I happened to be in Bizkaia (or Vizcaya if you prefer) the other day (the folks down at the Guggenheim want to display my Foundry Masai or something), so I thought I may as well take a look around Gernika.
A charming spot, and devilish hot the day I was there. Lucky for me they had lots of places selling cold beer and
pintxos (Basque tapas), so after mooching around for a bit I settled in to getting slightly sozzled and a bit fatter. But before I did that I took some photos to show you lot.
The guidebook says,
"Gernika in 1937 became the kind of symbol for its times that Sarajevo was for the 1990s, a civilised little place that a band of thugs had chosen to flatten."
I suppose the most famous image of the place is Picasso's painting. The locals have this mosaic version, the real one is down in Madrid.
As you probably know, the Condor Legion flattened the place in a highly scientific exercise to see what happens if you spend all day dropping a shit load of bombs on a small town. The Condor fellows were having so much fun being beastly they left the only strategic target to the Italian Aviazione Legionaria. This was the Renteria Bridge, the destruction of which would seriously impede the escape of retreating Basque forces in the area. 71% of the town's buildings were utterly destroyed, while the bridge remained entirely undamaged. Doh!
Some models in the
Museo de la Paz, sorry that second one is a bit shit. I had already been to one bar.
Some posters on display in the same museum...
Two days later Nationalist forces occupied the town.
...including Moorish troops.
Come on lads, you could at least all do the same style of fascist salute. You're making the place look untidy.
Soon those defenders of traditionalism, the Carlist Requetés, arrived to guard and protect the ancient and sacred symbol of Basque freedoms and rights, the
Gernikako Arbola (Tree of Gernika). The same ancient and sacred symbol their buddies in the Condor Legion were dropping high explosives on to two days before.
The current tree, in the grounds of the regional assembly (
Las Casas Juntas).
The old tree died a while back, but they've kept it nearby.
The Assembly today.
And the inside. Pretty snazzy decor.
In recent times the town has become a symbol for peace, and now has a peace museum, and the
Parque de los Pueblos de Europa, a lovely shady place which houses a couple of memorial statues.
This one is
"Thing that doesn't look like anything" or
"There's something in my ear and I can feel it crawling around in there" by Henry Moore (1986).
This one is called "Graffiti Magnet" (Eduardo Chillida, 1988)
So after solemnly taking in the park, and the sobering displays, films and audio presentations at the
Museo de La Paz, I wonder what the best way to fittingly commemorate this unhappy hour of Europe's past would be?
Yes, that's it! Buy a tacky 5 Euro "Guernica" fridge magnet from the museum shop!
That's it.
Gero arte from Gernika.
