Travel per Europe

Birmingham Central Library

2007-10-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

Birmingham Central Library is the main public library in Birmingham, England.

The main body containing the music library, collections, and reference library is located on several floors over Paradise Forum, with the main entrance and lending section in Chamberlain Square.

History and earlier building

The first municipal library occupied the northern half of a site on Edmund Street and facing the Town Hall. The site had been acquired from the Birmingham and Midland Institute (BMI) after they had commenced construction of their own institute building on the southern half, which was to include a public library - a referendum under the Free Libraries Act 1850 on the creation of a municipal library having failed. A second vote in 1860 agreed on the building of a library, causing the Corporation and the BMI to cooperate in a joint site. A design by E. M. Barry had been chosen by the BMI but was too expensive for the Corporation, so they chose William Martin to design all but the façade. The library was opened in 1865, but during the building of an extension in 1879 a fire caused extensive damage, destroying most of the 50,000 reference books.

The library was rebuilt on the same site by Martin & Chamberlain and opened in 1882. As the number of books increased, the Council approved the creation of a replacement library in 1938, but it was not until the late 1960s, and the need for the new Inner Ring Road that action was taken, and the current building constructed alongside. The original library and the BMI were demolished and the site is now part of the UCE Birmingham Conservatoire and its gardens. The site the current central library is now situated was originally the Mason College and Liberal Club.

Collections

Special features include the Boulton and Watt collection, the Bournville Village Trust Archive and the Railway and Canal Historical Society Library.

The specialist Shakespeare Memorial Room was designed in 1882 by John Henry Chamberlain for the previous Central Library. It contained several early William Shakespeare folio editions. When the old building was demolished in 1974 Chamberlain's room was dismantled and fitted into the new concrete shell of the new library. It is in an extension of the main building alongside the University of Central England music department's Adrian Boult Hall and used for Birmingham Conservatoire concerts. The room now contains the secondary collection of Shakespearean books and is mainly used as a small meeting room.

Architecture

The 1974 Brutalist building designed by John Madin (the third library on the site), an inverted ziggurat similar to the earlier Boston City Hall, has famously been described by Prince Charles as "looking more like a place for burning books, than keeping them". Nonetheless, the Twentieth Century Society is campaigning for its retention. Paradise Forum, containing shops and bars, was created in 1988 when the windy space under the hollow main building was enclosed and the pedestrian access to Centenary Square improved.

Library of Birmingham

A replacement library, to be called the "Library of Birmingham", on a new campus in the city centre's "Eastside" was planned. and Birmingham City Council commissioned the Richard Rogers Partnership to develop the concept designs. However, for financial reasons this plan has been shelved. The Council's current suggestion is that the Library be split between a new building built between the Rep theatre and Baskerville House at Centenary Square, which as of January 2006 is a public car park (to house the main lending library) and a building at Millennium Point in "Eastside" (to house the archives and special collections).

In August 2006, the Council confirmed the area between the Rep and Baskerville House as the future site for the library. Capita Symonds has been appointed as Project Managers for the Library of Birmingham. The council's intention is to create a "world class" landmark civic building in Centenary Square.

However, it is possible that two-sites idea will be scrapped and the archives and special collections will move to the site at Centenary Square.

Bull Ring, Birmingham

2007-10-01T09:47:00.001-07:00

The Bull Ring is a commercial area of Birmingham, England. It has been an important feature of Birmingham since the Middle Ages, when its market was first held. It has been developed into a shopping centre twice; first in the 1960s, and then in the 2000s.

The site is located on the edge of the sandstone city ridge which results in the steep gradient towards Digbeth. The slope drops approximately 15 metres from New Street to St Martin's Church.

British Telecom Tower (Birmingham)

2007-10-01T09:43:00.001-07:00

The British Telecom Tower (formerly known as the Post Office Tower and, before that the GPO Tower) is a landmark in Birmingham, England, and is also among the tallest buildings in the city.

The tower was built between 1963 and 1965. It has 26 storeys, housing technical areas and offices, and five levels of circular aerial galleries at the top.

In 2003, the tower was painted an ultramarine blue to cover the existing light brown which had started to become darker with pollution. The balconies were painted to stand out from the tower in a dark shade of blue.

The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal runs beneath the nearby, decommissioned, Brindley House Telephone Exchange. This may have been the only telephone exchange in the world, under which you could have passed by boat. Brindley House is currently undergoing a refurbishment into apartments. It will also be reclad and will be illuminated from the base.

It is known for being home to roosting Peregrines.

Brindleyplace

2007-10-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

Brindleyplace (often written erroneously as Brindley Place, the name of the street (in turn named after the 18th century canal engineer James Brindley) around which it is built) is a large mixed-use canalside development, in the centre of Birmingham, England (grid reference SP060866). It was developed by Argent Group PLC from 1993 onwards.

In addition to shops, bars and restaurants, Brindleyplace is home to the National Sea Life Centre, Royal Bank of Scotland, BRMB, and the Ikon Gallery of art.

The site covers 17 acres (69,000 m²) of mixed-use redevelopment on a grand scale - the UK's largest such project. The Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line Canal separates Brindleyplace from the International Convention Centre, although there are linking bridges. The National Indoor Arena, Old Turn Junction and bustling bars of Broad Street are nearby and it is easily accessible and within walking distance of the main bus and train routes.

Birmingham and Midland Institute

2007-10-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

The Birmingham and Midland Institute (grid reference SP066870), now on Margaret Street in the city centre of Birmingham, England was a pioneer of adult scientific and technical education (General Industrial, Commercial and Music) and today offers Arts and Science lectures, exhibitions and concerts. It is a registered charity. There is free access to the public.

Following the demise of the Birmingham Philosophical Institution, which wound up in 1852, it was founded in 1854 by Act of Parliament for the Diffusion and Advancement of Science, Literature and Art amongst all Classes of Persons resident in Birmingham and the Midland Counties, as the Council had rejected the Free Libraries and Museums Act 1850. The BMI commissioned architect Edward Middleton Barry to design a building next to the Town Hall in Paradise Street. Half completed, in January 1860, the first public museum was opened in the BMI. Immediately the Council reversed its decision, and adopting the Act, negotiated with the BMI to buy the rest of the site. The other half of the planned building (up to Edmund Street) was completed by William Martin using the intended facade but redesigned behind. The municipal Public Library opened in 1866, but burned down during the building of an extension in 1879. Exhibitions of art were moved from the BMI to Aston Hall during rebuilding. In 1881 John Henry Chamberlain (architect and Honorary Secretary of the BMI) completed an extension to the Institute.

When its old building was demolished in 1965 as part of the redevelopment of the city centre the BMI moved to Margaret Street, the home of the private Birmingham Library which is a Grade II* listed building, designed 1889 by architects Jethro Cossins, F. B. Peacock, and Ernest Bewley.

Charles Dickens was an early president after giving recitals in the Town Hall to raise funds. The BMI contains the 100,000 volumes of the Birmingham Library, founded in 1779.

Birmingham Town Hall

2007-10-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

Birmingham Town Hall is a Grade I listed concert and meeting venue in Victoria Square, Birmingham, England. It was created as a home for the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival established in 1784, whose purpose was to raise funds for the General Hospital, after St Philip's Church (later to become a Cathedral) became too small to hold the festival, and for public meetings.

History

Two sites were considered by the Birmingham Street Commissioners for the construction of a concert hall in the city; Bennetts Hill and the more expensive Paradise Street site. Paradise Street was chosen and a design competition was launched which resulted with the submission of 67 designs including one by Charles Barry, whose design for the King Edward's School on New Street was then under construction.

Joseph Hansom, of Hansom cab fame, and Edward Welch were chosen as the architects and they expressed that they expected the construction cost to be £8,000. Hill of London was hired to build the 6,000 pipe organ for £6,000. Construction began on April 27, 1832 with an expected completion date of 1833. However, Hansom went bankrupt during construction, having tendered too low. The contractors were also losing money. Three guarantors donated money for the building; W. P. Lloyd, John Welch and Edward Tench. With the injection of this money, the building was successfully opened for the delayed Music Festival on October 7, 1834, despite the building still being unfinished. During construction, on January 26, 1833, two workers were killed when a 70 foot crane constructed to install the roof trusses broke and the pulley block failed. John Heap died instantly and Win. Badger died a few days later from his injuries. They were buried in St Philip's churchyard and a memorial, consisting of a pillar base made by one of the workmen for the Town Hall, was dedicated to them. Architect Charles Edge was commissioned in 1835 to repair weaknesses to the design of the building. He was also commissioned for the extension of the building in 1837 and again in 1850.

