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CAROL S STONE's avatar

Timely and frightening observations with churches, authoritarians and bomb shelters interweaving in not so mysterious ways. Thank you for sharing your experience of the city on so many levels ❤️❤️❤️

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Andrea Eschen's avatar

That mixture of religion, politics, and people's lives has been revealing and relevant once again, I'm sorry to say.

I appreciate your comments as ever. Thanks.

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Marjie Alonso's avatar

Wow - I've never been, there, but what a place!

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Andrea Eschen's avatar

It's quite a place. It doesn't surprise me that you've never been because it's not on the agenda of most tourists and has never needed to be a tourist town. It makes sufficient money on olive oil production not to worry about those pesky tourists.

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Practical Globetrotters's avatar

The act of building on top of history is fascinating. As humans, we clearly gravitate to the same places over and over. It seems, sadly, that we gravitate towards the worst actions and behaviors in us over and over again, too.

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Andrea Eschen's avatar

So true. Another interesting tidbit about building on top of is that when the Catholics userped the Moor's palaces, they just changed up the decorations a bit and turned them Catholic. It's so interesting to see the Moorish design in Catholic churches. It has its own style of architecture called Mujedar. It's a lot less expensive to take over someone else's building than create a new one.

You'll see when you get here!

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Sandra Eliason's avatar

Wow, Andrea, thanks for the great history lesson and life lesson.

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Andrea Eschen's avatar

Thank YOU, Sandra, for reading and commenting.

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Jayne Marshall's avatar

Wow, I've been to Jaén and I've sat in the plaza in the last photo, but I had no idea about the history that was right below me. Thank you for another beautifully written and enlightening post mi amiga/vecina/socia❤️

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Andrea Eschen's avatar

Visiting the refugios antiaereos was definitely the most interesting part of the tour. Most of the remainder touched on kings, queens, royalty, and the church. I guess if a country has such a long history, there's a lot to recount.

What on earth did you eat here? You must have been fasting. I've seen nothing but traditional, old-timey Spanish restaurants.

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Jayne Marshall's avatar

Oh no! I seem to remember eating a lot of hummous from the Día in my hotel room. Very glam!

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Andrea Eschen's avatar

That's where I bought the hummous I'm eating right this minute! Probably the same Dia. I made dinner reservation in a restaurant to celebrate my arrival in Madrid tomorrow night.

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Jayne Marshall's avatar

🤣🤣🤣🤣 I would say what a coincidence, but given hummous is the only option it isn’t really much of a coincidence! Enjoy that dinner tomorrow night. Eat up!!

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Tim Little's avatar

Another great story from our recent history that should not be forgotten. Many thanks!

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Andrea Eschen's avatar

Thanks, Tim. In some ways, it's too bad these shelters are underground because few people know they're there. They should be a shocking and constant reminder. But if they were above ground, of course, they wouldn't have served the purpose.

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Martha Osowski's avatar

Breathtaking, Andrea! As others have commented, the layers are what are so astounding and impressive. The fact that this is so relevant to today is disheartening but also important. Thank you as always for uncovering history that I know I would never have known about otherwise! Keep on writing, and I hope the writing retreat is going well.

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Andrea Eschen's avatar

Thank you so much, Martha, for your kind and enthusiastic comments. Yes, it is frightening the relevance today; let's hope that politicians notice and DO SOMETHING!

Retreat was very productive, thank you. I have lessons learned for the next time -- what should stay the same and what I'd like to change.

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