Spain: Pathways of Culture

The Queen Sofia Museum.

Guernica--Picasso's memorial to German bombing of a Basque village in 1937, in collusion with Franco. There is no consensus on how to interpret the symbolism, but some see the bull as a symbol for Spain. (This is of course a ringer; fotografía prohibida.)

Allegorical figures atthe Ministry of Agriculture.

The Royal Palace. The present building was constructed in the 1700s. The king and queen don't actually live here, which reflects favorably on their good judgment.

Right after this picture was taken one of the horses slipped and threw its rider. Made quite an impression on the turistas. We decided that photographing the incident would be unseemly.

Think this is the young Charles V, but not sure.

The castle is for Castile. The lion is for Leon. The stripes are for Aragon. The chains in the shield are for Navarre. The little pomegranate represents Granada. The fleurs-de-lit in the middle represent the House of Bourbon, the family of King Juan Carlos. The thing at the bottom represents the Order of the Golden Fleece, a chivalric order founded by one of the king's ancestors in the 1400s.

The Royal Palace has 2800 rooms; fotografía prohibida in all of them, so this is a ringer.

Monument to Christopher Columbus in the Plaza de Colón.

Cervantes, Don Quixote, and Sancho Panza in the Plaza de España.