Category: Spain

Postcard from Salamanca, Spain: Remnants from a week of wandering her streets

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Paused a minute under this painting to see if it might miraculously sweep the cobwebs from the corners of my brain, clear all bats from my belfry.

And the red-hatted statue of Saint Jerome, the patron saint of librarians, symbolically perched amongst large clusters of grapes. Surely this means he will help me speed up the research and writing and bless the amount of wine needed to complete the story of the Coker community in San Antonio.

Blogging lags behind our trip home to San Antonio. In the “postcard” world, however, all aboard for the next stop. Madrid.

Postcard from Salamanca, Spain: Random shots from a beautiful spot

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As unusual as it is for me, am simply rounding up some of our photographs from Salamanca with no accompanying words. The featured photo of the mirrored reflection of a soaring Gothic ceiling is about as close as we get to taking a selfie….

Postcard from Salamanca, Spain: Stonemasons’ soaring work pays homage to patron saint

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Saint Stephen earned the honor of serving as the patron saint of stonemasons the hard way. An early convert from Judaism to Christianity, Stephen traditionally is regarded as the first of the faithful to be martyred for his beliefs in the Holy Trinity. He was stoned to death for his alleged blasphemy, so he often is depicted bearing a trinity of stones.

But the stonemasons constructing the Dominican church and adjoining cloisters in Salamanca over a century or two beginning in the 1500s created a monumental tribute to their patron saint. His massive church stretches 275 feet in length and rises more than half that high at the transept. Primarily Gothic on the interior, the church’s façade reflects the Plateresque detailing in vogue at the time of its completion.

And, given that we are always on the lookout for our hometown saint…. Alas, an ancient statue of Saint Anthony has lost something major. While Baby Jesus rests safely in Saint Anthony’s hands on the façade of the church, inside he is missing. We don’t know how many hundreds of years ago the kidnapping occurred, but the shadow of the statue of the empty-handed patron saint of misplaced or stolen items seems attempting to follow the advice of the children’s chant imploring: “Saint Anthony, Saint Anthony, turn around. I’ve lost something that can’t be found….”