Photo Post: Cazorla, Spain, Gateway to the Mountains
Cazorla Back home in the States, I’m really fond of cities that snuggle up to the foothills of nearby mountain ranges. Although cities like Hot Springs, Ark., Jackson Hole, Wyo., or Estes Park, Colo., all have a lot to offer, they still manage to keep a really cozy, comfortable mountain atmosphere about them. I was reminded of these kinds of towns when I took a daytrip last year from Úbeda to Cazorla, which sits at the boundary between the sea of olive trees that governs most of southern Spain and a triplet of mountain systems that range southwest to northeast. Pronounced “kah-THOR-lah” [kaˈθoɾ.la], this town of only 8,000 doesn’t feel like a sleepy, middle-of-nowhere pueblo ; instead, monumental reminders of the village’s past stand alongside busy streets filled with open-air patio bars and restaurants. Ruins of the Church of Santa María What would have been Cazorla’s major church is also, uh, open-air today. It was built in the 1500s as yet another work by local Renai...