La Clerecía

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La Clerecía
Calle de la Compañía
Salamanca, September 2025

“La Clerecía is the name given to the building of the former ‘Real Colegio del Espíritu Santo’ (or Santo Espíritu) of the Society of Jesus, built in Salamanca between the 17th and 18th centuries. It is of baroque style. It differs the college, with an interesting cloister, and the church, with an impressive facade of three bodies. The name of Clerecía is due to an abbreviated denomination of its belonging to the Real Clerecía de San Marcos after the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain. Construction began in 1617 under the protection of Margaret of Austria, wife of Philip III, apparently as an act of reparation to the order for the imprisonment suffered by its founder, Ignatius of Loyola, by the Inquisition in the Mocha tower of the old cathedral of Salamanca. It was completed in 1754. The general floor plan of the building is the work of Juan Gómez de Mora. After the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain, decreed by Charles III by means of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1767, the building was given to the Royal Clergy of San Marcos, with headquarters in the Church of San Marcos. The latter subsequently ceded the building (except for the church) to the Diocese of Salamanca, which installed the Seminary of San Carlos in it. In 1940, the Pontifical University of Salamanca was created and instituted by Pope Pius XII, and the Diocese gave it the building as its headquarters. Although this delivery did not include the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Pontifical University suppressed its worship since September 2012 to be exploited for tourism. Only weddings of alumni and people linked to the Pontifical University are allowed.” (La Clerecía, Wikipedia)

Santa Anastasia

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Basilica of Santa Anastasia
Piazza Santa Anastasia
Verona, May 2025

“The church of San Pietro da Verona in Santa Anastasia, better known as the basilica of Santa Anastasia, is an important Catholic place of worship that stands in the heart of the historic center of Verona; it is located at the end of the decumanus maximus of the city in Roman times, near the point where the wide meander of the Adige river is crossed by the Ponte Pietra, where the two main traffic routes of the city, road and river, gravitate. It is the largest, most solemn and representative church in Verona, a reflection of a lively moment in the city's life, when the expansion and consolidation of political and economic institutions allowed the community, in synergy with the Scaliger rule, the Dominican clergy and the Castelbarco family, to make a considerable financial effort to build this important temple, a symbol of their power.” (Santa Anastasia, Wikipedia)

Ermita del Humilladero

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Ermita del Humilladero
Calle Humilladero
Ávila, September 2025

“The Ermita del Humilladero (Humilladero hermitage) is a Catholic temple in the Spanish city of Ávila , whose construction dates back to the 16th century. Located in the city of Ávila, it is also called the ‘humilladero de la Vera Cruz’. It is a hermitage made of Berroqueña ashlar stone whose construction was halted between 1552 and 1594, according to Juan Martín Carramolino. After leveling the road that led from the city to Madrid, the main façade (the south one) was buried up to half of the door. It is located a few meters from the Basilica of San Vicente.” (Ermita del Humilladero, Wikipedia)

Ponte San Michele

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Ponte San Michele
Via Ponte San Michele
Vicenza, May 2025

“The bridge, exclusively for pedestrians, crosses the Retrone River in the south-eastern part of the city. In this ‘alla veneziana’ form with a single arch, it was built in 1621-23, the third reconstruction of a structure originally made of wood (1265) and then of stone (1422). It owes its name to its proximity to the Augustinian church of San Michele, built in the 13th century by the Augustinians, but destroyed in the Napoleonic era; today only part of the convent remains.” (Ponte San Michele, Arte.it)

El Cenachero

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“El Cenachero” by Jaime Fernández Pimentel, 1968
Plaza de la Marina
Málaga, March 2025

“This bronze sculpture created by Málaga artist Jaime Fernández Pimentel in 1968 represents a typical and traditional figure of Málaga, the ‘Cenachero’ or Fish Vendor. El Cenachero sold fish on the streets of the city while maintaining the balance of the two esparto baskets he carried. These basket are called ‘cenachos’ in Spanish, hence his name. The cenachos were handmade of esparto and filled at the beaches where the central fishing net was landed. Generally, Cenacheros sold anchovies, but also traded in mackerel, sardines or whitebait. The sculpture shows how a traditional cenachero dressed: with a sash, the hanging cenachos and a hat to protect him from the heat. In honour of the twinning of the cities of Málaga and Mobile, Alabama, Málaga City Council donated a replica of this sculpture to Mobile, which has been erected in a square of this American city.” (El Cenachero, Ayuntamiento de Málaga)

Palazzo del Bo

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Palazzo del Bo (Bo Palace)
Via VIII Febbraio
Padua, May 2025

“The Bo Palace (Palazzo del Bo) is the historical seat of University of Padua since 1493. It is still home to the Rectorate and the School of Law. It is also home to the oldest anatomical theatre in the world. The University of Padua was founded by an exodus of professors and students from the University of Bologna in 1222. When the University settled in the current location of the Bo, a long time had passed since its foundation and, by then, all its structures had profoundly changed from the initial ones. It was now made illustrious by the value of its students and teachers, furthermore it could materially be considered one of the major European universities, and the most attended by foreign students among the universities of the Italian peninsula. Like many other complexes that have had a long historical life, that of the Bo also presents itself with a rather complex genesis and with events that, over the centuries, have contributed to modifying its physiognomy. Therefore, a historical analysis of the various components of the Palace, starting from the defined sixteenth-century nucleus, and then arriving at the imposing additions that occurred during the twenty years of fascism, implies an understanding of the events that have marked the life of the city and the university over the centuries.” (Palazzo del Bo, Wikipedia)

Simeón Sentado

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Simeón Sentado by Francisco Leiro, 2007
Paseo de la Castellana
Madrid, September 2025

“Simeon wanted to be alone to meditate, but he was so rigorous in his methods that he was expelled from the monastery. To escape the world, he went to the desert and there looked for a dry cistern, but curiosity was aroused, and his fame drew hundreds of people to visit him. He also visited the cave where he later took refuge. Fed up with everything, he had a three-meter-high column built, but it wasn't enough. He asked for another seven-meter one, but that wasn't enough either. Finally, he got one seventeen meters high, which he climbed. According to legend, he spent thirty-seven years there, until he died in 459. He was known as Simon the Stylite, and his memory is commemorated on January 5th. Luis Buñuel made a film about him, Simon of the Desert (1965), a cinema classic. Buñuel didn't let him die on the column, but that's another story. This is ‘Simeón sentado’ (Simon Seated), a bronze sculpture on a granite column by Francisco Leiro, installed in 2007 at the Cuatro Torres in Madrid. Leiro, who has other sculptures in which the biblical and the classical interact with modernity, wanted to see here a distracted attitude in Simeon, evoking the Hellenistic Thorn-Bearer, but also Rodin's thinker. I said distracted, but I could say relaxed: is good old Simeon meditating, or has he been distracted by the flight of a butterfly? No matter how high you climb, the world will always call you back. There, next to it, is the Torre Emperador Castellana, formerly Torre Espacio, with its two hundred and thirty meters of height (the fourth tallest building in Spain) and many people perched on it. Are they meditating? The tower is also famous for the fire that broke out there while it was still under construction, in September 2006. Will Simeon think of this when he sees people staring curiously at him from above?” (Simeón sentado, La Acequia)