The History of Spain

40,000 years of blending

The cave paintings of Altamira

(40,000 years ago)

Flutter Butter by Salvador Dalí (75

years ago)

Celts and the Iberians were not alone in the peninsula. In the far

southwest of the Iberian area was Tartessos, and in the far

northeast of the Celtic area were the Basques.

Dama de Galera

(7th cent. BCE)

Dama de Elche

(4th cent. BCE)

Dama de Ibiza

(3rd cent. BCE)

Ruins of a Celtic village in in Galicia. Very little physical

material remains from the Celtic era outside the region of

Galicia.

Verraco (in Ciudad Rodrigo); about 400 such large, granite

animals have been found, dating to between the 4th and 1st

centuries BCE. Some are clrearly toros, some may be cerdos.

Tower of Hercules on the Galician coast, then and now

(1st cent. CE)

The amphitheater of Italica was the third largest in the Roman Empire.

Because Italica was abandoned for the current site of Sevilla, the

city was not altered or built over in later times, making it one of

the best examples of a Roman-era city in existence today.

The Roman Bridge of

Cordoba (built 1st cent.

BCE). Above it leads to

the Great Mosque of

Cordoba (first built in the

700s); below it looks to

the Calahorra Tower (built

by the Almohads in the

1100s).

Visigoth-era Architecture

Santa Maria de Melque in Toledo, built late

600s.

Santa Maria del Naranco in Oviedo,

consecrated in 848.

The extent of Islamic Al-Andalus at its greatest. The border between

Al-Andalus and the Christian kingdoms was constantly changing

through the 781 years between 711 and 1492.

Muhammad died in 632; by 732 the Islamic world reached from western

China and India to the Atlantic Ocean. Part of its success was due to

the Muslim conquerors’ willingness to allow Christians and Jews to

continue to worship as they wished, and even practice a large degree of

self-governance.

This statue of Abd ar-Rahman I

is in Almuñécar, on the

Mediterranean coast, 60 miles

south of Granada.

The progression of Islamic arches …

Top left, the mosque of Cordoba, begun

by Abd ar-Rahman I in the 700s, but

with additions into the 900s. Bottom left,

Madinat al-Zahara in the late 900s. And

bottom right, arch details from the

Alhambra, 1300s and 1400s.

In Muslim culture, the baths (which had a sauna, a warm room and a

cool room) were places of socializing and, in the case of the palace,

the business of governing.

From the very

large to the very

small, the beauty

of the 10th century

Cordoba califate

was renowned.

Carved ivory chest

made for the

daughter of Abd ar-

Rahman III.

The mihrab of the

Great Mosque,

decorated with tiles

given by the

Byzantine emperor.

After the Christian capture of Toledo in 1085, it became the gateway

for the flow of Islamic knowledge into Europe, and was made

possible by a great translation movement of Arabic texts into Latin.

Today the city proudly claims the title of “City of the Three Cultures”.

Alfonso X is credited with the establishment of Castilian (better

known as castellano, the royal branch of the Spanish language) as

a literary and scholarly language in the 1200s.

The Alhambra was originally a small Jewish fortress up on the hill

above Granada’s Jewish quarter (the original “Granada”). At first,

the new Nasrid rulers lived on the small hill opposite the fortress

(now in ruins). But soon they initiated a complete rebuilding.

The defeat of Islamic areas by Christian rulers did not always end

the convivencia. The Alcazar of Sevilla was completely renovated

in the days of Pedro the Cruel – and he hired architects from

Granada to make it the Alhambra’s Christian cousin.

The marriage of Isabel of Castile and Fernando of Aragon united

the two kingdoms, giving them the might to launch the war that

ended Islamic rule on the peninsula. They were rewarded by the

pope with the title, “the Catholic Monarchs.”

Isabel sought and was given

authority to establish the Spanish

Inquisition in Spain, and its first

victims were six “crypto-jews” who

were burned alive on February 6,

1481.

Columbus received the financial endorsement of Isabel (and

Fernando) while in Granada. With his three journeys, an enormous

amount of wealth began flowing into Spain.

Columbus’s tomb in the Sevilla CathedralIsabel y Colón (Granada)

Spain’s new empire reached its

greatest extent in the days of Carlos

I, grandson of Isabel and Fernando.

But in the 1600s, conflict took its

toll.

The late 1500s through the 1600s is

Spain’s Siglo de Oro (The Golden Age).

Clockwise from above: El Greco’s Burial of Count Orgaz; Juan

de la Cruz; Teresa of Avila; Miguel Cervantes

Carlos I was from the Hapsburg wing of the royal family (from

Austria). The Hapsburg line continued until Philip V, a distant

relative from France, took the throne in 1700. That began the

Bourbon line (including today’s king Juan Carlos).

Francisco Goya’s

portrait of the royal

family in 1800 is

widely viewed as his

critique of the family

as less than regal.

Following the horror of the Spanish Civil War

(1936-1939), Francisco Franco was the

authoritarian ruler of Spain until his death in 1975.

Francisco Franco

Picasso’s Guernica

Shortly before his death,

Franco restored the

monarchy by naming Juan

Carlos as the king. He

expected Juan Carlos

would continue his

direction. He didn’t.

Barcelona from Gaudí’s Park Güell Sevilla’s Barrio de Santa Cruz

Málaga at night A bodega in Jerez de la Frontera