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Art & Architecture

The best way to discover our hidden treasures is on your custom private escorted Northern Spain tour with us.  Lines between art and architecture blur in Northern Spain.  It’s hard to discern where one ends and the other begins. Iconic structures such as the Guggenheim Bilbao art museum are obvious examples, yet many hidden gems go unnoticed.  


art/ärt/

The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.


Less obvious are the smaller art museums of Northern Spain that house wonderful collections but are missed by most travelers.  There is much more to gaze upon if you know where to look.  Beginning with prehistoric cave art through renaissance masters and onto cutting edge contemporary, you´ll find a variety of art that spans millennia.  Many renowned artists, both Spanish and international, have their own little corner here.

 

architecture /ˈärkəˌtek(t)SHər/

The style in which a building is designed and constructed, especially with regard to a specific period, place, or culture.


Contemporary architecture might stand out because of internationally acclaimed architects, but much of the real architectural magic of Northern Spain lies in its storied past.  Religious, military and civil architecture exhibits a broad range of styles:  Celtic, Roman, Visigoth, Pre-Romanesque, Mozarabic, Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque.  Modernist and contemporary works also hold a very important place here.

 

Do art and architecture capture you?  Be captured by your private, escorted Northern Spain tour with us.  Charles, your Chief Experience Officer, will custom design your tour, guided by your interests and tailor an experience that will exceed your expectations.  A Northern Spain art tour or a Northern Spain architecture tour can be a focus for your custom tour.   My tour area covers traditional Northern Spain, including the regions of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Euskadi (Basque Country), Navarra, La Rioja and northern Castilla & Leon (Leon, Palencia and Burgos). 


Northern Spain Art & Architecture on the Net

Bodegas Piérola and Hotel FyA

The recently opened FyA Winery-Hotel by Carlos Bujanda is a new model of winery and hotel that combines the production of high quality wines from the DOCa Rioja with wine tourism, sustainability and culture. The winery building has a unique, avant-garde aesthetic, which stands out for its modern architectural configuration. The chromatic range of its façade blends into the surroundings by using four easily-recognisable hues found in the surrounding landscape: the tile-brown of the clay-ferrous soils typical of Rioja Alta, the classic ochre of the clay-limestone soil of Rioja Alavesa and the more common dark brown of Rioja Oriental, together with the characteristic garnet-red of Rioja wines.

Picasso’s ‘Guernica’: 10 Facts You Didn’t Know

Internationally acclaimed Spanish artist Pablo Picasso is revered for his masterpiece ‘Guernica’ – one of the most powerful and iconic paintings in history.Picasso, who rarely mixed art and politics, painted Guernica as a reaction to the 1937 bombing of the town, situated within Basque Country, Spain,...

Gehry is not the first, just the best known, architect in the Rioja vineyards, which cut a 30-mile swath along the banks of the Ebro River in northern Spain between Logrono, the capital of Rioja and Haro, often called the capital of wine. Mountains on the south shield them from the cold Iberian plain and on the north from bracing Atlantic weather. Small medieval villages, monasteries, and walled towns cluster around hilltops. The “Gehry Effect” has turned a tour of Rioja wineries into a Modern Architecture field trip, highlighting international stars and introducing architects less known outside Spain.

The untold story of the high-society ladies who fueled medieval art in Spain’s Basque Country

Researcher Isabel Mellén finds women played more prominent roles than previously thought in the design, sponsorship and management of Romanesque churches...

The cathedral of football: Bilbao

Today I present to you something that we all carry in our hearts. Our cathedral San Mames. It is not a cathedral even if it has that name, we do not meet to pray, or see its Gothic arches or its beautiful stained glass windows. Today we are going to be playful and we change the classic for the modern.

Romanesque architecture of Cantabria

Cantabria, like the entire north of the Iberian Peninsula, could be considered, even in a pejorative or at least metaphorical way, a fascinating universe to explore and discover.Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.