchos from scouring the
country in cavalcades. During three months, only two men on
horseback, going slowly, were allowed to wander about the
pasture ground of these wild cattle. Little by little the animals
became accustomed to the sight of them and did not fly away
when they approached. When some hundreds of cattle had
thus been domesticated, they were taken farther away, where
others were still in a wild state, and these in turn were easily
reduced to the tameness of the first.
In batches of five hundred to a thousand, Luro was soon
able to herd the cattle direct to the salting factories, where he
sold them at 15, 20, 25, even 30 francs each. At the end of a
year, he had thus secured no fewer than 35,000 head of
cattle. He had made himself rich, and the proprietor of the
estancia had received from him at one stroke 70,000 francs,
which he had never expected, remaining enchanted with his
transaction.
In 1862, Pedro Luro went still further afield, beyond Bahía
Blanca, whose fort at that time constituted the frontier against
the Indians. He was delayed for some time on the banks of
the River Colorado, owing to the Indians having robbed him of
his horses. Meanwhile, exploring the valley of the river, he
quickly grasped the potentialities of the district. Returning to
Buenos Ayres, he secured an interview with General Mitre, to
whom he proposed to buy from the State 100 square leagues
of land (250,000 hectáreas) at the rate of 1,000 francs per
league, with a view to founding a colony of three hundred
Basques in that region.
His scheme apparently approved by the President, he then
set sail for Navarra Baja in Spain, where he recruited some
fifty families, with whom he returned to the Argentine. But the
Government, while agreeing to the sale of land, would not, for
some unknown reason, permit the founding of the colony, so
the Basques were spread over the land of their compatriot.
Many of them, or their descendants, are to-day millionaires,
while the land bought at the 1,000 francs the league is valued
now at 200 francs the hectárea, or say 500,000 francs per
league.
Meanwhile, Pedro Luro continued his active commerce in
skins and wool. Ere long he had constructed the largest curing
factory in all the basin of the River Plate, expending millions of
francs on it. Then he set himself to the exploitation of the
bathing station of Mar del Plata, which had been founded by
Señor Peralta Ramos, one of the most fortunate of
 speculations, from which his heirs, continuing his work there,
have benefited immensely. At his death he left to his fourteen
children 375,000 hectáreas of land, 300,000 sheep, and
150,000 cattle, then valued at 40,000,000 francs.
Pedro Luro was a Frenchman who did honour to his country
by his exceptional qualities, his spirited initiative, valour,
endurance, and business intelligence. He took to the Argentine
more than 2,000 of his fellow Basques, whom he employed in
his many agricultural and industrial establishments, providing
them with cattle, letting land to them cheaply, lending them
money. Almost all of these have made their fortunes. With
Luro disappeared one of those types that are almost
legendary, and without doubt the most famous colonist of the
epic period of Argentine immigration.

Here, then, is as fascinating a story as we shall find in the annals of

colonisation, and so eminent in the life of the Argentine are the descendants
of Pedro Luro to-day that the story of their origin and the achievements of
their progenitor would form a splendid subject for some native writer, were
not the Argentine authors too busy imitating European models to lend
themselves to the simple narration of such splendid life-histories as the
making of the Argentine presents. For the passage I have quoted from M.
Huret is no more than the prelude to a romance which is likely yet to see its
final issue in the founding of a great and prosperous town at the mouth of the
River Colorado in the Bay of San Blas, southward of Bahía Blanca. The Luros
are the lords of all the land in that region, and I recall the interest with which
I read a series of somewhat highly coloured articles by Mr. A. G. Hales, the
Anglo-Australian journalist, then attached to the staff of the Buenos Ayres
Standard, who, in the latter part of 1912, made a journey on horseback
through that district. He pictured the coming of a day when ships would sail
from the city of San Blas laden with wines for the tables of European epicures,
and no end of other wonders that would come to pass in the valley of the
River Colorado, which fifty years ago the shrewd Pedro Luro had secured for
his descendants at so small an outlay. At the present moment, there is no
railway within 150 miles of San Blas, and I suppose there is no more than a
paper plan of the future city, lying somewhere in the estate office of the
Luros, and no ships cast anchor in its bay, but there was a time when Buenos
Ayres itself, and not so many years ago Bahía Blanca, meant no more to the
world than a name on a map, and who shall say what dreams may not come
true?
 CHAPTER XVI
LIFE IN THE “CAMP” AND THE PROVINCIAL TOWNS

To the European imagination, the Argentine gaucho typifies the rural life of
the country. And a fine figure he cuts in his showy poncho (a shawl with a slit
in the centre to thrust the head through), the graceful folds of it, with fringed
edges and embroidery, falling as low as his top-boots with their jingling spurs.
On his head he wears any variety of soft felt hat, but never the “Panama hat”
of popular imagination. He is more inclined to cultivate a beard and fierce
moustache than to shave, and above his poncho, which covers a complete
suit of “store” clothes, he usually wears a black or white silk handkerchief tied
loosely around his neck. On horseback, an admirable figure, the poncho
serves also as partial covering for his steed, which he rides with unrivalled
grace and confidence.
He has a soul for music, too, this rough and somewhat villainous-looking
knight of the Pampa. The guitar is his favourite instrument, and he is no
gaucho who cannot strum a tune thereon, or improvise some lines of verse,
the old Spanish custom of singing a couplet to the accompaniment of the
guitar still retaining high favour in the Argentine Camp, to such an extent,
indeed, that a weekly paper, La Pampa Argentina, exists for no other purpose
than to collect and circulate the latest efforts of the coplistas and reprint
famous couplets of the past. His sports, too, are rendered picturesque by the
part which his horse, almost inseparable from himself, performs in them.
An agreeable sense of old-fashioned courtesy still clings to him, and while I
fear his morals will not bear too close an inspection, nor are his habits of life
quite as cleanly as domestic legislation has contrived to make those of most
European and North American people, the gaucho is by no means unlikable,
although I never felt quite so kindly towards him in the flesh as I have done
imaginatively through the pages of Mr. Cunninghame-Graham and Mr. W. H.
Hudson. For all his courtesies, his nature retains much of the old Spanish
cruelty. To see him bury his spurs in the flanks of his horse with a vicious dig,
and pull the animal up on his haunches by throwing his whole weight
backwards on the reins, that are fixed to a long and brutal curb bit, is not a
sight that makes you long to go up and take him by the hand as a man and a
brother.
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