Old buildings

Unedited - these are shots I have in my phone and I will be gradually downloading them through Google Drive but the editing tool is so primitive that I won't bother with it. I will explore other editing tools instead.

Where I used to stay in the summer as a teenager. My school French exchange partner's family converted this huge farmhouse into their holiday home. I was very fortunate! They told me that the whole family (it was a large one) camped in the fields here every holiday in the 50s and 60s and gradually transformed it from a ruin into what you see here. They were still working on it in 1972 but they finished during the 70s and I last saw it in 1983. This is near St-Léger-du-Ventoux, in the valley of the Toulourenc and just in the département of Vaucluse, on the border with La Drôme. From a slide

Pedestrian street in Malasaña, near the Conde Duque Cultural Centre

I particularly like the escutcheon.

A delightful town in La Sierra de Francia, Salamanca Province.

Miranda del Castañar, one of the beautiful villages in the Sierra de Francia, Salamanca Province.

This is the side of the building. Hidden down a narrow and nondescript lane is this mural. Difficult to get a good shot due to the tightness of the angle in the narrow sidestreet and the fact that the sun hardly gets round here. ADDED NOTE a week later: I got a shot of it in the sun. I'll post it soon. Second thoughts - on viewing the sunny one, this here is MUCH better and more clearly defined! This stays alone!

Deserted house in Valdemanco. There are many of these in villages all across Spain and many totally deserted villages too. A common enough story since the second half of the 19th century, but rural depopulation has accelerated exponentially these past 50 years.

Convento Monasterio de San Julian y San Antonio, Sierra de La Cabrera.

There are a few of these mansions or 'little palaces' dotted around Madrid but nowhere near as many as there used to be. Inheritance taxes put paid to that! This is in fact a back view of the Italian Embassy.

"... its walls ... are of Moorish origin (11th century) and have been restored in the 15th century." Wikipedia. And you can see the very obvious Aabic style on the inner gate and a major strengthening of this gate in the outer defences from the 15th century. So not a restoration as such, more a complete defensive upgrade!

Reputedly the oldest church in continuous use in Madrid. Thoughts that it might have started off as a mosque are understandable but seem ill-founded.

Please bear with me ! A year ago I passed by here with my girlfriend and we weren't impressed for a number of reasons which I won't go into now. I noted the castle with the crane and posted one or two photos on ipernity and thought no more of it. Until today. I have a Saturday morning private class with an architect. She is a highly driven and motivated young lady and she disclosed, by co-incidence, that she was the architect in charge of the renovation of the church at Turégano. I mentioned that we had been there last year and I referred to the castle. We got to talking about the town. It transpires that I was wrong. The 'castle' is in fact a 12th century church that was fortified by the Bishop of Segovia in the following century (the bell tower is a 17th century addition). Her brief is to make it a more touristy, and therefore a more economic proposition. The town council has a problem. The main industry here is a giant pig farm (an enormous bacon factory in other words) and the smell can be indescibable! They need the farm for the jobs it provides but they also need the benefit of a major tourist attraction to counter the negative aspects)! She showed me the plans (all her her own work and beautiful works of art in their own right), the reasoning behind the reconstruction and many other very informative facts. When complete, I can't wait to re-visit! And I will insist that my girlfriend comes too, although she will be reluctant! And we will put clothes pegs on our noses!

Eclectic mix of building material creates an intriguing scene imho!

The enormous and grim monastery / palace constructed for Felipe II wherefrom to govern his world empire.

Sierra de Francia, Salamanca Province.

Mogarraz, Salamanca Province.

My two very nice students this week, Arancha and Carolina.