Built in brick, created in Selly Oak, and faced with Penmon Anglesey Marble presented to the town by Sir R. Bulkeley, proprietor of the Penmon quarries, the hall is modelled on the Temple of Castor and Pollux in Rome. Some limestone was used in its construction and fossils of plants and animals are visible.

Charles Dickens gave public readings here to raise money for the Birmingham and Midland Institute, and Mendelssohn's Elijah and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius were both premiered. Sir Arthur Sullivan's "Overture di Ballo" was also premiered here in August 1870, as part of the Triennial Musical Festival which commissioned new works for every season. The hall was the home venue for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1918 until 1991 when they moved to Symphony Hall.

In November 1880 the Hall was filled to capacity for a Birmingham public protest meeting in support of Revd Richard Enraght, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, who was imprisoned in Warwick Prison under the Disraeli Government’s Public Worship Regulation Act.

Popular music has also featured, and in the 1960s and 1970s, headline acts such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan appeared.

On August 9, 1902, the town hall, along with the council house, was illuminated in celebration of the coronation of King Edward VII. It was illuminated again on June 22, 1911 for the coronation of King George V.

It was also the scene of rioting on the occasion of a visit by Lloyd George in 1901.

It featured prominently in the 1967 Peter Watkins film Privilege and doubled for the Royal Albert Hall in 1996s Brassed Off.

In 1937, as part of the celebrations for the Coronation of George VI, the Town Hall was regaled in the various Arms of the Lord of the Manor of Birmingham since 1166 and each column festooned with garlands. The pediment also had images of Britannia, supported by mermaids, which were sculpted by William Bloye. This decorative scheme for the Town Hall and the whole of the city was devised by William Haywood, Secretary of The Birmingham Civic Society.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the front arches were glazed to create an entrance foyer.

Renovations

The Hall closed in 1996 for a £35 million refurbishment, undertaken by Wates Construction, that has seen the Town Hall brought back to its original glory with its 6,000-pipe organ still in place. The project was funded by £18.3 million from Birmingham City Council, £13.7 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £3 million from the European Regional Development Fund. The town hall's organist performed a piece of music to a group of school children in 2005 after the majority of the organ had been cleaned. However, the organist and the children all had to wear hard hats as the risk of falling debris remained. The hall is now managed by the trustees of the Symphony Hall. It is due to re-open on 4 October 2007, and will offer concerts again. At 1,100, the seating capacity is about half that of Symphony Hall.

Birmingham Children's Hospital

2007-10-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

Birmingham Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust manage the central Birmingham hospital now also known as The Diana, Princess of

Wales

Children's Hospital, which provides general and emergency health care services to children in Birmingham, the West Midlands and beyond. It specialises in liver transplantation, cardiac, and neonatal surgery. Birmingham Children's also hosts the West Midlands Regional Centre for Cleft Lip and Palate, providing a mulitidiscipliary service for cleft patients, including speech & language therapy, dental, orthodontics, maxillofacial, plastic surgery and psychology.

Birmingham Children's Hospital is currently the only hospital in the UK to carry out intestinal transplants in children.

The Trust also provides Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for the city.

As the Birmingham and Midland Free hospital it opened in Steelhouse Lane in 1862. It moved to a new site in Ladywood Road in 1917. In 1998 the hospital returned to its original site, previously used as the General Hospital, in Steelhouse Lane.

A helicopter landing pad is marked on the road in front of the hospital. This is rarely used however when it is, police officers encircle the area and prevent vehicles from moving along the road until the helicopter has been removed and the patient taken into the hospital.

In 2007, a new extension designed by RPS Group was opened. The modern extension houses a burns unit, one of three such centres of excellence in the country. As well as this, it contains an outpatients department, a neo-natal Unit, a burns ward and a burns operating theatre, as well as additional classrooms for the Education Centre, allowing children to continue their education whilst undergoing medium to long term care in the hospital.

The Children's Hospital is a Grade A locally listed building.

Beetham Tower, Birmingham

2007-10-01T09:17:00.000-07:00

Beetham Tower (also referred to as the Holloway Circus Tower or 10 Holloway Circus after its address) is a 121.5 metre (400 feet) tall mixed-use skyscraper in Birmingham city centre, England. It is named after the developers, Beetham Organization, and was designed by Ian Simpson. When it was completed in 2006, it was estimated to have cost around £72 million to construct. The entire development covers an area of 650 square metres.

Baskerville House

2007-10-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

Baskerville House, previously called the Civic Centre, is a former civic building in Centenary Square, Birmingham, England.

Built in 1938 (architect T. Cecil Howitt of Nottingham) it was the only component built from a grand plan for a new civic campus by Howitt which would have covered all of Centenary Square and the Convention Centre, and included the Masonic Hall (1926-7 Rupert Savage) (vacated Central Television building) and Birmingham Municipal Bank (recently TSB) building (1931-3 also T. Cecil Howitt) on Broad Street. World War II halted construction of Baskerville House (hence the rear brick wall, intended to be temporary), and after the war the use of Roman Imperial imagery on public buildings went out of fashion. A 1941 model of the proposed Civic Centre, designed by William Haywood FRIBA, Secretary of The Birmingham Civic Society, is displayed in the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.

Formerly City Council Offices, this grade II listed building remained vacant for several years after the City Council vacated the property in the spring of 1998. The initial refurbishment plan proposed conversion to a hotel, but the building has subsequently been completely gutted and extended two floors upwards to provide office space on 7 floors, and health club in the basement. Work started in August 2003 and was completed in early 2007 at an estimated cost of £30 million.

Baskerville House was built on the site of Easy Hill, the home of John Baskerville. A sculpture of the Baskerville typeface, Industry and Genius, in his honour stands outside the main entrance to Baskerville House in Centenary Square. It is by local artist David Patten.

Balsall Heath Baths

2007-10-01T09:08:00.001-07:00

The Public Library and Baths (grid reference SP078843) on Moseley Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham, England form one of many pairings of baths and libraries in Birmingham.

History

Planning

During discussions, in 1890, to include the Balsall Heath district into the city of Birmingham, it was decided that public baths should be built as soon as possible for the area if Birmingham were to acquire the district. The Bill was passed and Balsall Heath was acquired by Birmingham on October 1, 1891. Immediately, the City of Birmingham Baths Department were instructed to find an appropriate site for the construction of public baths in the area.

The City of Birmingham Baths Department decided that it was useful to work in conjunction with the Free Libraries Committee to find a location. The Free Libraries Committee were also involved in a similar process in finding a site for the construction of a library in the area after they were instructed to construct a library in Balsall Heath following the absorption of the area by Birmingham.

Construction and opening

The Free Library opened in 1895 and has a clock tower. It was designed by Jethro A. Cossins and F. B. Peacock. The Baths were added to the south and opened on October 30, 1907, which was later than planned due to a delayed operation in boring a well on the premises. It was designed by William Hale and Son. There are separate labelled entrances for first class men, second class men, and women.

On November 21, 1908, the First Class pool was floored over and the floor space used for social activities. It was one of a number of public baths to begin doing so in the winter months as there was little demand for the use of bath during this time.

Recent history

The library is a fully functioning branch of the Birmingham Public Library. The baths, run by Birmingham City Council, reopened following extensive structural work during 2005. They stand directly opposite the College of Art. They were given Grade II listed status as a single entity in 1982 however this was upgraded to Grade II* listed status in 2004 by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Facilities

The baths building consists of two swimming pools, three rooms containing slipper baths, an upstairs committee room, an upstairs caretakers flat, a water filter room and a boiler house. The boiler house has three levels: ground contains the boilers, first floor contains the laundry room, second floor contain a gigantic cast iron water tank.

The building was built with three entrances which all led to a central booking desk. First Class Mens entrance led to Pool 1 and the First Class slipper baths room. Second Class Mens entrance led to Pool 2 and the Second Class Mens slipper baths. The First and Second Class Women's entrance led to the Womens only slipper baths room. Women were originally not allowed to bathe.

