The leaning tower of .....

Zaragoza of course, the leaning tower of Zaragoza. I have to confess that in the photos it does not look like it is leaning that much but it is enough to notice. This image is taken from the end of the magnificent square, well rectangle really outside of the big fancy church place. There is a fairly modern water feature in the front and then the tower in the back



OK it's time to admit it, you thought that the leaning tower was the one on the extreme left. No. That apparent lean of that one is an optical illusion caused by the angle of the picture. The actual leaning tower is the one in distance in the middle of the picture. It is called the Church of San Juan de los Panetes 
How Much Does It Lean?
It's not dramatic, but definitely visible — locals joke that the tower is "slightly tipsy" 🍷.
Fun Fact
There’s a popular myth in Zaragoza that the tower leans because the monks who built it drank too much wine while laying the foundations. 😄

Remember I mentioned a big fancy church place well it is in fact the Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar.




Here are some facts I looked up for you. The Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar in Zaragoza is one of the most iconic and important religious buildings in Spain — and one of the first Marian shrines in the world. 
Dedicated to: Virgin Mary, under the title Our Lady of the Pillar
Style: Baroque
Built: 1681–1872 (though earlier churches stood on the site)
Famous For: The Virgin of the Pillar statue, said to be the first ever Marian apparition in Christian history. 
The Legend 🌿
According to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared to the Apostle Saint James (Santiago) on this very spot in 40 AD, while she was still alive — making it the only Marian apparition during her lifetime. She gave him a column (or "pillar") of jasper and instructed him to build a church.
The small statue of the Virgin, standing on the pillar, is still venerated inside the basilica today.

That's plenty of culture, if you want more information than that, I have given you enough detail to look it up for yourself. Overdosing on culture can be very bad for the figure.

Sheila and I visited Zaragoza many years ago and we sat outside the Cathedral on a beautiful sunny afternoon people watching. We saw a couple arrive with a little boy who was ovbiously with them but was clearly not from the same ethnic origin. The boy frolicked happily in the sunshine for a short time while the "parents" or guardians chatted. Shortly thereafter another couple arrived and they too had with them a child who similarly appeared to be with the "wrong parents". Soon the gathering had swelled to about 20 or more people all in a similar position. The adults chatted while the children continued to frolick in a frolicksome kind of way. We were getting quite excited to find out what this gathering was all about when suddenly and without warning they all began to drift off. I guess it was simply a gathering of people who had something in common meeting for a chat. So that is our memory of the day outside the big fancy church place.

Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings on our Zaragozan adventure.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Arjuzanx and other places and more wetness!!!

Image
Ok apologies for the radio silence for a few days. Some of us have to work you know. Let's get you caught up without any further ado. I promised you pictures of Arjuzanx and I am going to have to modify that slightly to say picture, singular. I only took one of the war memorial. It is not the best picture of what I thought was one of the nicest war memorial's I have seen. The guy on the top was all painted beautifully and it was really striking. We stayed a couple of nights in Arjuzanx but the weather was awful. I was working and Sheila was confined to book reading and cooking. I must say the food on this trip has been pretty awesome. We often think let's eat out and so we go to the local restaurant. We look at the menu and the prices and think, sod it, we're not paying that. Sheila makes something ten times better for a tenth of the price. It is a no brainer really. Pork teryaki (or however you spell it) tonight. Might just open a bottle of my favourite 2 euro a bottle...
Read more

Fenny Compton or bust

Image
  After a few days of "radio silence" we are back. I had a very busy few days of work there and we were camped by the side of a fishing lake although there was not much actual fishing going on and we never saw any fish getting caught so maybe we should just call it a lake. Oh and on that front I guess it was really pretty small so maybe a pond would be better so all in all I think Seighford Fishing Lakes might be better to be called Seighford Ponds. Mind you it did have quite a selection of birds including a fine flock of Canada Geese. A tad noisy but otherwise they were good neighbours. It was, as previously indicated, a busy work spell and so we did not manage to do that much except work but it was notable that our journey from Banbury to Stafford took us (deliberately) through Fenny Compton. Now here is a test for you, where do you know that name from. Fenny Compton. It is a tiny village in the middle of England with not much happening. I can hear you know thinking, I know...
Read more