Spain

1. Spain

2. *choose one from buttons below* painters * travellers * * dances * traditions * famous places monuments * main

3. painters Pablo Picasso * Luis de Morales * Salvador Dali * Francisco Goya * El Greco * home

4. Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. He is best known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles embodied in his work. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and Guernica (1937), his portrayal of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso demonstrated uncanny artistic talent in his early years, painting in a realistic manner through his childhood and adolescence; during the first decade of the twentieth century his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. His revolutionary artistic accomplishments brought him universal renown and immense fortunes throughout his life, making him the best-known figure in twentieth century art. home

5. Luis de Morales Luis de Morales (1510? - 9 May 1586) was a Spanish painter born in Badajoz, Extremadura. Known as "El Divino", most of his work was of religious subjects, including many representations of the Madonna and Child and the Passion. Influenced, especially in his early work, by Raphael Sanzio and the Lombard school of Leonardo, he was called by his contemporaries "The Divine Morales", because of his skill and the shocking realism of his paintings, and because of the spirituality transmitted by all his work. His work has been divided by critics into two periods, an early stage under the influence of Florentine artists such as Michelangelo and a more intense, more anatomically correct later period similar to German and Flemish renaissance painters. home

6. Salvador Dali Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989) was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres. Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in 1931. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire includes film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. Dalí attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes" to a self-styled "Arab lineage," claiming that his ancestors were descended from the Moors. Dalí was highly imaginative, and also had an affinity for partaking in unusual and grandiose behavior, in order to draw attention to himself. This sometimes irked those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork. home

7. Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish painter and printmaker regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and as the first of the moderns. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown and a chronicler of history. The subversive and subjective element in his art, as well as his bold handling of paint, provided a model for the work of later generations of artists, notably Manet and Picasso. home

8. El Greco El Greco (1541 – April 7, 1614) was a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" (The Greek) was a nickname, a reference to his Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος (Doménikos Theotokópoulos). El Greco was born in Crete, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the centre of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before travelling at age 26 to Venice, as other Greek artists had done. In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian Renaissance. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death. In Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best known paintings. home

9. travellers Francisco Pizarro Herman Cortes home

10. Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro González, 1st Marqués de los Atabillos (c. 1471 or 1476 – 26 June 1541) was a Spanish conquistador, conqueror of the Incan Empire and founder of Lima, the modern-day capital of Peru. Pizarro was born in Trujillo, Extremadura, modern Spain. Sources differ in the birth year they assign to him: 1471, 1475–1478, or unknown. He was an illegitimate son of Gonzalo Pizarro Rodríguez de Aguilar (senior) (1446-1522) who as colonel of infantry served in the Italian campaigns under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, and in Navarre, with some distinction. His mother was Francisca González Mateos, a woman of slender means from Trujillo, daughter of Juan Mateos, of the family called Los Roperos, and wife María Alonso, labradores pecheros from Trujillo. His mother married late in life and had a son Francisco Martín de Alcántara, married to Inés Muñoz, who from the beginning was at the Conquest of Perú, where he then lived, always at his brother's side, who held him always as one of his most trusted men. Through his father, Francisco was second cousin to Hernán Cortés, the famed conquistador of Mexico. On 13 February 1502, he sailed from Spain with the new appointed Governor of Hispaniola Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres on a fleet of thirty ships. It was the largest fleet that had ever sailed to the New World. The thirty ships carried 2,500 colonists. home

11. Herman Cortes Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valle de Oaxaca (1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the King of Castile, in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Born in Medellín, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortés chose to pursue a livelihood in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an encomienda and, for a short time, became alcalde (magistrate) of the second Spanish town founded on the island. In 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, an expedition which he partly funded. His enmity with the Governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, resulted in the recall of the expedition at the last moment, an order which Cortés ignored. Arriving on the continent, Cortés executed a successful strategy of allying with some indigenous peoples against others. He also used a native woman, Doña Marina, as an interpreter; she would later bear Cortés a son. When the Governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortés, he fought them and won, using the extra troops as reinforcements. Cortés wrote letters directly to the king asking to be acknowledged for his successes instead of punished for mutiny. After he overthrew the Aztec Empire, Cortés was awarded the title of Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, while the more prestigious title of Viceroy was given to a high-ranking nobleman, Antonio de Mendoza. Cortés returned to Spain in 1541 where he died peacefully but embittered. home