Originally all bathers were supplied with a towel and swimming trunks, hence the need for the laundry room on the first floor of the boiler house.

Pool 1 is grand in its detailing as it was used as a First Class pool upon opening. Pool 2 is plain and simple in it detailing and was the Second Class pool. Pool 2 did not originally have cubicles and bathers changed on benches around the side of the pool.

Future

The Second Class slipper baths were in continual use until October 2004. The entire building closed for emergency works in October 2004. Pool 2 re-opened in October 2005. Pool 1 is presently mothballed. A bid is due to be submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund in April 2007 to bring both pools and the slipper baths back into public use.

Argent Centre

2007-10-01T09:03:00.001-07:00

The Grade II* listed Argent Centre (grid reference SP060873) is on the corner of Frederick Street and Legge Road in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham, England.

Designed by J. G. Bland for W. E. Wiley, a pen manufacturer, it was built in 1863, and acquired the name Albert Works, possibly because it was opposite the Victoria Works of Joseph Gillott.

Despite the appearance of being a huge, solid building, it consists of long, narrow, multi-storey workshops only 16 feet wide, surrounding an open courtyard. This was a common arrangement at the time allowing natural light to reach workbenches from two sides. With floors constructed of hollow bricks tied with wrought iron it was fireproof, removing the need for insurance. The multicoloured brickwork decorates a design reminiscent of renaissance Florence. Recycled steam from the works engines went to a Turkish bath in the northern end of the building. Now flat-roofed, it originally had pyramids on each corner tower.

It was converted to offices in 1993.

Alpha Tower

2007-10-01T08:55:00.000-07:00

Alpha Tower is a commercial building in Birmingham, England. It was built to a design by George Marsh of Richard Seifert & Partners as the headquarters of ATV. Now operated by the developers GVA Grimley, it provides office space for a number of companies and organisations, including Birmingham City Council, Birmingham Arts Marketing, and the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

It is a landmark and is a Grade A locally listed building. It was nominated for listed building status by The Twentieth Century Society in 2002 and the owners also applied for a Certificate of Immunity.

An adjacent shorter tower was planned but was never built. The site of the tower that was not built is now proposed as the location for another, but taller building called V Building as part of the wider Arena Central development which will redevelop the former Central Independent Television studios which are adjacent to the tower. V Building will be 147 metres tall.

The tower featured in the Cliff Richard film Take Me High for both exterior and interior shots.

17 & 19 Newhall Street, Birmingham

2007-09-30T06:22:00.001-07:00

17 & 19 Newhall Street is a red brick and terracotta Grade I listed building on the corner of Newhall Street and Edmund Street in the city centre of Birmingham, England.

Originally having the postal address of 19 Newhall Street it was built as the new Central Telephone Exchange and offices for the National Telephone Company (NTC) and is popularly known as the Bell Edison Telephone Building - the NTC logo behind the wrought iron gates to the main entrance includes those names. It was also known as Telephone Buildings within the organisation. The Central exchange had 5000 subscribers and was the largest of its type in the country. The ground floor was let out to shops. The NTC was taken over by the Postmaster General in 1912 and the ownership transferred to the GPO. During World War I it was the Midland headquarters of the air raid warning system.

The Central Telephone Exchange relocated down Newhall Street to new premises (Telephone House) in 1936.

It is now occupied by Associated Architects, and Phoenix Beard (a firm of property consultants). It currently uses the address The Exchange, 19 Newhall Street, Birmingham, B3 3PJ, but the property occupies 17 & 19 Newhall Street and 103 Edmund Street. The basement, and entrance on Edmund Street, is occupied by a bar called Bushwackers.

The building was designed in 1896 by Frederick Martin of the firm Martin & Chamberlain.

1-7 Constitution Hill

2007-09-30T06:17:00.000-07:00

The former H.B. Sale factory (grid reference SP067876), at 1-7 Constitution Hill, Birmingham, England, at the acute junction with Hampton Street, is a Grade II listed building. Extremely thin, with a tower at one end, this red brick and terracotta building is a remarkable sight end-on.

It was designed 1895-6 by William Doubleday and James R. Shaw for H. B. Sale, a die-sinker (who still occupy premises on Summer Lane within 100 metres of the original building). The original plans specified five stories, but only four were built. A fifth storey was added in the mid-20th century before planning laws were in force to protect the integrity of original structures and as a result, the fifth floor is not sympathetic to the 1895 building. The tower is original and is believed to be a memorial to Lord Roberts. Plans show three independent shops and offices at ground level. Each upper floor, measuring in the region of 900 square feet, was designed as a single workshop with an office in the tower. There was an engine room and dynamo in the basement.

The present owner also purchased the adjacent buildings numbers 9-11 Constitution Hill in the early 1990s in order to provide better access to the listed main body of the property.

Known locally as the 'Red Palace', at present, the building is only occupied on the top two floors. The lower floors have remained empty since the last tenant, a Chinese restaurant trading as 'China Village' vacated in approximately 2002. The basement floor was used as the kitchens serving the main restaurant on the ground floor and function room on the first floor. The building fabric has been deteriorating for a number of years and a significant investment is already required if the building is to survive long term.

1 Snow Hill Plaza

2007-09-30T06:11:00.000-07:00

1 Snow Hill Plaza (also known as Kennedy Tower) is a highrise office building in Birmingham, England. It is 72 metres tall and was completed in 1973.

It receives the name Kennedy Tower from the mural dedicated to John F. Kennedy which was located in Snow Hill Circus until it was removed in mid-2006.

It was redeveloped and modernised externally in previous years to be better suited to the environment which it will be a part of which will see the construction of a major mixed-use development adjacent to Snow Hill station. It forms a prominent addition on the skyline when viewed from the north.

Palace of Charles V

2007-09-30T06:07:00.000-07:00

The Palace of Charles V, in Granada, Spain, is a Renacentist construction, located on the top of the hill of the Assabica, inside the Nasrid fortification of the Alhambra. It was commanded by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in order to establish his residence close to the Alhambra palaces. The Catholic Monarchs had already reformed some rooms after the conquest of the city in 1492, but Charles V intended to construct a stable residence befitting an emperor. The project was commanded to Pedro Machuca, an inscrutable figure whose biography and influences are not already clear. At his time, Spain was inmersed in Plateresque style, still with traces of Gothic origin. Machuca built a palace corresponding to the Mannerism, a still beginning style in Italy. Even if we accept the versions that place Machuca in the atelier of Michelangelo, at the time of the construction of the palace (1527) the Tuscan architect hadn't designed the majority of his architectural works.

The plan of the building is generated by a 63-meters-long square, with a circular patio in it. this structure, the main Mannerist characteristic of the palace, has no precedents in the Renaissance architecture, and places the building in the avant-garde of its time. The building has two floors: The lower is of a padded tuscan order. The upper floor is of ionic order, alternating pilasters and pedimented windows. both of the two main façades boast portals made of stone from the Sierra Elvira.

The circular patio has also two levels: the lower is formed by a doric colonnade made of conglomerate stone, with an orthodoxally classic entablature, formed by triglyphs and metopes. The upper floor is formed by a stylized ionic colonnade. Its entablature has no decoration. This organisation of the patio shows clearly a deep knowledge of the architecture of the Roman Empire, and it would be framed in the purest Renaissance but for its curve shape. This curve puzzles the espectator when coming from its main façades. The interior spaces and the staircases are also determined by the general idea of the square and the circle. This kind of aesthetical resorts will be developed in the following decades under the classification of Mannerism

Alhambra

2007-09-30T06:01:00.000-07:00

The Alhambra (Arabic: الحمراء = Al-Ħamrā'; literally "the red") is a palace and fortress complex of the Moorish monarchs of Granada, in southern Spain (known as Al-Andalus when the fortress was constructed), occupying a hilly terrace on the south-eastern border of the city of Granada. It was the residence of the Muslim kings of Granada and their court, but is currently a museum exhibiting exquisite Islamic architecture. A Renaissance palace was also inserted by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

Coordinates: 37°10′36.81″N, 3°35′23.95″W

The terrace or plateau where the Alhambra settles, measures about 740 m (2430 ft) in length by 205 m (674 ft) at its greatest width, extends from W.N.W. to E.S.E., and covers an area of about 142,000 m². It is enclosed by a strongly fortified wall, which is flanked by thirteen towers. The river Darro, which foams through a deep ravine on the north, divides the plateau from the Albaicín district of Granada; the Assabica valley, containing the Alhambra Park, on the west and south, and beyond this valley the almost parallel ridge of Monte Mauror, separate it from the Antequeruela district.

