Medieval Spanish ghost town becomes self-sufficient ecovillage

<object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/91pBFyLWIx4?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/91pBFyLWIx4?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br /><br /> It’s a utopian fantasy discover a ghost town and rebuild it in line with your ideals-, but in Spain where there are nearly 3000 abandoned villages (most dating back to the Middle Ages), some big dreamers have spent the past 3 decades doing just that.<br /><br /> There are now a few dozen “ecoaldeas” – ecovillages – in Spain, most build from the ashes of former Medieval towns. One of the first towns to be rediscovered was a tiny hamlet in the mountains of northern Navarra.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEoVot44_ktf2iX4I1X4EXI0p_hy9w2VraCssYztrmyecrX7AVVZ-jnzaB2ynpsADjQQhPNfZvKvg8OdnIE8wC3B1hn3FinfiMJP_qrOGB-yye1POOsb5lbO4VN43i3aV2PR9SSQg512k/s1600/watch.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEoVot44_ktf2iX4I1X4EXI0p_hy9w2VraCssYztrmyecrX7AVVZ-jnzaB2ynpsADjQQhPNfZvKvg8OdnIE8wC3B1hn3FinfiMJP_qrOGB-yye1POOsb5lbO4VN43i3aV2PR9SSQg512k/s1600/watch.jpeg" /></a></div>Lakabe was rediscovered in 1980 by a group of people living nearby who had lost their goats and “when they found their goats, they found Lakabe”, explains Mauge Cañada, one of the early pioneers in the repopulation of the town.<br /><br /> The new inhabitants were all urbanites with no knowledge of country life so no one expected them to stay long. When they first began to rebuild, there was no road up to the town so horses were used to carry construction materials up the mountain. There was no electricity either so they lived with candles and oil lamps. <br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/gab_gallery/medieval-spanish-ghost-town-becomes-self-sufficient-ecovillage/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from True Activist</a></b>

Medieval Spanish ghost town becomes self-sufficient ecovillage

 It’s a utopian fantasy discover a ghost town and rebuild it in line with your ideals-, but in Spain where there are nearly 3000 abandoned v...

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María Rosa Menocal, medieval historian, passes away

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU9lOarOck7l1pYUENICgQ0XADZTk_UbhYruvke1ITKNVFIcDf8-hKIVKwkoT7jHOI8DWzJVMagFjym7kpAZx9Veo9bTOgcyci-8FP382CRWfeYPcCQgWb0ANJJSQy4TFgVSNbWnWOqC0/s1600/Menocal.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU9lOarOck7l1pYUENICgQ0XADZTk_UbhYruvke1ITKNVFIcDf8-hKIVKwkoT7jHOI8DWzJVMagFjym7kpAZx9Veo9bTOgcyci-8FP382CRWfeYPcCQgWb0ANJJSQy4TFgVSNbWnWOqC0/s320/Menocal.jpeg" width="228" /></a></div>María Rosa Menocal, a renowned scholar and historian of medieval culture and literature, passed away on October 15th after a three-year battle with melanoma.<br /><br /> Menocal, Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale and former director of the Whitney Humanities Center, focused her research on the literary traditions of the Middle Ages and on the interaction of various religious and cultural groups in medieval Spain.<br /><br /> Her 2002 book, <i>The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain</i>, describes the rich cross-fertilization that took place among those religious groups. The book placed the interactions of Jews, Christians and Muslims at the heart of the formation of a diverse and vibrant Western culture, and posed a vigorous challenge to the notion of inevitable polarization of Islam and the West in the popular imagination. It has been published in numerous languages, and received wide critical acclaim. A documentary for public television based on the book is under development.<br /><br /> Menocal once noted that she was inspired to write the book because "... the medieval period has been, and continues to be, so grossly misrepresented in almost all of our histories — from the fact that we have so little knowledge that medieval European culture included, centrally, the study of Greek philosophy as it was interpreted by hundreds of years of Muslim and Jewish commentaries to the fact that we still use the word medieval to mean 'dark' and 'unenlightened' when, in some respects, Europe has never been as enlightened … as it was then."<br /><br /><b><a href="http://news.yale.edu/2012/10/15/memoriam-mar-rosa-menocal" target="_blank">Click here to read the full obituary from Yale University</a></b><br /><b><br /></b><b>See also <a href="http://www.medievalists.net/2011/12/18/culture-in-the-time-of-tolerance-al-andalus-as-a-model-for-our-time/" target="_blank">Culture in the Time of Tolerance: Al-Andalus as a Model for Our Time</a> </b><br /><b><br /></b><b><a href="http://mariarosamenocal.com/index.html" target="_blank">See also her website for more information about María Rosa Menocal</a></b>

María Rosa Menocal, medieval historian, passes away

María Rosa Menocal, a renowned scholar and historian of medieval culture and literature, passed away on October 15th after a three-year batt...

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Former church caretaker arrested for the Codex Calixtinus theft

A former caretaker of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, along with his wife, son, and another women, have been arrested by Spanish police n connection with the theft of the Codex Calixtinus, an important 12th-century manuscript.<br /><br /> The manuscript has not yet been recovered, but police believe that they will soon find it. The Director General of Police, Ignacio Cosido, said in an interview, ”I think we’re in the right direction to solve the case. The investigation is ongoing, but the main objective is to find the Codex.”<br /><br /> The police have also recovered €1.2m in cash, eight other copies of the Codex as well as other manuscripts (“of great value”) that had disappeared from the cathedral, and other church documents.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.medievalists.net/2012/07/04/former-church-caretaker-arrested-for-the-codex-calixtinus-theft/" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net</a></b>

Former church caretaker arrested for the Codex Calixtinus theft

A former caretaker of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, along with his wife, son, and another women, have been arrested by Spanish po...

