Between the pine forests and the plains of Old Castile, the country town of Olmedo is home to Spain’s – and the world’s – only Mudéjar theme park. It is such a curiosity that even Spanish visitors are amazed. “It’s so strange, no? so curious!” The pony-tailed student from León looked baffled as he waved an arm across an exotically-landscaped site. He had asked me to take a photo of him and his girlfriend in front of a miniature reproduction of the famous church of La Lugareja, from the nearby town of Arevalo.
Mudéjar refers to those Muslims who remained in Spain after the tide of the Christian advance had crept southwards over their lands. For some 500 years the Christians nudged onward in a gradual process that is usually called “The Reconquest” although many prefer to refer to it, more constructively, as an era of assimilation of cultures. There were frequent reversals, the city of Ávila for instance changed hands eight times, but there were also intervals of prosperity and co-existence. Many families of Moorish artisans and farmers stayed on, to live and work under the new regime. They were allowed to practice their Muslim faith for a time, subject to certain strictures and tax penalties, and to continue to ply their trades. In the course of this they made a monumental contribution to the emerging nation of Spain. Their art and architecture, combining diverse elements of Moorish and Christian traditions, acquired a reputation and a popularity that outlived the people themselves. They loaned their name to it, and now the word Mudéjar is associated more closely with the architectural style than with the people who developed it.
In the territories of Castile that were newly re-conquered, or re-occupied by Christians, the first building to be installed in a town or village would usually be the church. Very often an existing mosque would be adapted to suit the purpose, and there are many church towers in Spain today with an elaborate Christian superstructure built on the base of an older minaret. Often, too, the clergy would start from scratch and, without great funds at their disposal they would naturally try to keep the costs down. In the Mudéjar population they found both a pool of cheap labour and a source of versatile building skills, with a particular expertise in the Moorish traditions of brickwork and joinery.
Here on the plains of central Spain there was ample clay for the making of bricks and, in the pine forests, a large supply of timber for the kilns and for the intricate joinery of the coffered ceilings. Patterned brickwork and artfully jointed and panelled ceilings became the principle elements of the Mudéjar style. Timber and brick were far cheaper than the cut stone blocks (known as ashlars) that were normally used in Christian churches and the finer Moorish buildings. To compensate for the absence of finely-worked sculpture or of rich materials such as marble, the Mudéjar craftsmen decorated their buildings with patterned brickwork and rhomboid friezes. Zigzags, herringbones, false arches and corbel courses embellished their work, and glazed tiles added to the effect although they were used only sparingly.
The Parque Tématico del Mudéjar in Olmedo is a Lilliputian fantasy, a microcosm of The Mudéjar, dreamt up by painter and sculptor Felix Aranz Pinto and supported by the local authorities. Besides the student couple from Leon I was its only visitor at that time, although I was assured, in the museum that doubled as tourist office and ticket booth, that a party from Holland visited that very morning, and that “thousands” of visitors came from all over the world. The sun was at its most searing as I wandered among flower beds, ponds and fountains, between which were waist-height reproductions of churches and castles. They were deployed casually in the leafy grounds, against the backdrop of an actual Moorish city wall. Some intrusive pylons and an electricity sub station introduced a bizarrely incongruous element. I had already seen some of the buildings in their full size “real life” form; others I would come across later on my travels. I found a pool of shade by a fountain, where a model railway circulated among the replicas of older buildings, its reedy whistle sounding at intervals through the otherwise silent site.
It was informative, unusual and more than a little strange. The heat was beginning to lose its bite as I left, and more visitors filtered in. I wandered among the streets of Olmedo and concluded that this town was altogether Mudéjar-mad. Besides the theme park, every trace of Mudéjar wall among the town’s old houses and churches had been scrubbed-up for display. There was a Mudéjar bar, bakeries selling Mudéjar pastries, the offices of the Ruta del Mudéjar…
For my initiation into the charms of the Mudéjar, I had obviously come to the right place. A great many examples of the style were to be found throughout Andalucía, and in the northeast in Aragon, but it was here in Castile, in the middle of the country, that Mudéjar was most widespread and evident. Leaving Olmedo, I approached the neighbouring town of Coca by a long road through a pine forest. It stretched out before me as straight as a ruler for several miles, forming a narrowing perspective of trees and road that diminished to a distant notch. There, framed dramatically, was a dark and distant tower. As I drew nearer I could see that it was a decorated tower – the Mudéjar tower of San Nicolas in fact, with eight storeys of arcaded windows.
It was an imposing sight, but one which was to be comprehensively upstaged within moments, when I entered this ancient little town protected by deep gullies. Dominating the vast open space outside the city wall was the same sight that met the Frenchman Georges Pillement, on his architectural tour of the early ‘60s:
“I have retained an utterly extraordinary image of Coca, which lies to the southwest of Olmedo. Advancing in African heat along these grey Castilian plains, broken only by ravines, we suddenly see this brick castle which resembles that of The Thousand and One Nights, unreal and fantastic. It is the most artistic military construction I have ever encountered, a masterpiece of that Mudéjar art which has produced so many delightful buildings. It is not only a fortress but a palace as well, a set piece.”
It clearly made a big impression on old Georges, a writer normally given to understatement. I could only echo his excited sentiments as I gaped at the same castle. Pink was the other adjective that came to my mind; Pink and Disneyesque. Quite extraordinary. It was built for the Duke of Alba in the 15th century. The popularity of Mudéjar was still going strong then, and was destined to last well into the 16th.