Torre de Collserola

2007-09-30T06:00:00.001-07:00

Torre de Collserola (or Torre Foster) is a uniquely designed tower located on the Tibidabo hill in the Serra de Collserola, near Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was designed by architect Lord Norman Foster, and built in 1992 for the 1992 Summer Olympics. It features a pod for floor space like many towers but uses guide lines for lateral support like a mast. Mainly used as a TV and radio transmitter, this futuristic design provides the highest viewpoint over the city. The top antenna reaches 288.4m (946 ft) and the top of the pod, which has thirteen floors, reaches 152m (499 ft).

The tenth floor of the pod is open to the public.

Torre Agbar

2007-09-30T05:52:00.000-07:00

The Torre Agbar (Catalan from the Spanish translation of the building's owner name Aguas de Barcelona, a water company), or Agbar Tower, is a 21st century skyscraper in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. It opened in June 2005 and it was inaugurated officially by the King of Spain on 16 September 2005.

According to Nouvel, the shape of the Torre Agbar was inspired by the mountains of Montserrat that surround Barcelona, and by the shape of a geyser of water rising into the air. There are people, however, who see it as a phallic symbol. As a result of its unusual shape, the building is known by several nicknames, such as "el supositori" (the suppository), "l'obús" (the shell) and some more scatological ones. It has 30,000 m² (323,000 ft²) of above-ground office space, 3,210 m² (34,500 ft²) of technical service floors with installations and 8,351 m² (90,000 ft²) of services, including an auditorium. The Agbar Tower measures 144.4 m in height and consists of 38 stories, including four underground levels.

Its design combines a number of different architectural concepts, resulting in a striking structure built with reinforced concrete, covered with a facade of glass, and over 4,500 window openings cut out of the structural concrete.

The building stands out in Barcelona; it is the third tallest building in Barcelona, only after the Arts Hotel and the Mapfre Tower, both 154 m. A unique feature of the building is its nocturnal illumination. It has 4,500 LED luminous devices that allow generation of luminous images in the facade. In addition, it has temperature sensors in the outside of the tower that regulate the opening and closing of the glass blinds of the facade of the building, reducing the consumption of energy for air conditioning. It will house the head office of the Aigües de Barcelona Group (Spanish: "Aguas de Barcelona", English: "Barcelona Water Company").

Santa Maria del Mar (Barcelona)

2007-09-30T05:51:00.001-07:00

Santa Maria del Mar is an imposing church in Barcelona, Catalonia. Located in the in the district of Ribera, it was built between 1329 and 1383, at the height of Catalonia's maritime and mercantile preeminence. It is an outstanding example of Catalan Gothic, with a purity and unity of style that are very unusual in large mediaeval buildings.

History

The first mention of a church of Santa Maria by the sea dates from 998. The construction of the present building was promoted by the canon Bernat Llull, who was appointed archdean of Santa Maria in 1324. Construction work started on 25 March 1329, when the foundation stone was laid by king Alfons the Kind, as commemorated by a tablet in Latin and Catalan on the facade that gives onto Fossar de les Moreres. The architects in charge were Berenger de Montagut (designer of the building) and Ramon Despuig, and during the construction all the guilds of the Ribera quarter were involved. The walls, the side chapels and the facades were finished by 1350. In 1379 there was a fire that damaged important parts of the works. Finally, on 3 November 1383 the last stone was added and on 15th August the first mass was celebrated. In 1428 an earthquake caused several casualties and destroyed the rose window in the west end. The new window, in the Flamboyant style, was finished by 1459 and one year later the glass was added. The images and the Baroque altar were destroyed in a fire in 1936. The chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, adjacent to the apse, was added in the 19th century.

Exterior

From the outside, Santa Maria gives an impression of massive severity that belies the interior. It is hemmed in by the narrow streets of the Ribera, making it difficult to obtain an overall impression, except from the Fossar de les Moreres and the Plaça de Santa Maria, both of them former burial grounds. The latter is dominated by the west end of the church with its rose window. Images of Saint Peter and Saint Paul occupy niches on either side of the west door, and the tympanum shows the Saviour flanked by Our Lady and Saint John.

The north-west tower was completed in 1496, but its companion was not finished until 1902.

Interior

In contrast with the exterior, the interior gives an impression of light and spaciousness. It is of the basilica type, with its three aisles forming a single space with no transepts and no architectural boundary between nave and presbytery. The simple ribbed vault is supported on slender octagonal columns, and abundant daylight streams in through the tall clerestorey windows.

The interior is almost devoid of imagery of the sort to be found in Barcelona's other large Gothic churches, the cathedral and Santa Maria del Pi, after the fire which occurred in 1936 during anticlerical disturbances. Amongst the most notable of the works destroyed at that time was the Baroque retable by Deodat Casanoves and Salvador Gurri.

Some interesting stained-glass windows have survived from various periods.

La Sagrada Família

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La Sagrada Família (Catalan, 'The Holy Family') is a massive Roman Catholic basilica under construction in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Construction began in 1882 and its formal title is Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família. Antoni Gaudí worked on the project for over 40 years, devoting the last 15 years of his life entirely to this endeavour. On the subject of the extremely long construction period, Gaudí is said to have joked, "My client is not in a hurry." After Gaudí's death in 1926, work continued under the direction of Domènech Sugranyes until interrupted by the Spanish Civil War in 1935.

Parts of the unfinished building and Gaudí's models and workshop were destroyed during the war by Catalan anarchists. The design, as now being constructed, is based both on reconstructed versions of the lost plans and on modern adaptations. Since 1940 the architects Francesc Quintana, Isidre Puig Boada, Lluís Bonet i Gari and Francesc Cardoner have carried on the work. The current director and son of Lluís Bonet, Jordi Bonet i Armengol, has been introducing computers into the design and construction process since the 1980s. Mark Burry of New Zealand serves as Executive Architect and Researcher. Sculptures by J. Busquets, Etsuro Sotoo and the controversial Josep Subirachs decorate the fantastical façades.

According to the newspaper El Periódico de Catalunya, 2.26 million people visited the partially built basilica in 2004, making it one of the most popular attractions in Spain. The central nave vaulting was completed in 2000 and the main tasks since then have been the construction of the transept vaults and apse. Current work (2006) concentrates on the crossing and supporting structure for the main tower of Jesus Christ as well as the southern enclosure of the central nave which will become the Glory façade.

Recently, the Ministry of Public Works of Spain (Ministerio de Fomento in Spanish), has projected the construction of a tunnel for the high speed train just under where the principal façade of the temple has to be built. Although the ministry affirms that the project has no risk, the engineers and architects of the temple disagree as there are no guarantees that the tunnel will not affect the stability of the building.

Montjuic Communications Tower

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The Montjuic Communications Tower (Torre Telefónica) is a telecommunication tower in the Montjuïc neighborhood of Barcelona, Spain. Designed by Santiago Calatrava, construction on the tower began in 1989 and was completed in 1992. The white tower was built for Telefónica to transmit television coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympics Games in Barcelona. The 136 m (446 ft) tower is located in the Olympic park, and represents an athlete holding the Olympic Flame.

The basement is covered with 'trencadís', the Gaudí's mosaic technique created from broken tile shards.

Because of the tower's orientation, it works also as a giant sundial, which uses the Europa square to indicate the hour.

Cathedral of Santa Eulalia

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The Cathedral of Santa Eulàlia (also called La Seu) is the Gothic cathedral seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. (Though sometimes inaccurately so called, the famous Sagrada Família is not a cathedral.) La Seu was constructed throughout the 13th to 15th centuries on top of a former Visigothic church. The Gothic-like façade is from the 19th century.

The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Eulalia of Barcelona, co-patron saint of Barcelona, a young virgin who, according to Catholic tradition, suffered martyrdom during Roman times in Barcelona. One story is that she was exposed naked in the public square and a miraculous snow fall in mid spring covered her nudity. The enraged Romans put her into a barrel with knives stuck into it and rolled it down a street (according to tradition, the one now called 'Baixada de Santa Eulalia'). The body of Saint Eulalia is entombed in the cathedral's crypt.

