24 hours in Teruel

Teruel is a university town northwest of Valencia. It was important in the Christian reconquest of Spain (just about everywhere in Spain qualifies for that), but its legacy lies in the fact that the Moors and the Jews of Teruel came to an arrangement with the rulers, and offered their considerable building and artisan skills to the task of rebuilding. The style of architecture that resulted is called Mudejar, incorporating patterned brickwork, with tile inlay, arched windows, and turrets or domes. Teruel is one of the best places to view this type of decoration, in four towers which dominate the town, now UNESCO listed, and in its Cathedral and churches.

 

Wandering the old town would be very pleasant on a lovely day, because of the Mudejar architecture and also for its modernist houses, dating from the 1900s, when the middle classes has enough money to invest in new styles of housing. However, it was quite chilly on the day we spent here, so we chose to visit a church associated with the Legend of the Lovers of Teruel.

This is a well-know Spanish story, an Iberian Romeo and Juliet - boy and girl fall in love, are refused permission to marry, girl is married off against her will, boy asks for one last kiss, is refused, drops dead at her feet, girl dies, they are buried together. It has inspired many novels, paintings, music, etc. When two bodies were discovered in the church, buried together, it was assumed that they were the Lovers, and in about 2005, a mausoleum was built for to commemorate this great love story.

The Spanish love it. The day we were there, a class of 6-7 year olds were acting out the love story in the cloisters to oohhs and aahhhs of admiring onlookers. We weren’t so interested in the Lovers themselves, but the associated church was absolutely gorgeous inside, with vaulted ceilings, lovely stained glass, deep blue painted ceiling with gold stars, and rich red, blue and gold medieval patterns decorating the walls.

The other Teruel claim to fame is the Cathedral, also built in the Mudejar style on the outside with decorated tower, crenellated main dome and smaller domes, but quite plain inside except for its amazing coffered ceiling. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures and we had to be part of a tour (only Spanish speaking), but this at least gave us plenty of time to admire the detail on the ceiling, which consists of wooden panels, decorated with painted or sculptured heads, each different, of kings, queens, nobles, churchmen, artisans. Other decorations include animals, both real and mythological, scenes of every day life at court, at the hunt, making music, or religious pictures. I bought two bookmarks to remind me of how glorious this was.

A quick tapas lunch – such variety of choices. It makes boring old sandwiches seem quite – well – boring. The sun is making an appearance, so perhaps our decision to head further north is a good one.