MIGUEL SERRANO
The first night I spent at my parents’ house, after nearly ten years, I was kept awake by a feeling of nostalgia. I went out on to the balcony and saw the effects of time on the neighbourhood. It was no longer the neighbourhood of my childhood. Now it looked clearer, brighter. At three o’clock in the morning I got dressed and went out for a walk. While I was walking across the Puente de Piedra, I felt the rumble of the Ebro beneath my feet and a voice that said: Have you come back, Julian? It was a firm, steady voice, playing inside my inner self. There was nobody around. It was as if the bridge itself had produced that voice. The wind, going nowhere, accompanied me. The Basilica del Pilar also spoke to me, as did La Seo, on the other side of the river: You’re back, Julian. We really missed you! Their vertical, hoarse voices chanted, almost festive-like, mixed with thousands of screams, muffled sounds. All friends of mine. I walked on, crossing the square. It’s all here! Everything’s still here! a solid, angular building yelled at me, with its translucent base trying to stand in my way. I went around it and rushed euphorically, either full or bereft of sleep, into the narrow streets leading out of the square. The voices continued, overlapping one another, fighting over me. Behind me, the Lonja or Corn Exchange whispered: You’ve been travelling a lot. It’s time to take a rest. I dodged out of the way of a Renaissance palace that was bearing down on me and ended up, almost frozen to death, in an alleyway. I stopped to catch my breath, beside myself with glee, with my hands on my legs. It was there that I heard the clear and unexpected voice of my father, who seemed to be at least twenty years younger. It’s late, he chuckled in something akin to an echo. We’d better go back home.
The first night I spent at my parents’ house, after nearly ten years, I was kept awake by a feeling of nostalgia. I went out on to the balcony and saw the effects of time on the neighbourhood. It was no longer the neighbourhood of my childhood. Now it looked clearer, brighter. At three o’clock in the morning I got dressed and went out for a walk. While I was walking across the Puente de Piedra, I felt the rumble of the Ebro beneath my feet and a voice that said: Have you come back, Julian? It was a firm, steady voice, playing inside my inner self. There was nobody around. It was as if the bridge itself had produced that voice. The wind, going nowhere, accompanied me. The Basilica del Pilar also spoke to me, as did La Seo, on the other side of the river: You’re back, Julian. We really missed you! Their vertical, hoarse voices chanted, almost festive-like, mixed with thousands of screams, muffled sounds. All friends of mine. I walked on, crossing the square. It’s all here! Everything’s still here! a solid, angular building yelled at me, with its translucent base trying to stand in my way. I went around it and rushed euphorically, either full or bereft of sleep, into the narrow streets leading out of the square. The voices continued, overlapping one another, fighting over me. Behind me, the Lonja or Corn Exchange whispered: You’ve been travelling a lot. It’s time to take a rest. I dodged out of the way of a Renaissance palace that was bearing down on me and ended up, almost frozen to death, in an alleyway. I stopped to catch my breath, beside myself with glee, with my hands on my legs. It was there that I heard the clear and unexpected voice of my father, who seemed to be at least twenty years younger. It’s late, he chuckled in something akin to an echo. We’d better go back home.
Pasaje del Comercio y de la Industria, designed by Fernando de Yarza, 1883. The oldest shopping arcade in a Zaragoza that looked towards Europe.
© Angélica Montes
VIDEO
© Angélica Montes
Lonja de Mercaderes, 1551. A key monument of Renaissance civil architecture in a city that “all but emitted its own aroma of Italy” (Mateo Alemán).
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
La Lonja Palace. Close-up of carved wooden eaves and the mysterious faces on the façade.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Close-up of La Lonja Palace door.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
“The River Ebro falls silent as it flows past the Basilica del Pilar” (from the Aragonese pasodoble Sierra de Luna, by Francisco de Val).
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Apotheosis of the Virgin Mary and model of Baroque churches in Aragon. Basílica del Pilar, south aisle.
© Javier Romeo
© Javier Romeo
Plaza del Pilar and main façade of the basilica.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Plaza del Pilar.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Sunny afternoon
from Santiago Bridge.
© Angélica Montes
from Santiago Bridge.
© Angélica Montes
Early morning mist in autumn.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
“Boticario, canario, garras de alambre, le cayó una teja y no le hizo sangre” (Apothecary, canary, wire claws, a roof tile fell on him but drew no blood, folk song sung to the Apothecary, one of the Cabezudos - Bigheads - of Aragon).
© José Miguel Marco - Heraldo de Aragón
VIDEO
© José Miguel Marco - Heraldo de Aragón
Parade of Gigantes y Cabezudos - Giants and Bigheads - in the festival of San Valero.
© José Miguel Marco - Heraldo de Aragón
© José Miguel Marco - Heraldo de Aragón
Flower offering during the Fiestas del Pilar. Every year on 12th October thousands of bunches of flowers are placed at the feet of the image of Our Lady of the Pillar.
© Guillermo Mestre - Heraldo de Aragón
© Guillermo Mestre - Heraldo de Aragón
The flowers in the Offering in the Plaza del Pilar are used to build a huge mantle for the Virgin.
© Guillermo Mestre - Heraldo de Aragón
© Guillermo Mestre - Heraldo de Aragón
Caesaraugusta beneath the feet of Zaragoza. Forum Museum, designed by José Manuel Pérez Latorre, 1988.
© Javier Romeo
© Javier Romeo
A foggy night in the Plaza de la Seo.
© José Domínguez
© José Domínguez
The Baroque tower and Neoclassical door of La Seo cathedral with the modern prism made of onyx forming the entrance to the Forum Museum.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Plaster, brick and ceramic cover. Mudéjar wall of the Parroquieta,
or chapel, of La Seo.
© Angélica Montes
or chapel, of La Seo.
© Angélica Montes
Romanesque-style apses on the cathedral church.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Mirador del Arco del Deán (1585-1587), a triple-windowed gallery in plaster carved in the Mudéjar style.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Puente de Piedra.
Built in the 15th century. Reduced to ruins several times and repaired to its present state.
© Angélica Montes
Built in the 15th century. Reduced to ruins several times and repaired to its present state.
© Angélica Montes
Gallery of Casa Solans, belonging to the flour merchant Juan Solans and constructed in an eclectic language by Miguel Ángel Navarro between 1918 and 1921.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Former Patria biscuit factory. Industrial architecture of eclectic style. Designed by Félix Navarro
in 1909.
© Angélica Montes
in 1909.
© Angélica Montes
Chimneys of the old Sugar Factory of Aragon, designed by the architect Luis Aladrén in 1893 and renovated in 2010 for municipal use.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Estación del Norte, old railway station, built in 1861. Today it is used as one of the city's Civic Centres.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes
Spring on San Vicente de Paul Street.
© Angélica Montes
© Angélica Montes