Thursday, 30 April 2015

LOS BARRUECOS NATURAL MONUMENT & THE WOLF VOSTELL MUSEUM

The Los Barruecos Natural Monument is in the middle of the Cáceres plain on the road to Portugal going west.



A spectacular natural creation that man has helped to shape. The unique undulating landscape is dotted with lakes and enormous granite boulders.
Los Barruecos has been declared a Natural Monument because of the beauty of its landscape with strange and eerie  granite formations sculpted by water and wind. 
Water has played an essential part in creating this unique natural habitat for numerous animal species, White storks and the grey herons find this an ideal place for their prolific colonies.
This has also been an ideal place for human settlement, as demonstrated by the many archaeological remains dating from the Neolithic through the Roman period and into 19th century. 
The 18th century wool processing factory (now the Wolf Vostell museum) was a major focus for the trashumancia, the herding of sheep down to Extremadura every winter from Asturias and Galicia. Here they were shorn and the wool washed  using  the abundant water from a natural lake sustained by making a dam and channeling the water into a huge boiler where it was heated to wash the lanolin from the wool, it was then packed into bales and distributed all over Spain.
A number of routes have been created through this vast expanse with differing durations and itineraries.
The Peñas del Tesoro route starts at the Vostell-Malpartida Museum and ends at the Peñas del Tesoro, skirting the Barrueco de Abajo lake. This is the most popular route, lasting just 30 minutes.
It passes one of Wolf Vostell's installations, typically car+ concrete+ impact

The Barrueco de Arriba route is a little longer. This is a 1 hour route around the lake that gives it its name.
But if you are looking for something more demanding, other routes take between 2 and 3 hours.
If you visit Los Barruecos, don't miss out on the Vostell-Malpartida museum, which houses a unique collection, consisting mainly of the work of the German artist Wolf Vostell who made his home and studio at an 18th century wool washing complex, a fascinating group of buildings which now house the collection.

 Wolf Vostell is the father of this museum, as he was for the Dé-coll/age technique, the European Happening, the Fluxus Movement and video-art. His art has a special spark to it – an unmistakable touch of originality –  discover it for yourself, art students, historians and general public visit this unique collection from all over the world, we are lucky to have it so close by.

The museum is made up of two noteworthy collections. The first of them, called Wolf y Mercedes Vostell, contains several works of art entailing elements of fetishistic symbology from our times, such as the car, television or concrete, transformed to warn us of the shadows and conflicts enclosed in the society we live in. Examples of works of this type are "Concrete Bull", "The Thirsty Dead Man" or the garden sculpture, "Why Did The Trial Between Pilate And Jesus Take Only 2 Minutes?"
The Fluxus collection – which was donated to Extremadura by the Italian collector, Gino di Maggio – is made up of a group of 250 works by 31 North American, European and Asian artists. 
The whole collection by conceptual artists contains 60 works, including pictures, picture-objects, sculptures and installations belonging to 48 artists that have had a special connection to the Vostell Malpartida Museum activities since it started in 1976. 




I have visited many times but always find a new message, something I had not noticed before. It's a great day's excursion combined with a walk around the lake and then a visit to Caceres and its monumental city. 
Only 40 minutes from Finca al-manzil.



Sunday, 8 March 2015

RESERVA NACIONAL DE CAZA DEL CIJARA


Cijara is one of the wildest and most remote areas of Extremadura, situated in Caceres province on the border with Castillo La Mancha. It covers a huge area of 25.000 hectares with just one or two villages situated near the lake but mainly huge areas with nothing but water and deep pine and cork oak woods. It is a hunting reserve, the wild boar, deer and game birds are prolific, whilst walking on the many walking trails there are usually sightings of deer, the wild boar are more secretive and usually nocturnal. Bird life is amazing with birds of prey and many water species.

A wonderful day out but take a picnic as there are no cafés or restaurants anywhere on the winding narrow roads.
This is one of the trails through the woods and fabulous rock formations covered in vivid green lichen.
Needless to say we had the trails all to ourselves even on this gorgeous spring day


MARVAO AGAIN



Just 90 minutes from Finca al-manzil is the magical village of Marvao just over the border to Portugal.  Several places for a delicious lunch and endless fascination walking around this completely walled medieval village.

Friday, 26 December 2014

CHRISTMAS PICNIC AT THE OLIVE GROVE

We are having the most heavenly weather, blue,blue skies and perfect weather for walking so on Christmas morning we hiked up to La Preciosa our remote olive grove, well equipped with delicious picnic and champagne, yes, the real stuff instead of cava for once.
 Lovely views from up there and a special stillness, no sound from the outside world, just bird song. Started to get chilly at about 4ish so headed back to finca for on- going backgammon contest and settling in for yet more food, ah the joys of Christmas, no family this year, just us, we seem to be surviving!


