Spain

Cordoba is a city in Andalucia, which is in southern Spain. If you rent a room in El Conquistador Hotel you can open your windows and look right onto the mosque. Cordoba was conquered by the Moors in 711 and became an Islamic city. When Christians reconquered the land during the Reconquista in 1236, the mosque was turned into the Cordoba Cathedral. Antonin Gaudi’s unfinished church La Sagrada Familia. Gaudi, a Spanish architect known for his unconventional style, worked on this church for forty years. Before Gaudi died in 1926 he envisioned a total of eighteen towers. Gaudi’s Casa Batllo in Barcelona. These apartments were designed by Gaudi for a wealthy aristocrat who intended to use the top level for his house and rent out the lower levels. The bell tower view from the Cathedral of Cordoba, which was the largest city in the world in the late 900s. This fortress in Barcelona overlooks the entire capital of Catalonia. Barcelona is steeped in history. Legend has it that Hercules founded the city four hundred years before the founding of Rome. Barcelona was once a Roman city, then a Moorish city, and ultimately a Christian city. The city was conquered by the Visigoths in the early 5th century, by the Moors in the early 8th century, and by Charlemagne’s son Louis in 801. Barcelona’s Pages Espai d’Art Gallery Barbary apes live on the island of Gibraltar. Overlooking Gibraltar Spanish restaurant The Alhambra means “Red Castle” in Arabic. It was built between 1248 and 1354 as an ancient mosque, palace and fortress for the Moorish monarchs of Granada. There are no paintings in The Alhambra because it was built as a Muslim palace/mosque and in Islam it is forbidden to create images of Allah. Here you can see the honeycomb vaulting in the “Salon de Mocarabe”. Ferdinand and Isabella were fierce warriors, and when they conquered Granada on January 2, 1492 the Spanish flag was raised and The Alhambra became a medieval Christian fortress. The Court of Lions is so named because of its fountain. This courtyard is the setting of Washington Irving’s classic novel Tales of the Alhambra. This fortress rises above the city of Zahara. This fortress rises above the city of Zahara. In Madrid the Palace Real is the official Residence of the King of Spain. Built between 1738 and 1764 the palace has 870 windows, 240 balconies and 44 staircases. In the mountains of Ronda are 10,000 year old cave paintings. If you are of Western European in ancestry, it is highly likely these Paleolithic cave paintings were done by your ancestors. The towering bridge of Ronda in the Andalusian mountains was constructed in 1751 and finished in 1793, for the Royal May Fair of Ronda. On a town at the border of Spain and France the local people take their water from fountains that tap into the natural springs. Drinking the fresh mountain water the way the locals do People collect fresh water from these fountains and use it for fresh drinking water at home. This monument is dedicated to Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Spain’s greatest literary figure who was born in Madrid. Christopher Columbus walked across this courtyard in Barcelona to address Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand and announce his triumphant return from India (which turned out to be America)