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The town probably gets the name "arcos" from the Roman colony Arx-Arcis which meant fortress on high ground. (A much later fortress can be seen at far left). The "de la frontera" means it was on the "frontier" -- the border between the Christians and the Moors. Besides the fort (Castillo) at left we see the tower of the the Iglesia de Santa Maria de la Asuncion at center left, and the tower of Iglesia de San Pedro at middle right. Here residents look down down to see birds -- and sometimes their living rooms.
The lines on this topographical map do not seem to do justice to the 330 foot cliff we just saw. The river is called Guadelete which means "River Lethe" that you classicists recall being the river of the underworld from which souls would drink to delete the contents of their memory banks. After 5 weeks in Spain, we felt like we were drinking from these waters every night. Luckily we have photos to help us recall what we saw. The Guadelete was the dividing line between Christian and Muslim Spain.
Here's a river shot of the Guadelete river just before it wraps itself around the east end of the town which here resembles a lava flow of Andalusian white houses. It looks like it has much room for overflow which is a bit surprising as this area suffered a huge storm the night before and we expected that every spill basin would be filled. We found mud over the low-lying portions of the road as we traveled in the morning here; by evening when we returned, authorities had shut down the superhighway for repairs and our GPS had to take us back to Jerez by an alternative (and cow filled) route.
The Castillo here looks imposing, even with the Renaissance loggia added years later. Its pointed crenelations suggest that it was of Moorish origin and this town was the capital of a taifa kingdom before Fernando III and finally Alfonso X finally tamed it in 1264. The taifa kingdoms were small Moorish states the arose after the century-old Cordoba Caliphate -- which controlled nearly all of Iberia -- collapsed in 1031. The many small taifa states which replaced them were headed by emirs who would compete with each other to hire the best poets and artists.
On this trip we discovered the joys of Jane using her Blackberry in real time to access the wealth of maps and tourist information on the web. Here Jane reads Rick Steve's online description of the town we were in at http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/spain/arcos.htm . We ate in the restaurant he recommended and found another touring couple with his guidebook firmly in hand. (How old fashioned!) We saved on buying the guidebook but were greeted by a huge T-mobile bill upon our return to Houston. Mid pleasures and palaces there will be a a fee to roam.
Rick Steves calls Arcos de la Frontera the "romantic queen of the white towns." We found it to be a place of alleys, arcades, and arches swimming in whitewashed charm.
First we drove through pretty much the entire upper town looking for a parking spot (no luck). After parking at the base of the lower town's west side, we retraced our path by climbing Arcos's slippery hill until we encountered its main church: Santa María de la Asunción. Note the somewhat unusual double rose windows echoed by the two circles below them.
In most old churches, the congregation would enter on this west side and the Plateresque facade by Don Alonso de Baena here are delicate and reasonably well preserved. However, the view is constrained by the town's narrow streets. Note the buttress at left added after the church narrowly survived the 1699 earthquake that cracked its foundations. With additions such as these, it survived the 1755 (Richter scale 9!) earthquake that decimated Lisbon (about 300 miles away).
In front of the west entrance to Santa María de la Asunción is a small patio where the local kids kick around a soccer ball. (It's small, but the upper town's streets are much smaller). After the rainstorm, we saw this accumulation of mud on a 15th century magic circle used by both Christians (for exorcisms) and Sufi Muslims (for an annual pilgrimage.
Santa María de la Asunción is a funny church! Rather than its decorated west entrance which usually lines a small Spanish town's main square, we see this church's orientation on its long south side facing the Cabildo square. At center is the tower trying to lend a bit of baroque symmetry to this Gothic structure built on the foundation of a Moorish mosque. As is the case in many historic places, the grand view of the square is ruined by its main use as a parking lot. It's not always a parking lot; bull fights are held here and this town has an unpublicized -- and sometimes fatal -- running of the bulls. (Maybe it should be called the running of the bull as only one animal is released at a time on these streets which sometimes seem so narrow that the bull would have trouble turning around.) Check out the lowest arch at the center of this picture...
...here's the inside of that arch. (Unfortunately, the church was closed for repairs). We have a bit of a dome here with fairly sparse neo-classical details except for ...
...the ceramic depicting Mary's Assumption into heaven (and the name of this church). Here the frame overwhelms the subject. Guidebooks tell us the interior has a much more elaborate depiction of the Assumption on a 17th century retable and some earlier frescoes.
The tower seems to change personalities with each story, probably because it was built at different times when different architectural styles reigned. Churches in this spot were six centuries in the building and what we see today started in 1530, replacing a Mudéjar church which itself replaced a mosque. As the Christians drove out the Moors, victories would be marked by the ringing of the 10 bells of Arcos de la Frontera.
Note the cap of the tower with its 3 balconies which, from below, suggest the common Christian symbol of the shell (especially in Spain where it's the icon of the country's patron saint -- James.)
