The Meseta is a vast plateau in the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and home to some of Spain’s most famous towns and cities. This is the heart of Spain covering much of the area known as Old and New Castile where ancient alliances were forged, and boundaries were often political and mental rather than physical or geographical. Castles were erected on strategic hills to ensure that small gains were not lost. Castile's name means land or region of castles, in reference to the castles (mostly) built in the area to consolidate the Christian re-conquest from the Moors.
After a direct flight from Manchester to Madrid, the journey begins in ‘Holy Toledo’, a town paramount for over a millennium in the fortunes of Spanish Muslims, Jews and Christians. The town is spectacularly situated with its towers and spires reaching up from a granite perch above the River Tagus. Though not large, the streets wind and tangle, making its geography seem as complicated as its history. Nearly all the different stages of Spanish art are represented in Toledo, which has Moorish-Mudejar and Jewish buildings, Gothic structures, such as the splendid cathedral, and many Renaissance buildings. In the 16th century, the city became home to El Greco, and Toledo has many of his paintings.
En route to Madrid, visit El Escorial, a monumental palace, monastery, and royal mausoleum which epitomizes Spanish Renaissance architecture, blending austere design with grandeur.
Madrid was founded by the Moors in the 9th Century, but it did not become the capital of Spain until the 16th century. Despite its relatively brief history, its architectural heritage is immense. The Hapsburg quarter near the Puerta del Sol is the traditional city centre and was built during the capital’s Golden Age. Among its many museums and art galleries are the Prado Museum with the world’s finest collection of Spanish art, the Thyssen Museum which, until the mid-1980s, was perhaps the finest private collection of art and the wonderful collection of modern art at the Reina Sofia Art Centre.
The trip is limited to 20 travellers.
Please note this visit has been organised exclusively for the Friends of the Whitworth Art Gallery and the above price includes one year’s annual membership to the Friends of the Whitworth Art Gallery.
Trip Leader: Mrs Nirvana Romell
Nirvana has been lecturing on the social history of Western art for nearly 25 years and has presented numerous lectures to the Friends of the Whitworth. She has also worked on collection interpretations and museum staff training. Her passion is cultural travel and she has created many unique cultural tours in the Balkans, northern Italy, France, Sweden and South Africa. In her work, she links the past with the present by combining aesthetic, historical and social theoretical approaches to art and culture. Those who travelled with Nirvana have particularly praised her ability to engage the audience and use her solid grasp of the subject matter to impart a lasting understanding of the artists, artefacts and their broader context. She has accompanied eleven previous Friends of the Whitworth visits also organised by Distant Horizons