Category: Liminal Space

Welcome to Burgos cathedral! The photo is a little blurry, but perhaps it conveys the overwhelming magnificence and grandeur that flood upon you when you enter. It’s too much to take in all at once, and this is just the barest view from the narthex into the great aisle surrounding the nave, from which radiates something like twelve chapels, with […]

We return at last to the cathedral! This tympanum over the South Portal of the Cathedral is a masterpiece of 13th century stonework. The central portion shown in the photograph depicts Christ Pantocrator, surrounded by the four evangelists busy writing at their desks, as well as by their traditional symbols. Above, arches of angels and saints surround the central image. […]

We continued our exploration of the central part of the city of Burgos in Plaza Mayor, where we came upon city hall. The neoclassical La Casa Consistorial de Burgos was built primarily in the late 17th century, with some small improvements since. Before they got their building here on what used to be the primary market square for the city, […]

There doesn’t seem to be any way to access this particular door to the Cathedral of Burgos. It’s well above the ground level immediately in front of it, and the sidewalk that passes behind the cathedral here is raised, almost like a bridge, over the chasm in front of the door. Anybody coming out of this door had better be […]

This is the entrance to the tiny Ermita de la Inmaculada in the village of Orbaneja Riopico. Why these doors are designed the way they are, I’ve no idea. My cultural guidebook, usually the final word in such matters, does not deign to mention the place. Most of my guidebooks only mention the village in passing, if at all. None […]

Back on the road to Burgos after lunch, and there’s more road walking – despite what the map below indicates. Just past the edge of the village, somebody has painted this encouraging sign on their driveway. The villages here as we get closer to the city definitely have a more suburban feel to them, and it’s difficult sometimes to tell […]

The stone circle near Atapuerca might not be much to look at, but it is a neolithic construction, now designated as an UNESCO World Heritage site. Humans have been living in the area more or less continuously for something like half a million years, with the earliest examples of Homo antecessor dating to 800,000 years ago or more. It’s an evocative […]