One side chapel is dedicated to "Christ of Lepanto", and contains a cross from a ship that fought at the Battle of Lepanto (1571). The body of the cross is shifted to the right. Spanish legend says that the body swerved to avoid getting hit by a cannonball. This is believed to have been a sign from God that the Ottomans would be defeated.

The cathedral has a secluded Gothic cloister where thirteen white geese are kept (it is said that Eulalia was 13 when she was murdered).

Arc de Triomf

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The Arc de Triomf (English: Triumphal Arch) is an archway structure in Barcelona, Spain. It was built for the 1888 Universal exhibition, as its main access gate by architect Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas.

The arch is built in reddish brickwork in the Moorish Revival style. The front frieze contains the stone sculpture "Barcelona rep les nacions" (Catalan for "Barcelona welcomes the nations") by Josep Reynés. The opposite frieze contains a stone carving named "Recompense", a work from the earliest period of Josep Llimona.

The top of the arch is decorated with the Barcelona coat of arms as well as a representation of all 49 other Spanish provinces, work of Torquat Tassó and Antoni Vilanova.

The arch is located between Passeig de Lluís Companys and Passeig de Sant Joan, at the end of a wide promenade connecting with the Park of the Ciutadella.

Torre España

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Torre España (literally Spain Tower) is a 231-meters steel-and-concrete television tower located in Madrid, Spain. National terrestrial television channels RTVE, Telecinco and Antena 3, as well as the autonomic channel Telemadrid, along with a few radio stations, broadcast from this tower.

The tower was built in 1982, conmemorating the FIFA World Cup celebrated in Spain that year. The building was administered by RTVE until the year 1989, when control over radio and television emissions in Spanish territory was given to Retevisión. It is not open for tourists.

The Torre España tower is generally known in Madrid as the "Pirulí", given the similarity between the tower and a lollipop ("Pirulí" is a Spanish word for lollipop, although Chupa Chups as a generalization is also widely used).

Also it is known simply as "Torrespaña".

Torre Espacio

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The Torre Espacio (Spanish for Space Tower) is a skyscraper in Madrid, Spain. The skyscraper will be 236 metres (774 feet) tall and have 57 floors.

In November 2006, its structure surpassed the height of the Gran Hotel Bali, thus becoming the tallest building in Spain, although it has retained this title only for a short time (see below). The structure was topped out on March 19, 2007. On the night of that day, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, mayor of Madrid, attended a ceremony with fireworks to commemorate the event . With its 236 m, it also became the tallest structure in Spain, surpassing the telecommunications tower Torrespaña. However, Torre de Cristal, one of the neighbouring skyscrapers under construction at the Cuatro Torres Business Area, surpassed the height of Torre Espacio in April 2007.

The building project was featured on the Discovery Channel's Build It Bigger series due to the skyscraper's unique form and shape.

Temple of Debod

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The Temple of Debod is an ancient Egyptian temple which has been rebuilt in Madrid, Spain. The temple was built in southern Egypt, very close to the first cataract of the Nile and to the great religious center dedicated to the goddess Isis, in Philae. In the early 2nd century BC, Adikhalamani [Tabriqo], king of the country of Meroë, started its construction by building a small chapel dedicated to the gods Amon and Isis. Afterwards, different kings of the Ptolemaic dynasty added new chambers around the original nucleus. The Roman emperors Augustus, Tiberius, and perhaps Hadrian, completed its construction and decoration.

In 1960, due to the construction of the Great Dam of Aswan and the consequent threat it posed to certain monuments and archeological sites, UNESCO made an international call to save this rich historical patrimony. As a sign of gratitude for the help provided by Spain in saving the temples of Abu Simbel, the Egyptian state donated the temple to Spain in 1968.

It has been rebuilt in one of the most beautiful parks in Madrid. Rebuilt on the site of a former army barracks near Madrid's Campo de Moro and Parque del Oeste, the temple was opened to the public in 1972. It constitutes one of the few works of ancient Egyptian architecture which can be seen outside Egypt and the only one of its kind in Spain.

Royal Palace of Madrid

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The Royal Palace of Madrid (Spanish: Palacio Real de Madrid, also called Palacio de Oriente, "Eastern Palace") is the official residence of the King of Spain, located in Madrid. King Juan Carlos and the royal family do not actually reside in this palace, instead choosing the smaller Palacio de la Zarzuela, on the outskirts of Madrid. However, the Palacio Real de Madrid is still used for state occasions. The palace is owned by the Spanish state and administered by the Patrimonio Nacional agency.

The palace is located on Bailén street, in the western part of downtown Madrid, east of the Manzanares River, and is accessible from the Ópera metro station. The palace is partially open to public, except when in official use.

History

The site of the palace dates from a 10th-century fortress, called mayrit, constructed as an outpost by Mohammed I, Emir of Córdoba and inherited after 1036 by the independent Moorish Kingdom of Toledo. After Madrid fell to Alfonso VI of Castile in 1085, the edifice was only rarely used by the kings of Castile. In 1329, King Alfonso XI of Castile convoked the cortes of Madrid for the first time. Philip II moved his court to Madrid in 1561.

The Antiguo Alcázar ("Old Castle") was built on the location in the 16th century. It burned on December 24, 1734; King Philip V ordered a new palace built on the same location. Construction spanned from 1738 to 1755, according to the designs of Giovanni Battista Sacchetti in cooperation with Ventura Rodríguez, Francesco Sabatini, and Scirmento. The new palace was occupied by Carlos III in 1764.

Today

The palace is the largest in Western Europe(the Louvre is a museum, but if we include it, the Royal Palace is the second), occupying an area of 135,000 m². It is richly decorated by artists such as Velázquez, Tiepolo, Mengs, Gasparini, Juan de Flandes, Caravaggio, and Goya. Several royal collections of great historical importance are kept at the palace, including the Royal Armoury and its weapons dating back to the 13th century, and the world's only complete Stradivarius string quintet, as well as collections of tapestry, porcelain, furniture, and other objets d'art of great historical importance.

Below the palace, to the west, are the gardens of the Campo del Moro that were given this name due to the fact that here in the year 1109, Muslim leader Ali Ben Yusuf, encamped with his men in the atempt to recapture Madrid and its Alcázar (fortress) from the Christians. The east façade of the palace gives onto the Plaza de Oriente and the Teatro Real operahouse. To the south is a vast square, the Plaza de la Armas, surrounded by narrow wings of the palace, and to the south of that is located the Catedral de la Almudena. To the north are the Jardines de Sabatini (Sabatini Gardens), named after one of the architects of the palace.

The wedding banquet of Prince Felipe and Letizia Ortiz took place on the 22nd of May 2004 at the central courtyard of the Palace.

Puerta de Europa

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The Puerta de Europa towers (Gate of Europe or Europe's Gate or just Torres KIO) are two twin office buildings in Madrid. They were commissioned in 1996 by the Kuwait Investments Office (hence their initial name "Torres KIO") and designed by the American architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee. Each building is 115 m tall with an inclination of 15º. They are located near the Chamartín railway station, on the sides of the Plaza Castilla bus station, north from the Paseo de la Castellana and near the Cuatro Torres skyscraper park.

After the Torres KIO fraud case, KIO had to sell the buildings, which are now owned by Cajamadrid and Realia.

In the 1995 Satanic comedy film El día de la Bestia, the buildings are said to be shaped as a diabolical signature and the place of birth of the Anti-Christ on Christmas Day of 1995.

Palacio Real de Aranjuez

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The Palacio Real de Aranjuez is a residence of the King of Spain, one of the Spanish royal sites. It is located in Aranjuez (province of Madrid).

It was commissioned by Philip II and designed by Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera, who also designed El Escorial. It was completed during the reign of Ferdinand VI; Charles III had two wings added to it. A smaller palace, the Casa del Labrador, also stands on the grounds.

Its huge gardens, built to relieve its royal residents from the dust and drought of the Spanish meseta using the waters of the adjacent Tagus and Jarama rivers, are Spain's most important of the Habsburg period. The Jardin de la Isla is on a man-made island bounded by the River Tagus and the Ria Canal.

The museum's important art and historical collections include the Museo de la Vida en Palacio, describing the daily lives of Spain's monarchs, and the Museo de las Falúas Reales, housing the most important extant collection of Spain's royal pleasure barges.

