ArtWay

Beauty is not pasted over suffering but grows out of it—like the proverbial shoot from parched ground. Bruce Herman

Travel Tips

Spain

Spain

From north to south
 
Bilbao:
- Bilbao Diocesan Sacred Art Museum, Plaza Encarnación 9b, Bilbao. The Museum is located in the premises of a former convent, founded by Dominican nuns. Collection: Silver works with religious motifs, Sacred clothing: ornaments from the 16th century onwards, Sculptures, paintings, alabaster figures, pottery and leather items from the Romanesque up to the 21st century. Monday closed.
 
Santo Domingo de Calzada:
- Cathedral with famous chicken and rooster.
 
Miraflores:
- Carthusian monastery.
 
Burgos:
- Beautiful old town.
- Cistercian monastery Santa Maria la Real de los Huelgas.
 
Santo Domingo de Silos:
- Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos with beautiful Romanesque reliefs in the cloisters.
 
Fromista:
- Romanesque church.
 
Leon:
- Thee Colegiata San Isidoro
- The former pelgrims’ hospital San Marcos with museum.
- Late Gothic cathedral from the 16th century.
- Santuario de la Virgen del Camino, church consecrated in 1961 with a façade with 13 monumental figures by J.M. Subirachs. Also bronze doors, windows and other elements in the church made by Subirachs (who also made over 100 sculptures for the Passion façade of the La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona).
 
Santiago de Compostela:
- Cathedral with museum.
 
Montserrat:                                                                                                                                         
- Monastery. This is a spectacularly beautiful Benedictine monk mountain retreat about one hour North West from Barcelona by train. Not only is Montserrat Monastery of significant religious importance but the natural beauty surrounding the monastery is simply breathtaking. With a frieze, altar in the Santissim Chapel and St. Michael’s Cross by J.M. Subirachs. 

Vic:
- Museu Episcopal de Vic, Plaça Bisbe Oliba 3, Vic. Conserves a magnificent collection of medieval art with paintings and sculpture from the Catalan Romanesque and Gothic periods. The collections of precious metals, textile, foundry, glass and ceramics offer a complete journey through the history of liturgical and decorative art in Catalonia. http://www.museuepiscopalvic.com

Solsona:
- El Museu Diocesà i Comarcal de Solsona, Plaça Palau, 1, Solsona with art from the Neolothic period to the 20th century.  
- Cathedral 

Girona:
- Cathedral Museum with the Tapís de la Creació (Tapestry of theCreation, ca. 1050) and one of the most famous Beatus manuscripts, an illustrated Commentary of the Apocalyps by Beatus of Liébana from the 10th century. 

Barcelona:
- Gaudi: Iglesia de la Sagrada Familia, crypt of Sta. Columba, Parque Guell.
- Museum of the La Sagrada Familia. www.sagradafamilia.cat
- In park Guell the Gaudi House Museum.
- Museu Diocesà de Barcelona, Av Catedral, 4. Art and liturgical objects from the Middle ages – 20th century.
 
Lleida:
- Museu Diocesa d’Urgell, La Sue d’Urgell, Lleida. Romanesque to Baroque art. www.museudiocesaurgell.org/home/cat/benvingut.htm
- Cathedral
- Monastery
- Church of Sant Miquel
 
Santo Coloma de Cervello (near Barcelona):
- The Crypt, a church by Antonio Gaudi in Colonia Güell. Gaudi began this ambitious project near Barcelona in 1898 but only the crypt was finished between 1908 and 1916. Nevertheless, this is one of the architect's most studied and admired works and a precedent for many of the solutions used in the church of the Sagrada Familia. The great expressive strength of the crypt is the result of a series of innovative features in the structure along with the audacious use of constructive elements, years ahead of its use in modern avant-garde architecture. Astonishing ceramics, stained glass and remarkable wood and iron benches designed by Gaudi.
 
Tarragona:
Museu Diocesà, Pla de Palau, 2, Tarragona, with art from Antiquity to the 19th century. http://museu.diocesa.arquebisbattarragona.cat 
 
Las Cardonas:
- Gothic cathedral.
 
Madrid:
- Museo del Prado, one of the most important art museums in the world with works by Velazquez, El Greco, Zurbaran, Jeroen Bosch, Brueghel and Goya.
- Centro de Arte Reina Sofia has an extraordinary collection of 20th-century art. Also the Guernica by Picasso.
- Museo de la Catedral de la Almuneda. 
 
Palma de Mallorca:
- Museu Diocesa, Palma de Mallorca. This small museum of religious and historical antefacts is based in a wing of the former episcopal palace tucked behind the cathedral. Among the paintings, pulpits and prayer books are splendid Arab tapestries, a collection of ceramics spanning five centuries and a 17th century painting of baby Jesus carrying a cross. Opening hours are 10am to 1.30pm, and 3pm to 6pm.
 - Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Extensive collection of western art through the ages. With Titian, Goya, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Picasso.
 
Toledo:
Beautiful old centre. Toledo is the town of the archbishop and of El Greco (1541-1614).
- The cathedral has an extremely rich interior with many paintings, sculptures, windows etc.
- In the Sacristia of the cathedral Works by many great artists, from El Greco, Titian, Rubens to Goya.
- Casa Museo de El Greco, the house where El Greco lived.
- Museo El Greco.
- De Iglesia de Santo Tomé with El Greco’s masterpiece ‘The Funeral of the Count of Orgaz’.
- Mosk of Christ of the Light with its mixture of Moorish and Christian elements.
- Sinagoge del Tránsito with the Museum of the Sefardim.
- Sinagoge Santa Maria la Blanca.
- Santa Cruz Museum.
- Monasterio San Juan de los Reyes.
 
Orihuela:
- Diocesan Museum.
 
Malaga:
- The painting Saint Paul's Beheading (1877) by Enrique Simonet is in a preferred place at the Cathedral of Malaga.