Monday, 22 December 2014

WINTER SOLSTICE VISIT TO GEOPARQUE DE VILLUERCAS IBORES JARA - CAÑAMERO

We set off on a misty morning in Montanchez. The mist was still swirling around when we reached Cañamero over one hour later. In fact this added to the mysterious atmosphere of the canyon on the Ruecas river near Cañamero. We started off from the interpretation centre De la Zepa y Valle del Guadarranque, completely deserted and obviously not used for some time, a pity. It's in a fabulous position above the canyon and is a very pleasing modern design built with natural stone,slate and sliding iron doors.
 Spot the Weimaraners....Lottie is not so easy to disguise.
The path down to the gorge is through thick pine woods, later on I collected a big basket of pine cones for pretty and effective fire lighters.


The mist starts to lift and sun shines through.  We made a detour to visit the Cueva Chiquita which has several pre- historic paintings still in good condition


 Down to the Ruecas river again, there is a bridge to the other side where the walk to Guadalupe starts, Ruta de Catarina Catolica. The walk continues until the wall of the dam and back to the interpretation centre.  Very easy walk, a bit too close to the village and a little municipal with all the railings and benches etc. but still impressive nature. Must do the Guadalupe walk one day with more time, it's 13 kms.
Our next stop was in Berzocana, a village below a mighty ridge of the Villuercas, we knew a good spot for Medronho berries and I wanted some for Christmas decorations, so seasonal with the vivid red berries, the wild strawberry tree. Patridge and Quail eat the berries as they drop on the ground, they are already starting to ferment so local hunters have easy pickings with totally sloshed birds tottering around.  The fruit is made into the most divine aquadente .

There is a small botanical garden nearby, sadly neglected, yet another project funded by the EU which has not developed. Lovely iron sculpture at the entrance, now wonderfully rusty.

Time to go home, sun setting rapidly, Winter Solstice! The valley was filling up with mist again, amazing effect, looks like an arctic snowscape. A good thought that the days will get a little longer everyday from now on.


Tuesday, 16 December 2014

HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND THANKS TO ALL OUR LOVELY VISITORS, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE


Thanks for following the blog!
It give me a lot of pleasure to share our experiences and photos with you and do hope you will find some great hints and guides not only in Spain but also on our trips to Morocco, Tunisia, Italy, Turkey and Portugal.
We have been living in Extremadura for 11 years now and  still discovering hidden gems; a village, a walk, a building, a recipe, a view. Lots more coming up in 2015.

You could also check the new site for the other houses belonging to friends which are available for renting in our special little area of the sierra www.extremadura-rural-retreats.com 
I am adding new information and photos throughout the year.

If you are interested in cooking you could consider one of our cooking holidays 4 - 7 nights either at Finca al-manzil or at the wonderful Palacio de Piedras Albas in Trujillo.
Check here for more details www.cooking-extremadura.blogspot.com  and Responsible Travel
http://www.responsibletravel.com/holiday/6750/cooking-holiday-extremadura

Our walking holidays have grown and flourished and now have quite some acclaim.
You can check them on the Responsible Travel site here  http://www.responsibletravel.com/holiday/11896/extremadura-walking-holiday-spain

Finally please spread the word and add the blog to your facebook page or in any other ways that are possible in these miraculously technical times, it would be most appreciated.

Hope you will be among our visitors in 2015, please contact me at any time  with  questions or comments. finca_al_manzil@yahoo.com 
Saludos ! Pippa and Manfred.

Wednesday, 5 November 2014

BOOK TOWERS OF MERIDA, EXTREMADURA


Las Siete Sillas ( the seven seats), are situated in the gardens in front of the library by the river in Merida. 
These massive granite towers are furnished with giant bronze tomes and sheaves of bronze documents, heavy reads indeed!
The monolithic sculptures are by Ruffino Mesa, a sculptor, artist and writer born in Badajoz in 1948 http://www.lacomella.org/es/escultura/escultura  for more information on his marvellous works.

The inspirtion for Las siete sillas was from the legend of the seven seats at the Roman theatre in the ancient city of Merida. The theatre was left abandoned after the Christian powers overcame the Roman administration in about 400 AD. The pagan Roman ways were swept away and theatre performances were considered a danger to the new morals. Over the centuries the theatre construction was buried by earth and much of the stone looted for new construction but seven rocks remained above the ruins, named the seven seats and according to legend where the Moorish conquerers sat to discuss the future of the city at the end of the 9th century.
The sculptures were started in 1990 and erected in 2000, in the video it is clear that the now pleasant and extensive green gardens by the river were a barren waste in 2000.  Thanks to progressive town planning several urban projects were began 15 years ago including much tree planting and some iconic buildings and structures by prestigious Spanish architects, the span of Calatrava's signature bridge can be seen in the background .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_Calatrava 
A walk along the river is really interesting, park on the west side of the river in new Merida and walk over the 2000 year old Roman bridge into the old town passing by the Alcazaba.



 



















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