Cathedral Church of Saint Mary in Murcia - V McGarvey cc-by 2022
I recently retired, or I have retired for the moment, after 25 years working professionally in Higher Education in libraries and elearning. I have decided to rest, travel, and focus on my Ph.D. research. I never had a gap year, I worked before becoming a student and could never afford it - although I travelled a lot in my working life. Straight after retiring, I took a round trip with my husband in Southern Spain, Alicante, Orihuela, Murcia, and Elche, I have recorded my pottery encounters on this trip, some within musuems with some attribution, others that are integrated as part of the architectural and environmental everyday, with little attribution.
A personal observation about heritage in Spain. The museums that I visited were very well maintained, and very quiet, some have English translations others do not, Google Lens and Translate provide excellent assistance. Not all the museums were open, maybe that is a consequence of Covid. On a practical level, when you are in temperatures pushing towards 40 degrees C and beyond, you become really appreciative of the air conditioning, which is plentiful in museums. And you leave Spain with the impression that heritage and culture are important, formally and informally in daily life. We were in Alicante at the beginning of the Les Fogueres de Sant Joan festival of Midsummer's Eve (St. John's Eve among Christians), and there were marching bands, a parade of large figures, fireworks, and speeches in the square outside the town hall. Although as with British heritage in Spain the intangible heritage is often separated from the tangible heritage, with attribution missing and rarefied, as with the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary in Murcia (above), the narrative of the workers who built the museum and their skills is very absent.
Large figures, in celebration of St John's Eve outsides Alicante Townhall - V McGarvey cc-by 2022
Alicante - Earthenware & Clay Sculpture
Gravina Museum of Fine Arts (Museo de Bellas Artes Gravina, abbreviation MUBAG) is located in the Palacio Gravina o del Conde de Lumiares, a four-floor building
constructed between 1748 and 1808 and a declared historical monument (Wikipedia). The museum predominantly exhibits paintings and sculptures from the sixteenth century to the early decades of the twentieth century.
Mubag Alicante - V McGarvey cc -by 2022
One cabinet, however, had a collection of items donated by people from their travels including 18th-century porcelain ornaments and two blue and white underglaze earthenware platters, with Willow Pattern and Peacock patterns, Spode, and possibly Delft.
I also made a new artist discovery Arcadi Blasco (Muchamiel, Alicante, 1928 - Majadahonda, Madrid, 2013) who was a
" a multifaceted artist whose practice was fused pottery, sculpture, and
painting in a highly personal and unique output on the boundaries
between sculpture and ceramics." BBVA
"Throughout his life he maintained a firm commitment to "the dignity of the popular." He did it from the main material of his work: the modest clay, which he learned to work in simple workshops of potters, tinajeros and ceramists, and which he elevated to the category of noble material, of the first artistic level. Also, an expression of this popular vocation is his desire to place his works in public spaces, to be integrated into the urban environment, to dignify it, to be assumed as their own by the citizen" Lo Que Somos
In MUBAG the work on display by Blasco is his Triptico de la contruccion - destruccion - transformacion 1978. A triptic clay abstract scuplture that illustrates the process of construction, destruction and transformation.
Blasco Triptic Alicante V McGarvey cc-by 2022
Blasco also produced public artwork such as "Monument to the Constitution" (1986) in Alicante which is on an island that is the intersection between two busy roads in the city centre. The sculpture is so detailed from the surface pattern to the diverse shapes that form the composition that it cannot be easily captured in a two-dimensional image. It needs to be visited and I am sure many tourists pass by without noticing it, as its earthy colours blend in so well with the urban Mediterranean City buildings.
Blasco Monument to the Constitution Blasco - V McGarvey cc-by 2022
Orihuela - historical and urban tiles
Orihuela is the capital of the region of the "Vega Baja del Segura" (natural region of the Segura River); it has been the capital of a province and also a kingdom. It has a medieval town center and an urban layout that is the result of its former rank as a University Centre and Episcopal, with five national monuments,
- Orihuela Cathedral - built between the 14th and 16th centuries
- Orihuela Castle - ruins of a mountaintop Arab castle
- Church of Santa Justa y Rufina
- Baroque church of Santo Domingo.
