Spain Casas To Castles

From traditionally conservative to unconventionally decadent, the buildings and monuments of Iberia form a collage of architectural styles. The remains of ancient civilizations are everywhere—from the Celtiberian tower of O Castro de Baroña and the Punic walls of Cartagena to Roman ruins like the aqueduct in Segovia and the amphitheater in Mérida . Hundreds of years of Moorish rule left breathtaking monuments, including Granada’s spectacular Alhambra , Córdoba’s Mezquita , and Sintra’s Castelo dos Mouros . The Catholic church has spent immense sums of money to build some of the world’s most ornate religious complexes, ranging from the pastiche of the Convento de Cristo to the imposing El Escorial . Spain’s magnificent cathedrals are Gothic, Plateresque, or just plain bizarre, like Gaudí’s unfinished Modernista Sagrada Família in Barcelona . Recent additions to the architectural landscape include Lisboa’s expansive Parque das Nações , Bilbao’s gleaming Guggenheim Museum , and Valencia’s huge Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias . The Roman ruins of Volubulis and Casablanca’s Hassan II Mosque provide two very different glimpses of the societies that have shaped these lands.

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