LENS-ARTISTS CHALLENGE #173 – Interesting Architecture

Tina leads.

I love architecture.

What is UN-interesting architecture? BRUTALISM, in my opinion. When style, elan, or savoir faire just won’t do, use concrete! Mercifully, if I have any photo examples, the are buried so deep in my archive I can’t find them. The following apartment-looking tower I saw in Madrid is a kinder, gentler, better reminder of most pictures I’ve seen.

Google images enlightens.

It is INTERESTING architecture that we are addressing. Among the many examples of architecture I observed in Spain recently, there were (at least) two notable aspects.

FIRST, various subsequent and superseding cultures and regimes re-used previous structures without completely destroying them. One of the most interesting I saw was in Cordoba, the Mezquita Catedral de Cordoba, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, a.k.a. the Grand Mosque (mezquita in Spanish).

It was constructed as a mosque from the 8th through the 10th century A.D. It was a very, very large, low level space, with Islamic/arabesque designs. [Click to enlarge. Hover and click the plus sign. Scroll up and down. Right or left arrow to another photo. Click lower right arrow. Zoom. Play. Zoom more.]

The reconquista and Catholicism of Spain changed all that. From the inside we see ceilings and altars soaring to the sky. The large choir seating (2nd to last photo) must have kept the woodcarvers busy. The bell tower surrounds the previous mosque’s minaret.

The following aerial view photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons shows the Catholic Cathedral rising from the center of the low level mosque. The bell tower is upper left. Enlarge the photo if you are able.

As always, Wikipedia enlightens Ad Infinitum.

Stay well, stay safe, be weird and wonderful, be architectural.

Oh yes, that SECOND notable aspect of architecture I observed……