Picturesque Spain: Architecture, Landscape, Life of the People
9781465676030
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
Spain is one great open-air museum containing the cultural wealth of the most varied epochs and peoples. On the walls of the Altamira cave is blazoned that much admired steer painted thousands of years ago by men of the Ice Age. In Barcelona stand the fantastic buildings of neo-Castilian present-day art. Celts, Iberians, Romans, Carthaginians, Moors and Goths have fought and struggled for supremacy in Spain. Of all this the stones tell us to-day. They are the chronicles. They relate of bitter strife; of the culture and art aspirations belonging to times gone by. Much has vanished into dust and ruin. That which has survived time’s fretting tooth serves as a giant bridge to lead us back to the past. Fate was kind enough to let me spend five years in Spain. Caught there by the war while engaged in studies, I was cut off from home. I made use of my involuntary stay to become acquainted with the country in its furthermost corners. I roved to and fro from the pinnacles of the Pyrenees to the shores of Tarifa, from the palm forest of Elché to the forgotten Hurdes inhabitants of Estremadura. On all my lonely wanderings I was accompanied by my faithful camera: we covered over 45000 kilometres together in Spain. We kept our eyes open diligently. I say we, for in addition to mine was a precious glass eye in the shape of the Zeiss lens. Whereas my eyes only made me the intellectual recipient of what we saw, that of my travelling companion made it a pictorial permanency. I took over 2000 photographs during our peregrinations. This volume only presents a small selection. It was not easy to make the final choice. Many a picture had to be omitted to which I was attached, either for its peculiarity or its character. I went at no one’s instigation through Spain but that of my own in search of the beautiful. I was not guided by any constraining professional principles. Beautiful art treasures, geographical peculiarities, enchanting landscapes, interesting customs that attracted my attention were retained by my camera. I followed the same lines in making my selections for publication. I entitle this volume “Picturesque Spain”. Much will be unknown to many. I begin however with a spot famous throughout the world.—And yet I was bound to. Like the pilgrim who is drawn to the fabled Fontana Trevi once he has drunk of its waters, so too was I drawn again and again to Granada in my wanderings. I believe too that I have succeeded in presenting the Alhambra from one or two different points of view. Who indeed could exhaust this well of beauty? Nor could I pass heedlessly by Cordoba, Seville and Toledo, for these towns are starting points.—Finger-posts to unknown Spain. Without these monuments of ancient times, those parts of Spain situate far from the high-roads remain an almost insolvable riddle. My pictures must speak for me. Those who know how to ask them will find that they tell much. For this reason I shall limit myself to but a few initiatory words. They serve to connect the known with the unknown; to throw light on the paths along which I journeyed in Spain.
