Our destination was La Antigua Vaquería (literally the Former Cowshed, or for the more poetic among us, the Bygone Byre ) in La Melgosa, a small village about 6km outside Cuenca. Click here for photos from their own website. The hostal was amazingly clean and well-run. Its owners managed to combine helpfulness, discretion and friendliness perfectly. We were shown up to our spotless room
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| A room with a view, indeed! |
with an en-suite bathroom and perfumed towels. Opening the blinds on the window, this is the sight that met our eyes.
After a refreshing shower, we set off for Cuenca with a view to seeing the famous casas colgantes, or hanging houses. We didn't actually reach that particular goal, so here is a rather dramatic photo published on the sobreturismo.es website. Click here to see more photos of the houses.
Objective number two was to see one of Cuenca's famous Easter processions where statues of Christ and his mum are paraded around the streets accompanied by penitents wearing pointy hoods and tunics. It is said to be quite something. Unfortuntely, we didn't have the patience to hang around for it, but we did take some pretty photos of the cathedral, the main square etc.
An aside: anyone who has seen films about the Ku Klux Klan or the Spanish Inquisition will be familiar with the garb of the penitents. Another aside: the Mediterranean tradtition of carrying painted idols around towns as a sprigtime celebration of rebirth and fertility goes back as far as Ancient Greece.
Here we can see one of the local penitents swilling a swift beer before putting on his hat and working both it and his sins off with a bit of candle-waggling idolatry, with a blithe disregard for the 1st & 2nd commandments:
"3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them." Exodus 20, 3-5 (New King James Bible).
After a refreshing shower, we set off for Cuenca with a view to seeing the famous casas colgantes, or hanging houses. We didn't actually reach that particular goal, so here is a rather dramatic photo published on the sobreturismo.es website. Click here to see more photos of the houses.
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| sobreturismo.es |
An aside: anyone who has seen films about the Ku Klux Klan or the Spanish Inquisition will be familiar with the garb of the penitents. Another aside: the Mediterranean tradtition of carrying painted idols around towns as a sprigtime celebration of rebirth and fertility goes back as far as Ancient Greece.
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| Penitents in all their sinister glory. Image courtesy of diariosur.es |
Here we can see one of the local penitents swilling a swift beer before putting on his hat and working both it and his sins off with a bit of candle-waggling idolatry, with a blithe disregard for the 1st & 2nd commandments: "3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
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| The 16th-century façade of Cuenca's Gothic cathedral. |
It all seemed rather hypocritical to me but, hey, we are talking about religion after all - and the Romish Sect in particular.
It was then literally onwards and upwards to ontinue exploring. So we arrived at the Fundación Antonio Pérez which was closed.
Nevertheless, from the street above it, the roofs of the different buildings that make up the former convent where the Foundation is housed made a pretty picture.
It was now time to leave the old city, with most of its treasures unvisited and pending a further trip. Tums rumbling, we looked for a place to dine and ended up in a pizza place, American Piccolo where we shared two delicious pizzas. Our sojourn at the restaurant was spolied, for me at least, by the arrival of other clients. We arrived early and this, coupled with the fact that that most people were in the old part of the city, meant that we had the pick of the tables. Halfway through our meal, another party of people arrived and chose, out of all of the empty tables, the table behind us. Then another family arrived (complete with a seven-year-old, iPad-toting brat) and sat opposite. My question is this; if the restaurant was practically empty, why did they have to come and take the tables next to us??? Sometimes I despair of this herd mentality, especially when it directly affects my digestion.
The Cathedral's 16th-century façade was obscured in the 18th century by a new one, this latter being demolished in the 20th century. This also led to a lot of restoration work being done on the façade that we see today. In fact most, if not all, of the decorative carving is new.
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| Detail of one of the Cathedral porticoes. Note the lancet arch's new stonework compared with the eroded interior. |
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| A view from one of the archways in the main square towards the steps leading down to the river Júcar. |
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| Above: a view of the main square from the Cathedral Steps Below: the rooftops of the former Sisters of Mercy Monastery, now home to the FundaciónAntonio Pérez.  |
It was then literally onwards and upwards to ontinue exploring. So we arrived at the Fundación Antonio Pérez which was closed.
Nevertheless, from the street above it, the roofs of the different buildings that make up the former convent where the Foundation is housed made a pretty picture.
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| A view from the street next to the Fundación. |
Anyhow, having finished our meal, we decided to go back to the hostal. Easier said than done. We got lost several times looking for the car and tried the patience of the the woman in my phone's Google Maps to breaking point. Finally, we found Mr. Bubbles and, after several adventures in the city's narrow streets, we escaped into the suburbs and drove back to the bucolic surroundings of La Antigua Vaquería for a good night's rest.
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