- Santiago Apostol - a 15th-century Catholic church (Orihuela Wikipedia)
Orihuela - V McGarvey cc-by 2022
Despite it being of historical significance the old town was extremely quiet, apart from the area beside the University, so there was an air of melancholy, although the buildings were well maintained. There was a lot of potential but maybe recent economic and social events had had an impact. The town was also punctuated by Spain's beautiful and notorious tiled benches, in the parks as well as outside the Museum of Reconquest, where tile benches flank a tiled fountain.
Museum of Reconquest Orihuela - V McGarvey cc-by 2022
Tiles were also a feature in our apartment. Tiles in Spain and Portugal are habitually integrated within the built environment and architecture. In Britain, we see tiling in doorways, pathways, and in civic and domestic halls, but sadly no ceramic tiled benches.
Orihuela apartment tiles and Orihuela tiled benches - V McGarvey - cc-by 2022
Murcia tiles and local connections
Murcia is a city in south-eastern Spain, it is the capital and the most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia. Like Alicante, many may just pass through via the airport onto the coast without stopping, which is sad because its old town is picturesque with stunning architecture. The Segura River separates the old town from the El Carmen area where we were staying. Murcia's economy is mainly tourism and agriculture (Murcia Wikipedia)
Murcia - V McGarvey cc-by 2022
Earthenware Ceramics for Cartagena, La Amistad & La Catagenera Industrial Ceramica
V McGarvey cc-by 2022
The other standout highlight was the Royal Casino of Murcia. The building is now a private members club, which was only restored just over 10 years ago after a period of deterioration. The building has competing architectural and artistic styles. The Arab Courtyard, entrance is spectacular with its Neo-Nasrid-style decoration. The work of Manuel Castaños, required more than 20,000 sheets of gold leaf. (Casino of Murcia Wikipedia) . The simplistic Moorish style of unattributed tiling against the lavish backdrop is a modest but outstanding part of the interior design.
Tiles Royal Casino Murcia - V McGarve cc-by 2022
We completed our travels around the Alicante Murcian region in Elche. Another city of Moorish architecture and classical buildings. This includes Altamira Castle, also known as Alcázar de la Señoría, built in Almohad times (12th-13th centuries), and was later renovated with a brick exterior in the 15th century; the Basilica of Santa Maria, and the Torre del Consell or Town Hall Tower which is the oldest municipal building in the south of the Valencian Region. The building of the central part of the town hall began in 1441. Elche is notorious for the Lady of Elche a limestone bust that was discovered in 1897, at La Alcudia, an archaeological site two kilometers south of Elche. It is currently exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain in Madrid. a replica is in the town hall foyer.
Elche - V McGarvey cc-by 2022Elche has a UNESCO World Heritage Site Palmeral de Elche, which is the only palm grove in Europe with North African origins and the largest on the continent. (Wikipedica Elche)
The landscape of groves of date palms, was formally laid out, with elaborate irrigation systems, at the time the Muslim city of Elche was erected, towards the end of the tenth century A.C., when much of the Iberian peninsula was Arab. The Palmeral is an oasis, a system for agrarian production in arid areas. It is also a unique example of Arab agricultural practices on the European continent. Cultivation of date palms in Elche is known at least since the Iberian times, dating around the fifth century B.C. (UNESCO)
The Museo Del Palmera is situated in a traditional 19th Century house. What is striking is how effectively the museum exhibits the tangible heritage of the palm grove, its history, and social and economic impact on Elche, alongside the intangible cultural heritage of the associated crafts, such as palm cross and palm figure making, and date preserving. An unpretentious stoneware bowl used for preserving the dates is exhibited alongside images and descriptions of the date preserving process. I thought this was a discerning example of the material culture of ceramics, illustrated by the integration of the intangible cultural heritage of date preserving with the tangible cultural heritage of the bowl used for preserving. The museum is surrounded by a well-kept irrigated palm grove, which is open to visitors. It also periodically hosts palm plaiting workshops and demonstrations, in its outer buildings. A highly recommended place to visit and for me a fitting conclusion to our tour.
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Preserving Dates Elche Museo El Palmeral - V McGarvey cc-by 2022
Preparint dates & palm craft Museo de El Palmeral Elche - V McGarvey cc-by 2022
Museo El Palmeral & Palm Grove Elche - V McGarvey cc-by 2022