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Metropolis Building

The Metropolis Building is a former insurance company headquarters on the crossing of Calle de Alcalá and Gran Vía in Madrid, Spain.

In 1905 the building of a new and important street Gran Via was confirmed and the former insurance company La Unión y el Fénix opened, to French and Spanish architects, a design competition for its new headquarters on the corner of this street.

French architects Jules Fevrier and Raymond Fevrier won the competition and started working on this project in 1907. Seven homes were demolished to facilitate the project. Spanish architect Luis Esteve finished the construction in 1910. The building was inaugurated on 21 January 1911.

The building is of very fine proportions with an impressive dome which is visible from some distance. Originally the dome was crowned with a phoenix in reference to the insurance company however in 1975, Metropolis bought the building and put a winged statue of victory in its place designed by Federico Coullaut Valera.

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Las Ventas

Las Ventas is a famous bullring in Madrid.

Situated in the barrio of Guindalera in the district of Salamanca, it was inaugurated on June 17, 1931. It has a seating capacity of 25,000 and is regarded as the home of bullfighting in Spain and arguably in the world.

This bullring was designed by an architect called Espeliú. Its style is Mudéjar (Moorish) with pottery incrustations. The seats are situated in 10 "tendidos". The price of the seats depends upon how close they are to the "arena" and whether they are in the sun or the shade (the latter being more expensive). The bullfighting season starts in March and ends in December; bullfights are held every day during the San Isidro Fiesta, and every Sunday or holiday during the season. Bullfights start at 6 or 7pm and last for two to three hours.

"Las Ventas" is located in the east of Madrid. It is recommended to use the Metro de Madrid (Las Ventas station is on line 5), or any of the city buses which stop next to the bullring.

History

From 1913 to 1920, the national celebration (bullfighting) gained such an important status that Madrid's former main bullring in Carretera de Aragon was not big enough. It was José Gómez Ortega "Joselito" who declared that a new "monumental" bullring had to be built, to open this piece of heritage and culture to the whole city of Madrid. His friend and architect José Espeliu began to work on the project.

A family called Jardón gave the land to the Deputy of Madrid, provided that they could run the arena for fifty years. The deputation accepted the proposal on November 12, 1920. On March 19, 1922, in the exact center of the prospective arena, the first stone was placed. The construction of the bullring would cost 12 million pesetas (4.5 more than they first thought), and it would replace the old bullring, dating from 1874.

"Las Ventas" was finished in 1929 and two years later, June 17, 1931, a charity bullfight was held with a full capacity crowd to inaugurate it. Bullfighting stopped during the Spanish Civil War and did not resume until May 1939.

Situation

"Las Ventas" is divided in a ring or "arena", and a group of zones called "patios". Its architecture is mudejar, with pottery representations of the heraldic crests of the different Spanish provinces on them. The "arena" has a diameter of 60 meters. The seating capacity is divided into 10 "tendidos" (group of 27 rows around the "arena"), some of them in the shade and the rest in the sun. The prices of the tickets are more expensive in the shade and in the rows which are nearer to the "arena" or crowned by bleachers, gradins, boxes and covered grandstands.

The president of the 'corrida' sits in the 10th Tendido. The Royal Box is of outstanding design, with its arabesque architecture [mudejar], a complete bathroom and a lift. Opposite to the Royal Box, in the covered grandstand roof, is the clock. The bullring has five gates, plus three more called "toriles", from where the bulls enter the arena. The door of "cuadrillas", between "tendidos" 3 and 4, has access to the horse yard. In this door, the "paseillo" starts and the "picadores"(those who punish the bull with the lance) come out from here to the arena ("suerte de varas"). The dragging door, that leads to the skinning room, is between "tendidos" 1 and 2. The famous "Puerta Grande" (Big Door), also called the Door of Madrid, is between "tendidos" 7 and 8. Going out through this door, especially during the Fiesta of San Isidro, is every bullfighter's ambition. There is also a chapel and a small sick bay with two operating rooms.

El Escorial

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El Escorial

General information

El Escorial, the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo El Real (also known as the Monasterio de El Escorial or simply El Escorial) is located about 45 kilometres (28 miles) northwest of the Spanish capital, Madrid. El Escorial comprises two architectural complexes of great historical and cultural significance: El Real Monasterio de El Escorial itself and La Granjilla de La Fresneda, a royal hunting lodge and monastic retreat about

five kilometres away. These sites have a dual nature; that is to say, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they were places in which the temporal power of the Spanish monarchy and the ecclesiastic

al predominance of the Roman Catholic religion in Spain found a common architectural manifestation. El Escorial was, at once, a monastery and a Spanish royal palace. Originally a property of the Hieronymite monks, it is now an Augustinian monastery.

Philip II of Spain, reacting to the Protestant Reformation sweeping through Europe during the sixteenth century, devoted much of his lengthy reign (1556-1598) and much of his seemingly inexhaustible supply of New World gold to stemming the Protestant tide. His protracted efforts were, in the long ru

n, partly successful. However, the same counter-reformational impulse had a much more benign expression, thirty years earlier, in Philip's decision to build the complex at El Escorial.

Philip engaged the Spanish architect, Juan Bautista de Toledo, to be his collabo
rator in the design of El Escorial. Juan Bautista had spent the greater part of his career in Rome, where he had worked on the basilica of St. Peter's, and in Naples, where he had served the king's viceroy, whose recommendation brought him to the king's attention. Philip appointed him architect-royal in 1559, and together they designed El Escorial as a "perpetual home for the Catholic Crown of Spain". It has also been called "an expression in stone of Catholicism in Spain; an answer, solid and unified, to the disintegration of the Christian universe."

On November 2, 1984, UNESCO declared The Royal Site of San

Lorenzo of El Escorial a World Heritage Site. It is an extremely popular tourist attraction, often visited by day-trippers from Madrid.

Design and conception

El Escorial is situated at the foot of Mt. Abantos in the Sierra de Guadarrama. It is a bleak, semi-forested, wind-swept place that owes its name to nearby piles of slag or tailings (called scoria), the detritus of long-played-out iron

mines in the Guadarrama. (In English, the word "scoria" is now used, almost exclusively, in connection with the ejecta of volcanoes, but, originally, "scoria" was the name for the silicate slag left over from the smelting of metallic ores. The word is derived from the Greek word for "refuse" or "trash".)

This austere location, hardly obvious as a site for a royal palace, was chosen by King Philip II of Spain, and it was he who ordained the building of a grand edifice here to commemorate the 1557 Spanish victory at the Battle of St. Quentin in Picardy against Henry II, king of France. He also intended the complex to serve as a necropolis for the interment of the remains of his parents, Charles I and Isabella of Portugal, himself, and his descendants. In addition, Philip envisioned El Escorial as a center for studies in aid of the Counter-Reformation cause.

The building’s cornerstone was laid on April 23, 1563. The design and construction were overseen by Juan Bautista de Toledo, who did not live to see the completion of the project. With Toledo's death in 1567, direction passed to his apprentice, Juan de Herrera, under whom the building was completed in 1584.

Since then, El Escorial has been the burial site for most of the Spanish kings of the last five centuries, Bourbons as well as Habsburgs. The Royal Pantheon contains the tombs of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V (who ruled Spain as King Charles I), Philip II, Philip III, Philip IV, Charles II, Louis I, Charles III, Charles IV, Ferdinand VII, Isabel II, Alfonso XII, and Alfonso XIII. Two Bourbon kings, Philip V (who reigned from 1700 to 1746) and Ferdinand VI (1746-1759), as well as King Amadeo of Savoy (1870-1873), are not buried in the monastery.

The floor plan of the building is in the form of a gridiron. The traditional belief is that this design was chosen in honor of St. Lawrence, who, in the third century CE, was martyred by being roasted to death on a grill. St. Lawrence’s feast day is August 10, the date when, in 1557, the Battle of St. Quentin took place.

In fact, however, the origin of the building’s layout is quite controversial. The grill-like shape, which did not fully emerge until Herrera eliminated from the original conception the six interior towers of the facade, was, by no means, unique to El Escorial. Other buildings had been constructed with interior courtyards fronting on churches or chapels; King's College, Cambridge, dating from 1441, is one such example; the old Ospedale Maggiore, Milan's first hospital, begun in 1456 by Antonio Filarete, is another grid-like building with interior courtyards. In fact, palaces of this approximate design were commonplace in the Byzantine and Arab world. Strikingly similar to El Escorial is the layout of the Alcázar of Seville and the design of the Alhambra at Granada where, as at El Escorial, two courtyards in succession separate the main portal of the complex from a fully-enclosed place of worship.

