Priego de Cordoba

[onlyMark]

Priego de Cordoba is another one of those blink and you’ve driven past it towns in Andalusia. It’s not on a main route to anywhere and is all too often devoid of any tourists whatsoever. Yet it is worthy of a walk around for a few hours.
In fact, we do it often in the evening as it’s about 20 mins to half an hour away from our house. This time though we arrived in the early afternoon as we had a visitor who wanted to see it in the daylight. Normally we’d arrive as the sun was setting.

The Romans arrived around the 3rd Century BC and remained until about the 5th C AD.
The Moors arrived in the 9th Century and apart from a brief time back in Christian hands in the 13th Century it remained Arabic until the reconquest of it in 1341.
The Baroque artistic style influenced the buildings in the 17th and 18th Centuries due to a famous architect and a local school of Art.

We’ll start off at the main square where the Town Hall is, built in 1952 on the site of an old convent -




Then we skirt around the side of the main streets to get to the “balcony” -








Lovely little statue on the edge of the balcony of a kid with a catapult -

[onlyMark]

This speaks for itself -










Cutting back through the oldest part of the town at the end of the balcony -




An ornate church -

[kerouac2]

Lovely looking well kept town of which I had never heard.

[onlyMark]

It's one of those interesting and attractive places that has nothing spectacular to make it stand out to get tourists visiting.

[onlyMark]

Nearby is the castle. The other end of the scale where simplicity rules -








Time for a quick snack of churros. To be fair, it wasn’t the best at all, but sufficient to nibble on -








We then come to -




The slaughterhouse -

[onlyMark]

Inside was a small art exhibition. I need my Spanish speaking spouse to translate this again as she did at the time but I’ve forgotten. I’ll try and update it later.
Quite sad -












Now heading through the main streets to what the town is famous for - but only if you know what it’s famous for, if you see what I mean. Some of the buildings on the way -
















A “hidden gem”. The fountain. On a hot day it’s a couple of degrees at least cooler here than the rest of the town -
















Last couple of shots on the way back to the car and home and a dip in the pool -

[lugg]

Fabulous images. I love visiting this part of Spain but had never heard of this town before. Great photos of interior of the church and the fountains and statue look like a welcome relief.

Looking forward to more .

[onlyMark]

Sorry Lugg, no more of this town. It was a flying visit and a few photos on a phone taken. No doubt we'll be there again next summer and take a few more though.

[bixaorellana]

I need to go to Spain!

Many thanks to your visitor who wanted to see this town in daylight, as it's an architectural delight and you got wonderful pictures of it. I particularly enjoy the interesting angles you captured in some of the shots.

The odd "flat" church bell tower is interesting on its own, but holy moly that church is almost crazily elaborate inside!

Not to sound too simple-minded, but the town is so very, delightfully Spanish looking. Love the old drinking fountain and your great photos of the sun in the water of the big fountain.

Thanks for another lovely trek on the Via Mark.

[onlyMark]

You're welcome.

[lugg]

Oct 9, 2022 19:55:32 GMT onlyMark said:

Sorry Lugg, no more of this town. It was a flying visit and a few photos on a phone taken. No doubt we'll be there again next summer and take a few more though.

Looking forward to more then and thank you for posting such an enjoyable report.

[kerouac2]

The fountains are great, but the stark fortresses are never really appealing. It must be admitted that southwest France has a lot of the same type of fortified castles but they don't look all that nice. At the same time, all of the frou frou of the French châteaux in the Loire valley can be considered totally appalling in a different way.

[onlyMark]

Ranging from basic fortresses to the later star fortresses and the fancy stuff you also see up the Rhine, for the impression of what a castle/fortress should be my favourite is still Krak des Chevaliers in Syria.

[bjd]

Wasn't the Krak des Chevaliers destroyed during the war in Syria?

Fortresses were never meant to be "appealing" -- they were to impress assailants with their defenses.

[onlyMark]

It was damaged but relatively minor in comparison to the whole thing.