12. dances flamenco pasodoble salsa rumba home

13. flamenco Flamenco is a style of music which is considered part of the culture of Spain, but is actually native to only one region: Andalusia. The term is also applied to the dance style performed to flamenco music. Andalusian, Gypsy, Sephardic, Moorish and Byzantine influences have been detected in flamenco, often said to have coalesced prior to and after the Reconquista was completed, in the 15th century. The origins of the term are unclear; the word flamenco itself was not recorded until the 18th century. Flamenco is the music of the Andalusian gypsies and played in their social community. Andalusian people who grew up around gypsies were also accepted as "flamencos" (Paco de Lucía). Other regions, mainly Extremadura and Murcia, have also contributed to the development of flamenco, and many flamenco artists have been born outside Andalusia. Latin American and especially Cuban influences have also contributed, as evidenced in the dances of "Ida y Vuelta". home

14. salsa Salsa is a syncretic dance genre from Cuba, as the meeting point of European and African popular culture. It later spreads to Puerto Rico and the rest of the Carribean Isles. Salsa is essentially Cuban with deep Afro-Cuban beats, and taking musical influences from Son, Guaguancó, Rumba, and later improvised to regional rhythms such as Boogaloo, Pachanga, Guaracha, and Bomba. Johnny Pacheco, creator of the Fania All-Stars, who "brought salsa to New York", with members including Tito Puente, Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, Larry Harlow, Johnny Pacheco, Roberto Roena and Bobby Valentín, says "Bueno, la Salsa es y siempre ha sido la Música Cubana", meaning "Well, salsa is and has always been Cuban music." Salsa is normally a partner dance, although there are recognized solo forms, line dancing (suelta), and Rueda de Casino where groups of couples exchange partners in a circle. Salsa can be improvised or performed with a set routine. Salsa is popular throughout Latin America, and also in the United States, Spain, Japan, Portugal, France, Eastern Europe and Italy. The name "salsa" is the Spanish word for sauce, connoting, in American Spanish, a spicy flavor. Salsa also suggests a "mixture" of ingredients, though this meaning is not found in most stories of the term's origin. home

15. pasodoble Pasodoble (literal meaning in Spanish: double-step) is a typical Spanish march-like musical style as well as the corresponding dance style danced by a couple. It is the type of music typically played in bullfights during the bullfighters' entrance to the ring (paseo) or during the passes (faena) just before the kill. It corresponds to the Pasodoble dance (traditional and ballroom). Paso Doble or pasodoble is a lively style of dance to the duple meter march-like pasodoble music. It actually originated in southern France, but is modeled after the sound, drama, and movement of the Spanish bullfight. Paso doble means "double step" in Spanish. Famous bullfighters have been honored with pasodoble tunes named after them. Others are inspired in patriotic motives or local characters. home

16. rumba Rumba is a Spanish word that means "party". The word describes a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers. It is secular, with no religious connections. The details of how it developed are not fully known. The term spread in the 1930s and 1940s to the faster popular music of Cuba (the Peanut Vendor was a classic), where it was used as a catch-all term, rather as salsa today. Also, the term is used in the international Latin-American dance syllabus, where it is a misnomer: the music used for this slower dance is the bolero-son. home

17. traditions corrida la tomatina Night of Saint Juan Christmas Eve/Christmas New Year's Eve home

18. corrida Bullfighting also known as tauromachy (from Greek ταυρομαχία - tauromachia, "bull-fight"), is a traditional spectacle of Spain, Portugal, some cities in southern France and in several Latin American countries, in which one or more bulls are ritually killed in a bullring as a public spectacle. In Portugal it is illegal to kill a bull in the arena, a nonlethal variant stemming from Portuguese influence is also practiced on the Tanzanian island of Pemba. The tradition, as it is practiced today, involves professional toreros (toureiros in Portuguese; also referred to as toreadors in English), who execute various formal moves in order to subdue the bull itself. Such maneuvers are performed at close range, and have in some cases resulted in injury or even death of the performer. The bullfight usually concludes with the death of the bull by a sword thrust. In Portugal the finale consists of a tradition called the pega, where men (forcados) try to grab and hold the bull by its horns when it runs at them. Forcados are dressed in a traditional costume of damask or velvet, with long knit hats as worn by the campinos (bull headers) from Ribatejo. Bullfighting generates heated controversy in many areas of the world, including Mexico, Ecuador, Spain, Peru, and Portugal. Supporters of bullfighting argue that it is a culturally important tradition, while animal rights groups argue that it is a blood sport because of the suffering of the bull and horses during the bullfight. home

