Our crossing with nature

About 20 Km from Ávila, Peñalba Mountain Range spreads. It is an old range with small round mounts where human presence is easy to be found. Neighbours from Peñalba, a very small village built terraces on these mounts to grow their harvests. They kept cattle in yards surrounded by stone walls and planted fuit trees, mainly pears.
Nowadays, there is no agriculture any longer. Vegetation is scarce: thorn trees, blackberry bushes, small oaks and grass. Pear trees have gone wild and their fruit impossible to eat. Cows walk up and down the soft slopes and the old shepherd house is in ruins. From time to time, a bicycle, a mororbike, a quad crosses breaking the peace and silence and making rabbits afraid.
Even so, it is peaceful and sort of strange in this arid land.

A Winding Destiny

This small church on the Dambovita's shore has many strange features.
First, its shape is unusual for the Orthodox churches, because it has no towers.
Then, it's position: it stood at first on the left bank of the Dambovita. Due to the river's channeling, it now stands on the right bank.
As the ground went down after the works, it now is one meter lower than the street's level, so instead of climbing stairs to get in, you have to go down.
It is the only Orthodox church in the world that has the inscription above the entrance written in Greek and Arab instead of Slavonic.
Last, but the most important: this is not the original church, the one built in the 17th century. That one was destroyed in 1987 during Ceausescu's regime. As it was so small, one afternoon was enough for the bull-dozers to tear it down. It was rebuilt in 1992 on the same spot and using the parts that had been preserved from the old church: the entrance with the inscription, the columns, the window-frames and the icons.

Outside

Right outside the town, a wild peaceful spot. Seeing the tall buildings and stacks enhances the escape feeling.
No more smog, noise, rush or worries. Just grass, a puddle, a tree, the sky and the silence.
What else do we need to be happy?

The Fountain and the Villa

When you enter the town coming from the Otopeni Airport, Bucharest greets you with some of its representative buildings and monuments, aligned along the Kiseleff Avenue. The first of them are the Miorita Fountain and, across the street, the Nicolae Minovici Art Museum, also called „The Crystal Bells Villa”.

The fountain is made of Dobruja granite and it was designed by the architect Octav Doicescu.It was inaugurated with other monuments in the year 1936, during the „Bucharest Month”. It took its name after the best known ballad in our folklore, „Miorita”, because its sides were adorned with black-and-white mosaic scenes from the poem by the sculptor Milita Patrascu. According the specialists, the fountain and the villa are in a perfect harmony. The fountain was recenlty renovated.

The Nicolae Minovici house, also called “The Crystal Bells Villa”, because of the 40 bells that were tinkling in its balcony, was built in 1905. The villa has rich carved stone decorations and a plaque with its owner’s favorite motto:”Improbus Labor Omnia Vincit” (Tenacious work conquers all). It is considered an architectural monument and its model was shown as a representative illustration at many international exhibitions. The collections it shelters consist of traditional costumes, rugs, furniture, pottery, musical instruments, every day objects, icons painted on wood or glass. There are more than 4000 objects. The villa also used to have a very nice garden, with rich stone ornaments in the 19^th century manner.

Processions, potaje and hornazo

Processions are the most famous characteristics in Spanish Easter. The ones in Ávila are very silent and austere. Although the weather does not allow all of them to go out, people attend with great devotion.

Such as religious rules suggest, many people fast or refrain from eating meat in favour of plates with legume, vegetable and fish, as potaje.

But on Sunday, hornazo is very popular. Hornazo is a kind of bread stuffed with sausage, ham, meat and pieces of boiled egg. Originally, only eggs made part of it.
They were considered meat, so they couldn't be eaten in Easter. People boiled them and kept them for Sunday.
These boiled eggs may be the only connection with other traditions in Europe, such as the painted eggs.
Diana cooked this hornazo for us last year.

Painting Easter Eggs

Painted eggs are the symbol of Easter, but what to paint them with? You can try using water colors or acrylic ones (these will have a life-span longer than the hen that laid the eggs has).

For people who like the traditional way, here are some more natural alternatives for the artificial paint you can buy in the stores. To be honest, the colors will be pale and undecided, it will take a lot of time and you’ll need to explain to the guests what you tried to achieve, but it could be fun, nevertheless.

Here is what you should boil in the witch’s copper:

For red eggs: red onion peel, beet pieces, common marjoram, red apple leaves (where to find them? Easy, in the grove, of course.)
For yellow: parsley, hardhay, saffron.
For green: nettles, spinach.
For blue: red cabbage, kept in water and then boiled
For brown: coffee, nut-tree or poplar leaves, but who would want brown eggs?

Any of the above ingredients will rather paint your hands, the pots you use in the process, the towels in your kitchen, than the eggs. It’s hopeless trying to avoid it. You can add some vinegar to the concoction, to strengthen the effect, but the smell…

In order to make the eggs glow, you can grease them with oil or fat. Now they will still be ugly, but they will produce stains, too. But it was fun, right?

After all this work, one more piece of advice for nice-looking eggs like the ones in the photo: do as I did this year, buy them already painted….

San Agustin Monastery

San Agustín Monastery, in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, where queen Isabel was born, has just been declared a Cultural Interest Building. Unfortunately it is almost in ruins. it belongs to a neighbour from the village.
He has tried to sell it several times because he can't afford restoration works. According to him the price is not very high, just enough money to buy a flat in Valladolid. But the possible buyers did not finally get the building, as the whole restoration would be very expensive.
The owner and his father had already done some works but he complains people do not respect the surrounding area, so it is badly damaged.
He asks the regional government to invest more money and help this kind of buildings owners.
Preserving historical buildings involves a great effort. Who should make it?


(Images taken from aviladigital.com)