Nonetheless, the most persuasive theory for the origin of the floor plan is that it is based on descriptions of the Temple of Solomon by the Judeo-Roman historian, Flavius Josephus: a portico followed by a courtyard open to the sky, followed by a second portico and a second courtyard, all flanked by arcades and enclosed passageways, leading to the "holy of holies". Statues of David and Solomon on either side of the entrance to the basilica of El Escorial lend further weight to the theory that this is the true origin of the design. A more personal connection can be drawn between the David-warrior figure, representing Charles V, and his son, the stolid and solomonically prudent Philip II. Echoing the same theme, a fresco in the center of El Escorial's library, a reminder of Solomon’s legendary wisdom, affirms Philip's preoccupation with the great Jewish king, his thoughtful and logical character, and his extraordinary monumental temple.

The Temple-of-Solomon design (if, indeed, it was the basis for El Escorial) was extensively modified to accommodate the additional functions and purposes Philip II intended the building to serve. Beyond being a monastery, El Escorial is also a pantheon, a basilica, a convent, a school, a library, and a royal palace. All these functional demands resulted in a doubling of the building's size from the time of its original conception.

Built primarily from locally-quarried gray granite, square and sparely-ornamented, El Escorial is austere, even forbidding, in its outward appearance, seemingly more like a fortress than a monastery or palace. It takes the form of a gigantic quadrangle, approximately 224 metres by 153 metres, which encloses a series of intersecting passageways and courtyards and chambers. At each of the four corners is a square tower surmounted by a spire, and, near the center of the complex (and taller than the rest) rise the pointed befries and round dome of the basilica. Philip's instructions to Toledo were simple and clear: "Above all ... simplicity in the construction, severity in the whole; nobility without arrogance, majesty without ostentation."

Aside from its explicit purposes, the complex is also an enormous storehouse of art. It displays masterworks by Titian, Tintoretto, El Greco, Velázquez, Roger van der Weyden, Paolo Veronese, Alonso Cano, José de Ribera, Claudio Coello and others. The library contains thousands of priceless manuscripts; for example, the collection of the sultan, Zidan Abu Maali, who ruled Morocco from 1603 to 1627, is housed at El Escorial. Giambattista Castello designed the magnificent main staircase.

Sections of the building

In order to describe the parts of the great building in a coherent fashion, it may be useful to undertake an imaginary walking tour, beginning with the main entrance at the center of the western facade:

The main portico

The patio of the kings

The basilica

The basilica of San Lorenzo el Real, the central building in the El Escorial complex, was originally designed, like most of the late Gothic cathedrals of western Europe, to take the form of a Latin cross. The Latin-cross form calls for a long nave on the west-east axis intersected by a pair of shorter trancepts, one to the north and one directly opposite, to the south, about three-quarters of the way between the west entrance and the high altar. (The Latin cross, with its long descending arm, is the form most familiar to western Christians as the cross on which Christ was supposed to have been crucified.) This plan was modified by Juan de Herrera to that of a Greek cross, a form with all four arms of equal length. Coincident with this shift in approach, the bell towers at the western end of the church were somewhat reduced in size and the small half-dome intended to stand over the altar was replaced with a full circular dome over the center of the church, where the four arms of the Greek cross meet.

Clearly Juan Bautista de Toledo's experience with the dome of St. Peter's basilica in Rome influenced the design of the dome of San Lorenzo el Real at El Escorial. However, the Roman dome is supported by ranks of tapered Corinthian columns, with their extravagant capitals of acanthus leaves and their elaborately fluted shafts, while the dome at El Escorial, soaring nearly one hundred metres into the air, is supported by four heavy granite piers connected by simple Romanesque arches and decorated by simple Doric pilasters, plain, solid, and largely unprepossessing. It would not be a flight of fancy to interpret St. Peter's as the quintessential expression of the High Renaissance and the basilica at El Escorial as a statement of the stark rigidity and grim purposefulness of the Inquisition and the Counter-Reformation.

The most highly-decorated part of the church is the area surrounding the high altar. Behind the altar is a three-tiered reredos, made of red granite and jasper, nearly twenty-eight metres tall, adorned with gilded bronze statuary by Leone Leoni, and three sets of religious paintings commissioned by Philip II. To either side are gilded life-size bronzes of the kneeling family groups of Charles and Philip, also by Leoni with help from his son Pompeo. In a shallow niche at the center of the lowest level is a repository for the physical elements of the communion ceremony, a so-called "House of the Sacrament", designed by Juan de Herrera in jasper and bronze.

To decorate the reredos (or altar screen) the king's preferences were Michelangelo or Titian, but both of these giants were already more than eighty years old and in frail health. (Michelangelo died in 1564, scarcely a year after the first stones at El Escorial were laid, and Titian, when asked to come to Spain, respectfully refused on the basis of his advanced age.) Consequently, Philip consulted his foreign ambassadors for recommendations, and the result was a lengthy parade of the lesser European artists of that time, all swanning through the construction site at El Escorial seeking the king's favor.

Palace of Philip II

Situated next to the main altar of the Basilica, the residence of King Philip II is made up of a series of austerely decorated rooms. It features a window from which the king could observe Mass from his bed when incapacitated by the gout that afflicted him.

Hall of Battles

Fresco paintings here depict the most important Spanish military victories.

Pantheon of the Kings

This consists of twenty-six marble sepulchers containing the remains of the kings and ruling queens (the only ruling queen since Philip II was Isabella II), of the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties from Charles I (Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) to the present, except for Philip V and Ferdinand VI.

The sepulchers also contain the remains of royal consorts who were mothers or fathers of kings. The only king-consort is Francis of Asis de Bourbon, husband of queen Isabella II. The most recent remains in the sepulcher are those of King Alfonso XIII. Those of his wife, as well as his son Juan de Borbón and daughter-in-law Maria Mercedes (the parents of the current king, Juan Carlos I), lie at a prepared place called a pudridero (decaying chamber).

There are two pudrideros at El Escorial, one for the Pantheon of the Kings and the other for that of the Princes, which can only be visited by monks from the Monastery. In these rooms, the remains of the deceased are placed in a small leaden urn, which in turn will be placed in the marble sepulchers of the pantheon after the passage of fifty years, the estimated time necessary for the complete decomposition of the bodies.

When the remains of Juan de Borbón and Maria Mercedes are deposited in the royal Pantheon, they will, in a sense, constitute exceptions to tradition. One of these lies in that the Counts of Barcelona, Don Juan y Doña María de las Mercedes, were never able to reign, due to the institution of the Second Republic and the exile of Alfonso XIII and his entire family, though they are the parents of a king. Another exception lies in the case of Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, who, although the wife of a king, was never the mother of a king in the strict sense. Some, however, do consider Don Juan to have been de jure King of Spain, which in turn would make Queen Victoria Eugenia the mother of a king. With the interment of their remains, all the sepulchers in the Royal Pantheon will be filled, and no decision has yet been announced as to the final resting place of the currently living members of the Royal Family.

There has already been one exception to this old tradition: Queen Elisabeth of Bourbon is for the moment the only queen in the pantheon who has not been mother to a king. That is because her only son, the presumed heir to the throne, died after her.

The walls of polished Toledo marble are ornamented in gold-plated bronze.

All of the wood used in El Escorial comes from the ancient forests of Sagua La Grande, on the so-called Golden Coast of Cuba.

Pantheon of the Princes

Completed in 1888, this is the final resting place of princes, princesses and queens who were not mothers of kings. With floors and ceiling of white marble, the tomb of Prince John of Austria is especially notable. Currently, thirty-six of the sixty available niches are filled.

Art Gallery

Consists of works of the German, Flemish, Venetian, Italian and Spanish schools from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Architectural Museum

Its eleven rooms showcase the tools, cranes and other materials used in the construction of the edifice, as well as reproductions of blueprints and documents related to the project, containing some very interesting facts.