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Academic seeks origin of mysterious Spanish cloister

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWBm0YenX-LuX1UpAQdNQpmxZCbvNFnHNQXGFpciOXw3YiLXmbpN022KUINEPVx1s6icUoa6sG8jfRVU0jmuNJ6FYBH7HB_br4prTRTr_wIsnu_Eigj3fudm7wEk-zntE1ijt0dRA9p-g/s1600/void%25280%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWBm0YenX-LuX1UpAQdNQpmxZCbvNFnHNQXGFpciOXw3YiLXmbpN022KUINEPVx1s6icUoa6sG8jfRVU0jmuNJ6FYBH7HB_br4prTRTr_wIsnu_Eigj3fudm7wEk-zntE1ijt0dRA9p-g/s320/void%25280%2529.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>Could a poolside folly at a private Mediterranean resort in Spain owned by a reclusive German billionaire actually be a 12th century architectural treasure spirited away from its original home?<br /><br /> This is the historical mystery being unraveled by a medieval art expert who has been investigating a cloister that has stood since 1958 on a northeastern Spanish estate owned by wealthy German philanthropist Curt Engelhorn and his family.<br /><br /> Gerona University Medieval Art History Professor Gerardo Boto believes the cloister, now nestled in a pine forest on the estate in Palamos, some 120 km north of Barcelona in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia, could be the remains of a romanesque monastery that was originally built several hundred miles away in the central region of Castilla y León.<br /><br /> "If its authenticity is confirmed, that could help us rewrite a few aspects about Spanish romanesque," Boto told Reuters on his first visit to the cloister.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/13/us-art-spain-cloister-idUSBRE85C13O20120613" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from Reuters</a></b><br /><b><br /></b><br /><b><a href="http://medievalnews.blogspot.ca/2012/06/who-has-cloister-around-their-pool.html" target="_blank">Click here to read Who has a cloister around their pool? </a></b>

Academic seeks origin of mysterious Spanish cloister

Could a poolside folly at a private Mediterranean resort in Spain owned by a reclusive German billionaire actually be a 12th century archite...

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Segovia: Within medieval walls

The throne clad in red velvet was magnificent, the embroidered eagle stared menacingly, and the dome embellished in geometric motifs surreal. Mariano Vela Bautista, the dapper guide with a salt-and-pepper beard, doffed his fedora and stood still in Segovia Alcazar’s Throne Room.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHXuBPVtxq4T3TGv-UdsHcWEj97e35BTBlvJxdjKykiw5HwWwCSs_vfi2Scpgb1iesBDFoR9vUERCX-NQKPtQsWk1e_14zRP99mUO10aREHaiCX-aCgzkozHcr-4WPHhefpZ3GTcm7MEw/s1600/Catedral_de_Segovia02.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHXuBPVtxq4T3TGv-UdsHcWEj97e35BTBlvJxdjKykiw5HwWwCSs_vfi2Scpgb1iesBDFoR9vUERCX-NQKPtQsWk1e_14zRP99mUO10aREHaiCX-aCgzkozHcr-4WPHhefpZ3GTcm7MEw/s400/Catedral_de_Segovia02.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />“This is where Christopher Columbus stood when Queen Isabella gambled on his proposal for a western route to China, a voyage that would lead to the discovery of America.” I looked at the ground beneath my feet — I was standing on history.<br /><br /> Almost."That is what Segovia is all about. History,” Bautista began his story about Segovia, a UNESCO World Heritage City which sits coquettishly close to Madrid, Spain’s capital. It is replete with twisted alleys, Romanesque structures, and legends that could tire any storyteller. <br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.deccanherald.com/content/255736/within-medieval-walls.html" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from the Deccan Herald</a></b><br /><br />See also this video: <b><a href="http://youtu.be/uKHRXY2UAKk" target="_blank">Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct</a></b>

Segovia: Within medieval walls

The throne clad in red velvet was magnificent, the embroidered eagle stared menacingly, and the dome embellished in geometric motifs surreal...

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Who has a cloister around their pool?

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWBm0YenX-LuX1UpAQdNQpmxZCbvNFnHNQXGFpciOXw3YiLXmbpN022KUINEPVx1s6icUoa6sG8jfRVU0jmuNJ6FYBH7HB_br4prTRTr_wIsnu_Eigj3fudm7wEk-zntE1ijt0dRA9p-g/s1600/void(0).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWBm0YenX-LuX1UpAQdNQpmxZCbvNFnHNQXGFpciOXw3YiLXmbpN022KUINEPVx1s6icUoa6sG8jfRVU0jmuNJ6FYBH7HB_br4prTRTr_wIsnu_Eigj3fudm7wEk-zntE1ijt0dRA9p-g/s200/void(0).jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>An exceptional 12th-century cloister has been sitting for half a decade inside the garden of a private home in Girona province without anyone knowing about it, except its owners and a few locals. Gerardo Boto, a professor of medieval art at Girona University, unveiled the discovery at a recent Barcelona art convention, where he amazed Romanesque architecture experts with a detailed description of the find, which is already being compared to the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos in Burgos. Most remarkably, it does not show up in any official inventory, nor does it enjoy cultural protection from any public agency.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/06/05/inenglish/1338897017_865476.html" target="_blank">Click here to read this article from El Pais</a></b>

Who has a cloister around their pool?

An exceptional 12th-century cloister has been sitting for half a decade inside the garden of a private home in Girona province without anyon...

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