San Bernardino

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Church of San Bernardino
Stradone Antonio Provolo
Verona, May 2025

“San Bernardino is a church in Verona, northern Italy. The church, in Gothic style, was built from 1451 to 1466. The church's origin are connected to the presence of San Bernardino in the city from 1422, during which he founded a convent of nuns for the order of the Minor Friars and, later, another one for monks. He was canonized in 1450, six years after his death, and in 1451-1452 his successor Giovanni da Capestrano, with the bishop of Verona, Francesco Condulmerio, started the construction of a large complex for the order in Verona, with the support of the Venetian doge Francesco Foscari. This was consecrated in 1453, though the nave and its ceiling were completed only in 1466. Later a smaller aisle was added. The six bells in E are rung with Veronese bellringing art.” (San Bernardino, Wikipedia)

Catedral Vieja de Santa María

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Catedral Vieja de Santa María
(Old Cathedral of Santa María)
Plaza Juan XXIII
Salamanca, September 2025

“The Cathedral of Santa María (Spanish: Catedral Vieja de Santa María), known as the Old Cathedral, is one of the two cathedrals in Salamanca, Castile and León, Spain. Founded by Bishop Jerome of Périgord, its construction began in the first third of the 12th century and was finished at the end of the 14th century, in Romanesque and Gothic style. It was finished thanks to the impulse given to the works by Bishop Alfonso Barasaque. It is dedicated to Saint Mary of the See (Santa María de la Sede). It began to be built on the initiative of its first bishop, Jerome of Périgord (died in 1120) after the restoration of the diocese of Salamanca by King Alfonso VI of León, and after the repopulation of the city carried out by his son-in-law Raymond of Burgundy. This was a period in which Romanesque was giving way to Gothic, something that can be seen in the difference between the pillars and the starts of the ribbed vaults, since there is no constructive continuity between them, as the former were designed to support a barrel vault, and the cathedral was completed in 1236.” (Old Cathedral of Salamanca, Wikipedia)

Cloister of San Lorenzo

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Cloister
Church of San Lorenzo
Piazza San Lorenzo
Vicenza, May 2025

“The original cloister, built in the first half of the fourteenth century, was lost and replaced by the current one at the end of the fifteenth century, in elegant classical-Renaissance forms. In the centre of the courtyard, a Gothic wellhead from the second half of the fourteenth century was placed in the last century, which bears the coat of arms of the Loschi family on its four sides. On the northern side, under the portico surmounted by the convent cells, the chapter house opens up, flanked by two beautiful late thirteenth-century mullioned windows with elegant white marble columns, inserted into pointed Gothic arches. Also under the portico, on the eastern and western sides, numerous tombstones, statues and funerary urns belonging to different centuries, collected when, in the nineteenth century, it was decided to make San Lorenzo the city temple.” (Church of San Lorenzo, Wikipedia)

Palacio de Valderrábanos

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Palacio de Valderrábanos
Plaza de la Catedral
Ávila, September 2025

“The Palacio de Valderrábanos, also known as the house of Gonzálo Dávila , is a 14th- century building located in the cathedral square of Ávila. On the main façade, from its initial construction, a relief is preserved above the entrance, supported by a maiden under a trefoil arch. This relief shows the helmet with a plume and a Moorish banner with a half-moon. It is surrounded by a ribbon with the following inscription in Latin: ‘Non nobis Domine, non nobis. Sed nomini tuo da gloriam’ (Not to us, Lord, not to us; but glory to your name). It comes from Psalm 113:9 that Saint Bernard of Clairvaux imposed on the Order of the Knights Templar as a motto. On the right side, there is a large tower built of brick and adobe. The façade also still retains its mullioned windows, some of them twinned. It belonged to Gonzalo Dávila de Ágreda, a knight who was master of the Catholic Monarchs, governor of the Maestrazgo de Calatrava and mayor of Jerez. The palace was renovated and is currently used as a hotel. The wooden ceilings and coffered ceiling of the former Valderrábanos palace are on display in the Ávila Museum. The first client of the remodeled Palacio de Valderrábanos, converted into a hotel, was Adolfo Suárez, who stayed in room 126 in 1971.” (Palacio de Valderrábanos, Wikipedia)

Tomba di Antenore

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Tomba di Antenore (Tomb of Antenor)
Piazza Antenore
Padua, May 2025

“The Tomb of Antenor, also called the Sepulchre of Antenore, is a 13th-century monument created to honor an unearthed ancient sarcophagus, claimed to be that of the Trojan warrior and counselor Antenor, the legendary founder of Padua; it is located in Piazza Antenore, in Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. In 1274, during the construction of an orphanage in Padua, an ancient marble sarcophagus was uncovered. A local scholar, Lovato dei Lovati, said to have found inscriptions on a bronze plaque attached to the inner wooden coffin, stating the burial contained the body of Antenor.” (Tomb of Antenor, Wikipedia)

Federico García Lorca

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Statue of Federico García Lorca
Café Chinitas
Pasaje Chinitas
Málaga, March 2025

“The Café Chinitas, known to its regulars as Café El Chinitas or Café de Chinitas, was a small theatre or café singer that began its journey in the mid- 19th century in the Spanish city of Málaga (Andalusia) between 1857 and its final closure in 1937 by the Málaga municipal authorities during the Civil War. The establishment opened to the Málaga public as a theatre called Salón Royal until it was changed; on the posters advertising its shows, it was advertised as ‘Salón-Teatro Chinitas’. The name comes from a dramatic actor named Chinitas. On September 30, 2024, it reopened its doors after 87 years, in its same location, maintaining the essence of what it once was. In the renovated Café Chinitas, we can see a life-size statue of Lorca, leaning on the bar that welcomes visitors, a reminder of the poet's intimate connection with this place.” (Café Chinitas, Wikipedia)