Here's another view of the fort (Castillo) where Ferdinand and Isabella plotted how they would drive the Moors from Spain. The Dukes of Arcos de la Frontera lived here before they built this white building which is now the town hall (Ayuntamiento). At the far left, note the...
... doorway, one of the least elaborate we saw in this town. The town hall was built in the 17th century. It survived the Lisbon earthquake that damaged the castle as well as the town's 3 main churches. But no one died in that event that occurred on a Sunday and All Saints Holiday as well. Later lives were lost when Napoleon's troops occupied the town from 1810 - 1812. If your eyes are good, you can see the town seal just above the door. It depicts a fort on top of water. Somehow the 330-foot-hill didn't make it to the logo. If you're squinting, see this coat-of-arms at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Escudo_de_Arcos_de_la_Frontera.svg
The main square is called Plaza del Cabildo. Through these gates, the earth falls 330 feet to the river. The town considered building underground parking here but through the place too unstable and built the garage at the far west end of the lower town. Views from here are extraordinary.
Another view of Cabildo Square from far below at the St. Michael's roundabout. At left is the truncated tower of Santa Maria de Asunción; In front and at right us the castle (Castillo). The Moors built this fort and Christians expanded it. In 1440, the town was given to the southern branch of the Ponce de León family. (The explorer who tried to find the fountain of youth in, of all places, Florida, came from the northern branch).
Looking down from the Plaza del Cabildo we see the fertile Guadalete river valley and the waterway gorged by the previous night's storm.
This recent construction appears to be close to chaos. The town's luxury hotel, the Parador, lost its dining room to gravity and this cliff. Here's it's hard to have a room with a view without becoming part of the view.
Before exploring the town further, let's take a last look at the 330 foot sandstone cliff. It's no surprise the Romans called this place the "high fort." The Visigoth king Don Rodrigo lost his life here at the Battle of Guadalete in 711. Tariq Ibn Zayid's and his Moors took over and the town was in the sophisticated Caliphate of Córdoba -- probably the most advanced province in Europe at the time. Ferdinand III took the place back for the Christians in 1250; but being on the border (which is what "de la Frontera" means), this was a dangerous place and the king would have to pay Christians to live here. Fernando's successor expelled the Moors from here 14 years later when they revolted one too many times.
We dodged the remnants of rain that cleared as the day wore on. Here we see some a working gargoyle on the narrow Calle Escribanos opposite the town's largest church, Santa María.
While the word "arcos" probably derives from the Greek word for high (Akron, acropolis), it suggests "arches" to our native English speaking ears. Here the buttresses of the Church of the Ascension hover over a typical Renaissance doorway. Many of these arches were put in place to shore up walls challenged by the 1699 and 1755 earthquakes.
Narrow white streets drew us to elaborate baroque porticoes such as this one on a cloistered convent, still in use by 8 nuns, some from Kenya with English better than that spoken in Texas. (Don't laugh, Houston has more native Spanish speakers than Arcos de la Frontera).
The convent was founded in 1642 on the site of the former prison. (The irony may be lost on the cloistered nuns who generally do not leave the place.) Like many cloistered orders in Spain, they support themselves by baking sweets. Somehow Jane and her Blackberry always seem to find these places and we backtracked to visit during store hours.
Inside you are greeted by a voice and a lazy Susan with a mesh screen keeping you from seeing the cloistered nun behind it. But my flash got the better of it and you can see the almost religious-icon-like partial face of the Kenyan nun who sold us our treats.
Not a lot of Roman remains survive here but over the centuries, the inhabitants have recycled their building materials. Many corners are propped up by Roman (and sometimes Moorish) columns. Exterior renovation often brings them into prominent display.
Just beyond the convent is this market with half of an elaborate entrance. In fact, it was the Jesuit church, or at least was going to be in 1767 when Charles III expelled the order.
Here's a detail of the entrance to the market/Jesuit church which recycled an ancient Roman column.
Once many townspeople place masks at the corners of their roofs to scare away evil spirits. This is the of the few that survive.
Here's another innovation: the scooped out area allows the occupants to look out and see what's going on on their narrow streets. Note the column on the corner.
Eventually the road leads to the 2nd major church: St. Peters. This was a great rival to Santa Maria church, so much so that its parishioners prayed: "St. Peter, full of grace, the lord is with thee," in a piquant Ave Petra when the Pope sided with Santa Maria.
St. Peters was built where the Moors had another fortress. Once again, we saw an elaborate Plateresque facade; once again, we couldn't go inside. But you can at: http://www.casacampana.com/stpeters.htm
Past St. Peters, we wound our way up and down the white streets until we came to the Abades Mirador with its expansive views of the rain-gorged Guadalete river looking east.
Lower town has pleasant retail space and some older buildings (or views of same).
This shrine in the lower town was a little eerie at first...
...until we realized that it pays homage to the costumes worn by Holy Week marchers.
The lower town has several historic buldings but often not as well restored as those in the upper town. Here is the old church of San Miguel, now used as a cultural center. Note the corner columns which almost compensate for the ugly power lines.
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