Gardens of the Friars

Constructed at the order of Philip II, a great lover of nature, these constitute an ideal place for repose and meditation. Manuel Azaña, who studied in the monastery's Augustinian-run school, mentions them in his Memorias (Memoirs) and his play El jardín de los frailes (The Garden of the Friars). Students at the school still use it today to study and pass the time.

Library

Philip II donated his personal collection of documents to the building, and also undertook the acquisition of the finest libraries and works of Spain and foreign countries. It was planned by Juan de Herrera, who also designed the library’s shelves; the frescoes on the vaulted ceilings were painted by Pellegrino Tibaldi. The library’s collection consists of more than 40,000 volumes, located in a great hall fifty-four meters in length, nine meters wide and ten meters tall with marble floors and beautifully carved wood shelves. Benito Arias Montano produced the initial catalog for the library, selecting many of the most important volumes. In 1616 he was granted the privilege of receiving a copy of every published work, though there is no evidence that he ever took advantage of this right.

The vault of the library's ceiling is decorated with frescoes depicting the seven liberal arts: Rhetoric, Dialectic, Music, Grammar, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy.

The reliquaries

Following a rule approved by the Council of Trent dealing with the veneration of saints, Philip II donated to the monastery one of the largest reliquaries in all of Catholicism. The collection consists of some 7500 relics, which are stored in 570 sculpted reliquaries designed by Juan de Herrera. Most of them were constructed by the artisan, Juan de Arfe Villafañe. These reliquaries are found in highly varied forms (heads, arms, pyramidal cases, coffers, etc.) and are distributed throughout the monastery, with the most important being concentrated in the basilica.

Descalzas Reales

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Descalzas Reales

History

El Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, literally the Monastery of Barefoot Royals, resides in the former palace of Carlos I and Isabel of Portugal. Their daughter, Joan of Spain, founded this convent of Franciscan nuns in 1557. Throughout the remainder of the 16th century and into the 17th century, the convent attracted young noblewomen that were either disappointed by love or looking for love in Christ. Each woman brought with her a dowry. The riches quickly piled up, and the convent became one of the richest convents in all of Europe. Tomás Luis de Victoria, Spain's finest Renaissance composer, worked at the convent from 1587 to the end of his life in 1611.

The demographics of the convent slowly changed over time, and by the 20th century, all of the sisters were in poverty. The convent maintained the riches of its past, but it was forbidden to auction any of the items off or spend any of the money it received from the dowries. The state intervened when it saw that the sisters were literally starving, and the pope granted a special dispensation to open the convent as a museum.

Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz (died 1989) is buried in the Chapel of Saint John the Baptist next to his elder son Francisco (died 1984). Alfonso's younger brother Gonzalo (died 2000) is buried in the Chapel of Saint Sebastian.

Today: Museum

Today the Monastery invites visitors into the once secret halls of Madrid's arguably most mysterious building. The noblewomen's dowries lie in the Reliquary. One is said to contain pieces from Christ's cross; another is said to carry the bones of Saint Sebastian. Among the priceless art masterpieces are Titian's Caesar's Money and works by Hans de Beken and Brueghel the Elder.

Tours are given daily and almost exclusively in Spanish.

Catedral de la Almudena

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Catedral de la Almudena

Santa María la Real de La Almudena is a Catholic cathedral in Madrid.

Plans for the construction of a new cathedral for Madrid dedicated to the Virgin of Almudena began in the 16th century, but the slow construction did not begin until 1879. Francisco de Cubas, the Marquis of Cubas, was the architect who designed and directed the construction in a Gothic revival style. Construction ceased completely during the Spanish Civil War. The project was abandoned until 1950, when Fernando Chueca Goitia adapted the plans of de Cubas to a neoclassical style exterior to match the grey and white façade of the Palacio Real, which stands directly opposite. and was not completed until 1993, when the cathedral was consecrated by Pope John Paul II. On May 22, 2004, the marriage of Felipe, Prince of Asturias to Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano (who was thereafter known as Letizia, Princess of Asturias) took place at the cathedral.

The Neo-Gothic interior is uniquely modern, with chapels and statues of contemporary artists, in heretogeneous styles, from historical revivals to "pop-art" decor.

The Neo-Romanesque crypt houses a 16th century image of the Virgen de la Almudena. Further along, the Calle Mayor is the site of excavations which have unearthed remains of Moorish and medieval city walls.

Bolsa de Madrid

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Bolsa de Madrid

Bolsa de Madrid (Madrid Stock Exchange) is the largest and most international of Spain's four regional stock exchanges located in Barcelona, Valencia, and Bilbao that trade shares and convertible bonds and fixed income securities, both government and private-sector debt. Bolsa de Madrid is owned by Bolsas y Mercados Españoles.

Structure and Operations

The reorganization of Spain's financial market under the national umbrella of the Spanish Stock Market includes the bolsas, the derivatives markets, and fixed-income markets. Trading is linked through the electronic Spanish Stock Market Interconnection System (SIBE), which handles more than 90% of transactions; all fixed-income assets are traded through SIBE. The Madrid Stock Exchange General Index (IGBM) is the exchange's principle index and represents the construction, financial services, communications, consumer, capital/intermediate goods, energy, and market services sectors. The IBEX-35 Index is a capitalization-weighted index comprising the 35 most liquid Spanish stocks traded in the continuous market, and is Bolsa de Madrid's benchmark. Bolsa de Madrid also offers the FTSE-Latibex Index, a European market for Latin American stocks; and the Ibex New Market Index for emerging companies. Settlement is T + 3. Trading on SIBE is conducted from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; open outcry from 10a.m. to 11:30 a.m., both Monday through Friday

History and Statistics

The Bolsa de Madrid was officially founded in 1831. As required by Spanish law, it is managed and operated by the Sociedad Rectora de la Bolsa de Valores de Madrid S.A., a corporation organized under the laws of the Kingdom of Spain. The membership of the Madrid Stock Exchange consists of 41 major financial institutions and 12 established securities dealers. At December 31, 2001, approximately 1477 domestic and foreign companies had their equity securities listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange. The total market capitalization of the equity securities listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange at May, 2007 was €1,276.26 billion.

Travel per Europe

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Puerta de Alcalá

The Puerta de Alcalá ("Alcalá Gate") is a monument in the Plaza de la Independencia("Independence Square") in Madrid, Spain, very close to the city centre and several meters away from the main entrance to the Parque del Buen Retiro. The square is bisected by Alcalá street, although the street itself doesn't cross through the monument, and it is the origin of the Alfonso XII, Serrano and Olózaga streets. Its name originates from the old path from Madrid to the nearby town of Alcalá de Henares (Puerta de Alcalá means "Alcalá's Gate in Spanish).

It was built by order of king Carlos III as a monumental gate in the city wall to pass the road which leads to the city of Alcalá, replacing an older, smaller, gate which stood nearby. It was inaugurated in 1778.

Notable events related to Puerta de Alcalá

In 1823, the Puerta de Alcalá was showered by a burst of cannon shrapnel. The marks can still be seen in the present day.
Hundreds of notable individuals, retinues and parades have passed through the arches of this gate. One of the most famous tales tells the story of the Count of Villahermosa, who passed through the gate in July 30, 1854 after having been defeated at Vicálvaro (Madrid), wielding as a trophy the spear of an enemy soldier. The madrilenians nicknamed him “Longinos” for this ostentation (like the Roman soldier whose spear is said to have pierced Christ's side).
In March 8, 1921, at 20:20, the President of the Consejo de Ministros (Council of Ministers), Eduardo Dato Iradier, was driving his car home through Plaza de la Independencia after a long session at the parliament when three anarchist assassins driving a grey motorcycle with side-car shot him with a handgun. The President was promptly taken to the Casa de Socorro, a nearby hospital, but Dato was already dead when he arrived.
Since the Alcalá street (crossing through the square) is still nowadays considered a cañada real (special routes for the seasonal migration of livestock), sheep flocks regularly crossed through the Puerta de Alcalá. In the present day, the practice is in disuse.
During May and June of 2001, the Puerta de Alcalá underwent a unique and very original transformation in honour of Madrid being named the "Capital Mundial del Libro" (World Book Capital). Several gardens were added to the square, surrounding the monument, and beautiful night lights, which can be seen in the image, were added.
In 1985, Spanish singers Ana Belén and Víctor Manuel popularized a song named after this monument, making it one of the greatest hits during this and subsequent years in Spain and Latin America.