19. la tomatina La Tomatina is a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the town of Buñol in the Valencia region of Spain. Tens of thousands of participants come from all over the world to fight in a brutal battle where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets in exactly one hour. The week-long festival features music, parades, dancing, and fireworks. On the night before, participants of the festival compete in a paella cooking contest. It is tradition for the women to wear all white and the men to wear no shirts. This festival started in a casual way in 1945, but wasn't officially recognized until 1952. Approximately 20,000–50,000 tourists come to find out more about the tomato fight, multiply by several times Buñol's normal population of slightly over 9,000. There is limited accommodation for people who come to La Tomatina, and thus many participants stay in Valencia and travel by bus or train to Buñol, about 38 km outside the city. In preparation for the dirty mess that will ensue, shopkeepers use huge plastic covers on their storefronts in order to protect them. They also use about 150,000 tomatoes, just about 90,000 pounds. home

20. Night of Saint Juan Night of Saint Juan(Noche de San Juan)When: Night of June 23 This festival is also known as the Night of the Witches, an aura of magic envelops Valencia during this national holiday celebrating both San Juan and the coming of summer. Valencianos gravitate to the city's beaches, Malvarrosa and Arenal, which are lined with small bonfires and hoards of people. Along with music, dancing, open-air fairs and the ever-present fireworks displays, tradition has it that if you wash your feet in the water and jump over the small bonfires your wishes will come true. home

21. New Year's Eve Christmas Eve / Christmas Christmas Eve / Christmas(Nochebuena / Navidad)When: December 24-25 Decorative lights, nativity scenes - especially the elaborate one set up alongside a soaring Christmas tree in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento), Christmas markets and holiday caroles set the festive mood in Valencia for Nochebuena and Navidad. Nochebuena, or Christmas Eve, is one of the most important - and usually one of the biggest- dinners of the year. Families, both immediate and extended, gather together for a night of eating, drinking, chatting and general holiday cheer.On Navidad, or Christmas Day, itself, families spend a good chunk of the day recovering from the previous night and gearing up for the mid-day Christmas meal. Children may open a couple of presents dropped off by Santa Claus, but the day that they're anxiously awaiting is January 6: Three Kings Day. In Valencia's Turia riverbed park there is also a Feria de Navidad (Christmas Fair) featuring knick-knacks, rides and fun activities for children and families. New Years Eve(Nochevieja)When: December 31-January 1Ringing in the new year in Valencia starts off as a family celebration full of copious amounts of eating, drinking and conversation. Then you can either flip on the television and watch the live footage of the countdown in Madrid's Puerta del Sol or head to Valencia's open plazas- particularly those that have a clock- with hoards of party-goers armed with their "good luck grapes." When the clock strikes midnight, you have to pop a grape in your mouth with each of the 12 chimes of the clock; if you complete the feat, you're looking at a year of good luck. Plus, it's a pretty entertaining spectacle! The night, however, is far from over. Late-night celebrations take over bars and discotecas as huge parties are held; normally you pay a fixed price to get in, which gets you open-bar and a night of fun and entertainment. home

22. famous places Barcelona Port Aventura Montserrat Alcover Tarragona home

23. Barcelona Barcelona is the capital and the most populous city of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, with a population of 1,615,908 in 2008. It is the 11th-most populous municipality in the European Union and sixth-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, London, Rhine-Ruhr Area, Madrid and Milan, with a population of 4,185,000. 4.9 million people live in Barcelona metropolitan area. The main part of a union of adjacent cities and municipalities named Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB) with a population of 3,186,461 in area of 636 km² (density 5.010 hab/km²). Barcelona is recognised as a global city because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts and international trade.Barcelona is a major economic centre with one of Europe's principal Mediterranean ports, and Barcelona International Airport is the second largest in Spain after the Madrid-Barajas Airport (handles about 30 million passengers per year). Founded as a Roman city, Barcelona became the capital of the Counts of Barcelona. After merging with the Kingdom of Aragon, it became one of the most important cities of the Crown of Aragon. Besieged several times during its history, Barcelona is today an important cultural centre and a major tourist destination and has a rich cultural heritage. Particularly renowned are architectural works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner that have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. home

