INTERESTING PLACES.
KATE O'BRIAN
GOTARRENDURA AND IRELAND CONNECTION
In November of 2007, members of political parties on Gotarrendura Corporation unanimously voted to name a street in the town after the Irish writer Kate O´Brien to mark her long association with Spain, Avila and interest and constant admiration of St.Teresa of Avila.
Her description of her was,"A genius of the large and immeasurable kind of which there had been very few."
In 1951, she wrote a portrait of Teresa of Avila and her description was,' the least pretentious, the most approachable and most tranquil of christian mystics' .It is a personal tribute to great woman, one of the very few who truly merit the name of genius.
THE CHURCH
The parochial church honors his boss S.
Michael Arcángel. It was constructed in the S.XVII.
It stands out for his impressive presbytery in good harmony with the reed-mace
and the belfry finished off to brick.
On his interior the cover of artesonado of wood rests on semicircular columns
and arch that the ships separate.
The major altarpiece (for Francisco Vázquez)
is of overdecorated style. The body of the altarpiece is divided in three
streets by columns salomónicas monumental, of Corinthian capital and shaft
contorneado in spiral, covered by a decoration of thick foliage that is limited
loudly to the curled surface.
The central street starts from the same table of the altar, breaking the bank
that remains divided in two discontinuous zones that leave in the central zone
the sacrarium, on the sacrarium the exhibitor. Occupying the central part there
is a painting of the Immaculate Virgin, between clouds and surrounded with heads
of angels, more above another painting of semicircular form, has a breach of sky
and floating there appear two angels that support a crown to place it on Maria's
head.
The lateral streets are a bit narrower than
the head office, in each of them a very high niche is opened, in that of the
right side the image is of S, Roque and in that of the left side S. Blas. The
lateral streets have decoration of medallions surrounded with scrolls on the
niches.
Opposite to the Church the Hermitage of the Snow is placed, where a mass is
celebrated in his honor on August 5. It is necessary to emphasize that in the
year 1929 there was a great fire in the center of the locality, there were
burned a total of 31 houses and the hermitage did not suffer any hurt.
THE DOVECOTE
The property known as the
PALACE MEADOW belonged to Doña Beatriz de Ahumada and later passed into the care
of her daughter Teresa. In 1549, there were two buildings: "Houses with a field, with two dwellings within and a field with a
dovecote in it".
There is no trace of the Ahumada house now, but tradition has it that the pillars of the entrance portico of the church and the materials used in building the church are stones which came from that house. Today the Dovecote survives in good repair; Saint Teresa inherited this building through the laws of inheritance and she speaks of it in some letters: " Señor Alonso Vinegrilla. Please be so kind as to feed and look after the dovecote in these cold months, now that there are plenty of doves in it; and in this way we will see something from it this year. Please ask señor Martín de Guzmán for the carob seeds and everything else you need; he will be delighted to give them to you. Dated, the tenth of January, in the year MDXLVI. Yours faithfully, Teresa de Ahumada".
(Royal Academy of History Bulletin)
It is a building without a ground floor, of medium height, built in adobe rendered with mortar and large stonework at the corners. The roof is gabled. The internal partition walls are made of adobe (thicker than those of other dovecotes) with semicircular nesting niches finished in wood at the bottom to protect them from the continuous wear and tear of the doves. We must not forget that Saint Teresa used to call her new convents or foundations "Little Dovecotes" , by association of ideas, remembering the dovecote of her childhood house.
ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM
Visit to the museum "López Berrón de arte y etnografía" where the way of life and costumes of the La Moraña are shown, as well as an art gallery of the naturalist painter of Gotarrendura, Eugenio López Berrón.
This museum recovers the historical memory of Gotarrendura. It is an old farmhouse with a kitchen, a larder, alcove beds, animal pens, a wine cellar? The household goods and implements used by our grandparents' generation have been rescued from oblivion.
The museum also houses an exhibition of painting by local artist of international repute, Eugenio López Berrón.
THE FORGE
A former forge exists to the suburbs of this locality where it is
possible to estimate how our forbears were working the iron doing tools and
useful of tillage to work these lands. To his side the colt is placed to shoe to
the animals.Also it is possible to visit another particular
forge where his owner has worked many years and nowadays it shows it as an
exhibition of miniatures of tools of wood.