Completing the Mudéjar “triangle” of Olmedo, Coca and Arevalo, I arrived at the last of these, a place where the clock seemed to have stopped a few centuries ago. The impression was only fleeting, but recurred from time to time among the tangled streets of old buildings – some restored, some crumbling. On a spur at the edge of town, overlooking the vastness of the Castilian plain, stood a castle that was similar to the one at Coca, though far less elaborate.
In present times, Arevalo values its heritage highly and has conserved many, but not yet all its historic buildings. I worked my way among the town’s cranky streets, seeking out its collection of huge and ruinous Mudéjar churches. In the quietest corner of town I came upon the Plaza de la Villa, a sloping acre of cobbles enclosed on three sides by low rows medieval tenements, fronted by lurching wooden arcades. There was a magnificently restored Mudéjar church, Santa Maria, at the top end and, at the other, an assemblage of abandoned ecclesiastical buildings upon which storks had piled their nests. This was La Lugareja, the miniature of which I had seen at Olmedo. In between the derelict and the restored, the sound of circular saws emerged from the carved oak doors and wrought iron grilles of the old tenements. They were undergoing discreet gentrification by conversion to luxury apartments. Were it not for the racket of the builders, the deserted expanse of cobbles looked quite capable of re-awakening a medieval scene monks hurrying among market stalls, beggars and hunchbacks, ragamuffin children chasing chickens - but Arevalo’s clock started ticking once more and it was time for me to leave the Mudéjar Triangle.
Not that this would be the end of my Mudéjar experience, far from it. On my journey southwards there were many villages that accommodated a Mudéjar monument or two. I stopped briefly at Toledo, where a distinctly Moorish atmosphere pervades the narrow streets even though the city has been Christian since 1085. In Andalucía, Mudéjar monuments were again thick on the ground, in famous cities such as Granada and Ronda as well as in smaller towns and villages.
The Mudéjar style has been called a hybrid, a blend of elements combined through necessity; a repertoire of techniques. It has also been claimed as genuinely Hispanic, and the only significant architectural style that is native to Spain. The fabulous Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque buildings in the Peninsula were styled on originals from other European countries. Mudéjar borrowed from all of these, and also from pure Middle Eastern architecture of the sort found in the mezquita of Córdoba and the Arab palace at nearby Medina Azahara. Mudéjar also recycled ideas from the North African or Maghrebi architectural styles that were employed in the Alhambra of Granada, and in the famous Giralda Tower of Seville. What resulted was distinctive and durable. The Mudéjar style not only lasted 500 years in Spain, but was also exported to Spanish colonies of the New World, where cities such as Mexico, Quito and Lima can each boast some fine examples.
The Blue Guide to Spain, by Ian Robertson, is the best general source for art and architecture, if you can get hold of a copy. (currently out of print?)
Some definitions of Christian/Moorish Spain:
Mudéjar – Moors living under Christian rule; their particular art and architecture from 11th-16th century.
Mozárabe – Christians living under Moorish rule; their particular art and architecture, mainly 9th-10th Century.
Morisco – Moorish converts to Christianity.
Romanesque – Architectural style developed by the Monks of Cluny in the Middle Ages and diffused into Christian Spain from the north.
Gothic – The ‘pointed arch’ style allowed taller buildings and enlarged windows. Developed in France in the 12th century, proliferated throughout Spain until the 15th.
The Best of Mudéjar:
In Andalucía: The mansion of Pilatos in Seville. The Capilla Real and the church of San Miguel in Córdoba. There are Mudéjar churches in many towns including Granada and Ronda.
In Aragon: The churches of San Pedro and San Pablo, the tower of La Zuda and the palace of Aljafería in Zaragoza. The towers of San Pedro, El Salvador and San Martin in Teruel.
In Castile-Leon: Arevalo – La Lugareja, San Martin, Santa Maria. Coca – Castle and church tower of San Nicolas. Olmedo – San Andres, San Miguel and neighbouring monastery of La Mejorada. Medina del Campo – Castle of La Mota.
In Toledo city: The churches of Santo Domingo, Santo Tomé and Santa Eulalia, and the “Taller del Moro”.
Also:
Some Mudéjar monuments in the provinces of Valladolid, Segovia and Ávila. (the greatest concentration is here)
Aguilar de Campos – San Andres.
Alcazaren – Romaesque-Mudéjar apse in San Pedro church.
Arevalo – La Lugareja, San Martin, Santa Maria.
Ávila – San Nicolas tower.
Coca – Castle. Church tower of San Nicolas.
Cuenca de Campos – coffered ceilings in Santos Justo y Pastor.
Curiel de los Ajos – Castle, and church of Santa Maria.
Madrigal de las Altas Torres – Churches of San Nicolas de Bari and Santa Maria del Castillo; Penaranda gateway.
Mayorga – Churches of Santa Maria de Arbas and El Salvador.
Medina del Campo – Castle of La Mota.
Medina de Rioseco – Vaults of Benavente Chapel.
Olmedo – San Andres, San Miguel and neighbouring monastery of La Mejorada.
Penafiel – The apse in the convent of San Pablo.
Segovia – The towers of San Millan and San Lorenzo; the ex-synagoge of Corpus Cristi.
Tordesillas – Monastery of Las Claras.
Villalón – San Miguel.
This article first appeared in Living Spain magazine, a UK monthly publication.
