October 10-12, 2014
Another successful road trip with Owen. We visited the Picasso museum, the cathedral, the Alcazaba, Roman ruins, the bull ring, and the Revello de Toro museum. The city's history spans Phoenician, Roman, Arabic, and Christian eras. Remains from each era are still visible. The Phoenician ruins are in the basement of the Picasso museum, the 1st century Roman amphitheater rediscovered in 1951 is outside the Alcazaba and in between the two is the cathedral. Picasso was born in Malaga, but spent most of his adult life in France. I don't consider myself any sort of art expert, so analyzing Picasso's work I find rather annoying. I did enjoy the museum and that we had an audio guide to explain all the pieces. Our next stop was the cathedral which is built on the foundations of another cathedral then turned mosque. It is a Renaissance style cathedral built between 1528 and 1782. It is most notable in that it only has one tower completed with the second half-finished. It is comically referred to as "La Manquita", meaning in English, "The One-Armed Lady". The second tower is unfinished because the funds needed were given to the soon-to-be United States during the Revolutionary War. Next on our visit was the Alcazaba built in the early 11th century during the Hammudid dynasty. This is the best preserved Alcazaba fortification in Spain. It is less famous than the Alhambra in Granada, but I found it more interesting to walk around because of it being smaller and it was more like we were exploring it new than with a million other tourists. Next we went to the Museo Revello de Toro where his beautiful portraits were displayed. Revello is also from Malaga. The museum is in the home of Pedro de Mena who was a religious sculptor in the 17th century. His works can be found in the cathedrals in Madrid, Marchena, Seville, and even as far as Mexico and Lima. He was born and trained in Granada representing the Baroque style of sculpture.
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