Catedral de Málaga and More Beach

Monday February 24 was another beautiful sunny day with a high of 19C.  We decided to pay an early afternoon visit to the Catedral de la Encarnación de Málaga (Málaga Cathedral) and then head to the beach.

The North tower

Heading around the building to the entrance
The Cathedral was constructed between 1528 and 1782 and has both Renaissance and baroque elements.  In 1487, Málaga was re-conquered by Catholic troops.  Initially the Ajama mosque, the main mosque for the previous eight centuries of Muslim domination, was convered into a cathedral and consecrated under the protection of Santa Maria de la Encarnación.  Soon after, the construction of a new cathedral was proposed on a north south axis.  The main facade door was constructed in gothic style in about 1510.

The domed ceiling soars 40m into the air.  There are 15 chapels with incredible art.  Fortunately, there was an audio guide included in the ticket price.  The introduction in the audio made note of the beautiful Mediterranean sun coming in through the stained glass windows.  Today was a perfect day to get that beautiful light.

One of the stained glass windows
The main chapel and alter

San Raphael Chapel originally had a carved image done by Fernando Ortiz who had designed the altar.  However, the original disappeared during the Spanish Civil War.  A reproduction was done by Miguel Sánchez, a sculptor from Ronda.




















San Raphael Chapel

Tombstone of a well respected Bishop of Malaga- Angel Cardenal Herrera Oria (1886-1968)


Chapel of Saint Sebastian
After seeing a number of the chapels, one could go outside and see the two main towers, before continuing with the audio tour.
North completed tower
South uncompleted tower


Bishop's house across from the Cathedral

Very interesting section from a history of the church from the birth of Jesus Christ to the present day

Dolorosa, XVII centur,y from the Chapel of the Christ of Victories

Chapel of the Holy Heart

Chapel of the Immaculate Conception

17th century choir stalls of mahogany and cedar wood were designed by Luis Ortiz.  After his death, the 40 finely carved statues of the saints behind each stall were completed by Pedro de Mena (1628-1688), one of Spain's most celebrated wood carvers of the time, who spent some years in Málaga.

From the Chapel of the Virgin of the Monarchs. (King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella are seated)

San Pedro- stained glass

Chapel of the Incarnation

Chapel of the Virgin of the Pillar

One last photo of the side of the cathedral with the orange trees
 Definitely another impressive Cathedral in Andalusia, though unfinished.

After our visit to the Cathedral, we headed back to the beach, where we sat in the sun for an hour.  There were many fewer people than on Saturday when we were last at this part of the beach.  We saw only two brave souls in the water, for very short periods of time.  The restaurants on the beach (except for one) were closed today.

The beautiful sea
Gorgeous bird landed right in font of the bench we were sitting on

We headed back to Constitution Plaza, as a restaurant we wanted to check out is now closed for the upcoming week.  We decided to have a coffee at Café Central, one of the best places in town to sit in the sun.  A number of other cafés are in tiny alleys which can be quite cool (probably great in the summer time when it gets very hot).  The business started in 1910, but in 1954, the then owner managed to buy the adjoining two cafes to the tiny Café Central and expand it to the size it is today.  Part of its fame is the depiction of exactly how to order your coffee in Málaga, outlining the gradations of coffee to milk.  The location is great--- the coffee OK (we have had better).


The coffee chart
Alano with his coffee


Great spot on Constitution Plaza with lots of sun

After some more wandering (including a stop at Julia Bakery for a vegan scone), we headed back to the apartment.  Alano made a pasta dinner with fresh tomato sauce and iberico ham and a salad.  We started a wonderful bottle of a Málaga vermouth that our friends Vicky and David gave to us.

Excellent vermouth
 A chill day in Málaga.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Centro de Arte Contemporáneo and more Flamenco

Image
Saturday February 15 was another beautiful sunny day with a high of 19C.   We headed out late morning to the wonderful Mercado Atarazanas, which is open from Monday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  It is a very large market with some great purveyors. We started with the olives (aceitunas), a staple of Spanish food Lots and lots of olives Stained-glass window Where we bought artichokes  There were at least a dozen amazing fish stalls.  Very hard to choose! Fresh fish These were too big for us Our dorade Doradas Frescas--- yum Lots of sheep cheese!  We walked back to the apartment with our purchases. More street music Interviews at the fan zone on Constitution Plaza We had lunch at the apartment and then headed out to the Soho neighbourhood to go to the Centre de Arte Contempráneo (Centre of Contemporary Art).  First stop in the 'hood was Santa Canela for a coffee.  They roast their beans ...
Read more

Sorolla (Art) and Chick Corea Trilogy (Jazz)

Image
Sunday March 8 was cloudy and quite cool (for us anyway).  A high of only 15C.   Happy International Women's Day!  Still so much to be done for women's rights. Poster in Madrid for International Women's Day We decided to head to the Museo Sorolla, a small museum about a 20 minute walk north of the apartment. The Museum is dedicated to the work of Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla.   On the way there, we ran into a woman inviting us to enter a Pop Up craft market with works designed by architects.  It was being held at the College of Architects building. Sign for Pop up Courtyard of college There were a number of artisans with some very unique jewellery.  I made two purchases (Alano has already bought two pieces of jewellery in Córdoba and Madrid). I got a pair of the white free-form earrings The designer with  digital jewels We then saw a woman with some very unique jewellery with coloured elastics enclosed in metal....
Read more

Free Tour and Andalusia Day in Córdoba

Image
Friday February 28 warmed up to a lovely 24C.  We headed out to meet our Free Tour at 10:30 a.m. at Plaza de las Tendillas.  Christina was our guide from Oway Tours.  She is originally from Hungary, moved here eight years ago to study tourism and decided to stay.  She was very knowledgeable about her adopted city. Christina first spent some time on the history of Córdoba starting with its founding in mid 2nd century BC by the Roman Marcus Claudius Marcellus.  It grew in importance and came to be regarded as the capital of the Roman province of Hispanic Ulterior.   The Visigoths then came to Córdoba, but left very little behind.  In 711 AD, the Moors took control of Córdoba and made it the capital of a new province in the Arabic world which came to be called Al-Andalus.  Moorish Córdoba reached its zenith under Abd al Rahman III, who established a Caliphate which was independent of Damascus.  In 929, Córdoba became the most flourishing an...
Read more