On our final day in Spain, we visited Guernica as well as some caves in the hills nearby. Guernica is traditionally the seat of the Basque parliament and a symbol of Basque independance, and because of this was the victim of saturation bombing by Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Thousands lost their lives in one night. The photo below is of the Peace Park with Henry Moore's representation of a woman in an air-raid shelter.
The other photo is of me outside the parliament buildings. The tree stump has some significance to the Basque Government, but I'm afraid to say, I can't remember what.
These days Guernica has been re-built as a concrete nightmare.
The sculptures in the Peace Park are covered in graffitti, which initially I was appalled with, but as it was pointed out, under Franco the truth about what happened in Guernica was suppressed, so many Spanish people don't really know the full story about the place.
I have also included Picasso's famous picture "Guernica" on this page. This resides in an art gallery in Madrid. |