24. Port Aventura PortAventura is a theme park in the resort of salou, Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain, on the Costa Daurada ("Golden Coast"), approximately an hour south of Barcelona. It was conceived and built as a joint effort by the Tussauds group (Alton Towers), Anheuser-Busch (Busch Entertainment Corporation) and Universal Studios. In 1997, Universal bought up most shares in the park and the park was rebranded as 'Universal's Port Aventura'. In 2000, two hotels and a water park were constructed, and the place was further rebranded as 'Universal Mediteranea'. In 2004, NBC Universal (Universal Studios' parent) sold all interest in PortAventura. It is now owned and operated by the Caixa banking group's investment vehicle Criteria, but as of 2005 the Universal name has been dropped from the branding, and the resort was once again named 'PortAventura' (the space in the name is deliberately left out for trademark reasons). It is the biggest resort in the south of Europe. It has 2 airports within 30 minutes of it, including Reus Airport. There is a train station for PortAventura which has connections to Barcelona and Salou. home

25. Montserrat Montserrat is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. It measures approximately 16 km (10 miles) long and 11 km (7 miles) wide, giving 40 kilometres (25 mi) of coastline.[ Christopher Columbus gave Montserrat its name on his second voyage to the New World in 1493, after Montserrat mountain located in Catalonia, Spain. Montserrat is nicknamed the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish descent of its inhabitants. Its Georgian era capital city of Plymouth was destroyed and two-thirds of the island's population were forced to flee abroad by an eruption of the previously dormant Soufriere Hills volcano that began on July 18, 1995. The eruption continues today on a much reduced scale, the damage being confined to the areas around Plymouth including its docking facilities and the former W.H. Bramble Airport. An exclusion zone extending from the south coast of the island north to parts of the Belham Valley has been imposed because of an increase in the size of the existing volcanic dome. Visitors are no longer permitted entry into Plymouth. The village of Brades currently serves as the temporary centre of government while construction proceeds on a new town at Little Bay in the north of the island, out of reach of further volcanic activity. home

26. Alcover Alcover is a municipality in the comarca of Alt Camp, Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain. home

27. Tarragona Tarragona is a city located in the south of Catalonia and east of Spain, by the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the capital of the Catalan comarca Tarragonès. In the medieval and modern times it was the capital of the Vegueria of Tarragona. As of the 2009 census, the city had a population of 140,323, and the population of the entire metropolitan area was estimated to be 675,921. home

28. monuments home Alhambra Tarragona Amphitheatre Sagrada Família Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar

29. Alhambra The Alhambra (Arabic: الْحَمْرَاء‎, Al-Ḥamrā' , literally "the red one"), the complete form of which was Calat Alhambra (الْقَلْعَةُ ٱلْحَمْرَاءُ, Al-Qal'at al-Ḥamrā' , "the red fortress"), is a palace and fortress complex constructed during the mid 14th century by the Moorish rulers of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus, occupying a hilly terrace on the southeastern border of the city of Granada, now in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Once the residence of the Muslim rulers of Granada and their court, the site became a Christian palace. Within the Alhambra, the Palace of Charles V was erected by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1527. After being allowed to fall into disrepair, the Alhambra was "rediscovered" in the 19th century. It is now one of Spain's major tourist attractions and exhibits the country's most famous Islamic architecture, together with Christian 16th-century and later interventions in buildings and gardens. home

30. Tarragona Amphitheatre Tarragona Amphitheatre is a Roman amphitheatre in the city of Tarragona, in the Catalonia region of north-east Spain. It was built in the 2nd century AD, sited close to the forum of this provincial capital. home

31. Sagrada Família The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (official Catalan name; Spanish: Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia; "Expiatory Church of the Holy Family"), often simply called the Sagrada Família, is a massive, privately-funded Roman Catholic church that has been under construction in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain since 1882 and is not expected to be complete until at least 2026. A portion of the building's interior is scheduled to open for public worship and tours by September 2010. Considered the master-work of renowned Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), the project's vast scale and idiosyncratic design have made it one of Barcelona's (and Spain's) top tourist attractions for many years. home

32. Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar The Basilica-Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar (in Spanish Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar) is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Zaragoza, Aragon in Spain. The Basilica venerates Blessed Virgin Mary , under her title Our Lady of the Pillar praised as Mother of the Hispanic Peoples by Pope John Paul II. It is reputed to be the first church dedicated to Mary in history. Local traditions take the history of this basilica to the dawn of Christianity in Spain attributing to an apparition to St James the greater, an Apostle who had brought Christianity to the country. This is the only known apparition of Mary to have occurred before her Assumption. Many of the kings of Spain, many other foreign rulers and saints have paid their devotion before this statue of Mary. St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and Blessed William Joseph Chaminade are among the most outstanding ones. The Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar is one of two minor basilicas in the city of Zaragoza, and is co-cathedral of the city alongside the nearby La Seo Cathedral. The architecture is of baroque style, and the present building was predominantly built between 1681 and 1872. home