Potpourri of Cathedrals today. Two inspiring, one foreboding.
The view from our second floor hotel window of Avila’s practically intact castle walls. Very impressive, and probably rebuilt. But it is like being in a time machine.
Some great internal flying buttresses in the Cathedral.
An interesting pursuit of ours is to stand in front of famous dictators and tyrants places of burial. So far we have racked up Mao Tse Tung in Beijing, Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, Lenin in Moscow, and Atatürk in Istanbul. Franco is our fifth!
The Valley of the Fallen, Franco’s Cathedral. Both Franco and his Cathedral are still very controversial. He and his Nationals started Spain’s Civil War in 1939, three years later, between 500,000 and a million were dead. Franco won, and ruled Spain as a Dictator until his death in 1975. He likened himself to ‘der Fuhrer’. Although neutral during WWII, they received support from the Nazi’s. Anyway, he wanted to build his own basilica, so he had 200,000 tons of granite removed from this mountain to build it underground. He tried to make it longer than St. Peter’s in Rome, but the Catholic church nixed that. He used most of the granite removed to make the 500 foot tall cross. (Tallest in the world!) Behind the basilica, buried and inaccessible are the remains of 35,000 dead from the Civil War. Finally, the inside the cathedral (no photographs allowed), looked like the inside of the Star Wars Death Star! The angels and saints on the sides of the cathedral look more like Darth Vader’s Storm Troopers. Creepy. Needless to say, this cathedral is very controversial, and many Spaniards refuse to visit it.
Segovia Cathedral…..a few facts: 200 years to build, 20 chapels, lots of buried cardinals on the sides.
These columns are massive!
Acueducto (Roman Aqueduct). Built in 50AD, restored in 1990. No mortar, 20,000 granite blocks, 100 feet high. Breathtaking.
Had to add this picture. Awesome door knocker!
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