In this masterly book, now in a revised and updated fourth edition, Michael Jacobs looks with fresh eyes at all the traditional delights of Andalucia while doing full justice to the lesser-known aspects of the region. He examines the underrated local food and drink, the extraordinarily varied natural scenery, the composers and writers who created the romantic myths and legends of the nineteenth century, the strange legacy of Lorca and the Spanish Civil War.
For long the subject was taboo. Now a new books throws fresh light on a forgotten war that raged in the 1940s and early 1950s in the mountains of Spain. Entitled Between Two Fires - Guerrilla war in the Spanish sierras, the book appears at a moment when Spain is involved in intense and often bitter debate about its recent past under the 40-year Franco dictatorship.
Manuel Cortes was a Socialist Party member, an activist in the peasant reform movement and an organizer in the farm worker's unionization struggles. He also became mayor of Mijas, where he was caught up in the ferment of revolutionary Spain in the late 1930s.
Gerald Howson went to Cadiz in Andalusia, Spain to learn Flamenco in the 50's. There the gaditanos (as the people from Cadiz are known) first regarded him as an oddity but gradually came to accept him.
The Spanish are reputed to be amongst Europe's most voluble people. So why have they kept silent about the terrors of the Spanish Civil War and the rule of dictator Generalisimo Francisco Franco? The appearance - sixty years after that war ended - of mass graves containing victims of Franco's death squads has finally broken what Spaniards call 'the pact of forgetting'.
Books about the history and culture of Andalucia: The Duchess of Rio Tinto by Martin Murphy, Granada, the seizure of the sultanate, Andalucia by Michael Pauls and Dana Facaros, South from Granada by Gerald Brenan, Andalucia by Michael Jacobs and more.
When the Romans invaded in the 1st century AD they proceeded to build whole towns and innumerable monuments, as well as roads, bridges and aqueducts. The two significant characteristics of their architecture are the arch and the dome, along with the sense of space and grandeur.
The mudéjar style of architecture emerged in Andalucía during the 12th century as Romanesque, with its close links to France and Italy, spread through northern and central Spain. The style, unique to southern Spain and lasting into the 16th century, flourished in each region as it was reconquered by the Christians.
There is much illustrated information available in museums throughout Andalucía about the life and culture of prehistoric man. This has generally been pieced together through archaeological discoveries of their tools and household goods; but of prehistoric architecture little remains.
Classic Gothic architecture, overlapping with the mudéjar style, spread through Andalucía from the 14th century with the Reconquest. As the Christians recovered the towns and cities there was a big movement to build churches. The design is characterised by vertical lines, lofty pointed arches and high ceilings.
Baroque and Neoclassic architecture was prominent in Spain between the late 17th and mid 18th Century. These two styles were not as influenced by the Muslim world as the majority of Andalucian architectural styles. Baroque dates back to the late 17th century and reached a peak in the 18th century. Andalusia was one of the places where Baroque blossomed most brilliantly.
Baroque dates back to the late 17th century and reached a peak in the 18th century. Andalusia was one of the places where Baroque blossomed most brilliantly.
The horseshoe arch, first seen in small churches erected by the Visigoths, was developed by the Moors and became the hallmark of their architecture; the Grand Mosque in Córdoba being the classic and most well known example. Other design characteristics brought from Syria by the Umayyads in the 8th century were plant motifs and decorative inscriptions of calligraphy running horizontally across walls or around doorways.
When people think of the history of Gibraltar they often think in terms of the bloody 18th century sieges when Spain tried to regain the Rock from the British. However, the history of Gibraltar very much reflects that of the Mediterranean and it could indeed be argued that it reflects that of man himself.
An historical overview of Andalucia from the prehistoric beginnings through the Romans and the History of Spain, Jews in Spain, Moors, through the Dark Ages, the Reconquest, Christian rule, Christian rule, Spain's First Constitution, the Bourbons to Andalucia moves with Europe.
Mark Williams takes the reader through the history of Spain in a descriptive way, unravelling the history of what he portrays to be Europe most fascinating country. The first page introduces us to the Romans in Spain and traces the reader through important topics such as Medieval Spain, Moorish Spain, the Spanish War and the Age of Franco.
This festival is more popular in the east of Andalucia in the mainly provinces of Granada and Almeria, It takes place on different many days through out the year depending on the locality.
Today the Sierra Nevada ski resort is a thriving centre of activity, but little over a century or so ago, it was nothing more than an isolated area within the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.
The runway was first established during the Second World War on the southern half of the 'neutral zone'. During the sieges this had been an un-demarcated strip of sand on the isthmus separating the British and Spanish lines of fortifications. It was said to be the distance of a canon ball's range. In 1813 it was used by Gibraltar as a Yellow fever encampment. In 1909 the British erected a fence and gate half way along. Between the world-wars Gibraltar marked out a horse-racing track.
The town's magnificent castle, now called Castillo del Aguila (Eagle's Castle), dates from Roman times, although earlier Iberian ceramics have been found in its water tank. The castle was expanded by the Visigoths and then further extended by the Arabs into a fortress, after the Moors invaded in 714.
The history of the Málaga-Costa del Sol International Airport is a story well worth telling. And it all began with an intrepid French engineer and entrepreneur Pierre-Georges Latécoère, considered by many to be the trailblazer that eventually led to the creation of Air France.
