Four of Spain’s lesser-known architectural wonders

1. The unsung historical metropolis 

Not far exterior the Islamic-gothic bastion that’s Seville, the lesser-known historical Roman settlement of Italica is a semi-ruin of aristocratic mansions and swirling mosaics round an amphitheatre that seated 25,000. Believed to be the birthplace of emperors Trajan and Hadrian, its fashionable profile was raised by showing in TV present Recreation of Thrones. 

2. The historic skyscraper

The Telefónica Building was Madrid’s first skyscraper when it opened in 1929, and shortly grew to become each a bombing goal and an air raid shelter through the Spanish Civil Struggle. At the moment, it hosts common artwork reveals behind a superbly restored facade fusing Spanish baroque and New York artwork deco types. 

3. The distant chapel

This dinky Romanesque chapel of Santa Margarida de Sacot will get its outsized oomph from its otherwordly location inside a volcanic crater in Catalonia’s Garrotxa area. Historians suppose the medieval unique was constructed for religious defence in opposition to molten hellfire beneath, although it was destroyed by a Fifteenth-century earthquake and changed in 1865. 

4. Gaudí’s hidden palace 

Barcelona doesn’t have a monopoly on the genius of Antoni Gaudí. The unruly architect, whose works dot the Catalan capital, was additionally known as to rural León to design the Episcopal Palace of Astorga: a castle-like imaginative and prescient of spires and moats for the Bishop of Astorga. It’s now a museum to the Camino de Santiago pilgrim path, which passes close by.

Read more stories and travel guides for Spain

Printed within the June 2021 concern of Nationwide Geographic Traveller (UK)

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