Ian Korn Photo Industries » jaen

Baeza & Ubeda

Ian — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:18:14 +0000

Here are a few photos from a day trip we took to Baeza and Ubeda, two UNESCO World Heritage Site towns in Jaen province. These photos, I’m afraid, don’t nearly do justice to the place. Still, I think you’ll enjoy looking.

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Los Hermanos Carvajales

Ian — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:32:15 +0000

I hope you like stories. Specifically, I hope that you like legends. I’m kind of a sucker for tall tales. They tell you a lot about a place. Spain is absolutely full of them, once you start looking. I guess it comes from being such an old country with an already romantic history.

A lot of these legends are very local. By that I mean they’re all about a very specific place, and you may not come across them unless you happen to go there. Some of the better known ones are probably the ones about the Alhambra, as presented in Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra (Fantastic book, I highly recommend it.) Jaén province has got some of it’s own, too. You’ve probably already read all about the Lagarto of Jaén on Dietrich’s blog back in November, so I won’t bother to repeat it here.

Instead I want to talk about Martos’ main claim to fame: the story of the Hermanos Carvajales. The short version goes something like this… These two noble brothers were accused of the murder of one of the favored members of King Fernando IV’s court. Around the same time, they left for Martos, and the King found them there and arrested them out of fear that they were fomenting an uprising against him (Spanish royalty came and went pretty quickly back then). Without a trial, he ordered them to be executed. They insisted on their innocence to the very end, and summoned him to appear before a tribunal of heaven 30 days later. Fernando IV had them placed in a cage with inward-facing spikes and tossed from the top of the Peña. The cage rolled down the hill and came to rest at a place not far from our apartment, which was marked with a pillar and topped with a cross. The Cruz del Lloro (“The Cross of Tears”), as it’s called, is still there today, in the middle of a roundabout.

Thirty days later, as the brothers had promised, the King fell suddenly ill and died in his tent on the battlefield in 1312. For this reason, Fernando IV is known as “The Summoned King.” The Brothers Carvajal are buried at the Church of Santa Marta here in Martos, in the old quarter of town. Their resting place is marked by an old plaque in the corner.

Pretty much everyone in Martos knows this story, which I think is pretty cool. There are a few variations, of course. The one that I’ve written above is the most common one. No one seems to doubt that they existed and were executed. Some argue that the man they supposedly killed was Fernando’s secret lover. Others point out that this was not a common method of execution, at least for nobility, and the place where the Cruz del Lloro is today marks a spot that used to be an execution spot outside of town. Other versions of the story leave the cage out – which, after having looked down the Peña’s front side myself, seems even more gruesome. Imagine the cleanup!

One of the most fairy-tale-ish versions I’ve seen comes from a book called The Romance of History: Spain, written by Joaquín Telesforo de Trueba y Cosío (a good old Spanish name if ever there was one), published in 1834. All three volumes of this book are public domain, and available in a variety of formats on the Internet Archive. If you like this sort of thing, as I do, it’s probably worth the download (for all three volumes, click on the author’s name link). For your reading pleasure, I’ve taken the liberty of excerpting the full story of the Hermanos Carvajales here below the fold, as well as a few photos.

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An Upgrade and an Update

Ian — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:42:14 +0000

You may notice a few changes around here. I just finished a much-needed overhaul of the website to streamline everything.

Edit one: The site looks a lot better (I think, I hope) because I didn’t design this template.

Edit two: It works in Internet Explorer. Welcome, people stuck in the past!

Edit three: The blog is here to stay. Before, I was actually bouncing back and forth between two different WordPress installations. It was a mess. Now you can find everything photography related right here on the front page, and everything journal related on the Navbar above under “journal” or below the featured post.

Clearly, the site is not perfect yet. It never will be. But these are big steps in the right direction.

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Graffiti in Europe is Always Better

Ian — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:00:57 +0000

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Feria San Lucas, Jaén

Ian — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:56:06 +0000

This is a HUGE festival here… It runs for a little over a week, all day and all night. Buses from all over the province stop at the fairground itself, which is just acres and acres of games, rides, food, and dance clubs. We went out on Saturday, saw the parade and then went out with some auxiliares. I didn’t get home until around 4am and everything was still going strong when we left.

That’s just how they do.

I’m not entirely clear on the history of the festival, but the parade was all about the history of Jaén. It started with some Romans, who were followed by the Muslims, who were followed by the Spanish, then Napoleon, and then, apparently, large balloon animals like the catoctopus, billowing things that shoot confetti, and an army of smurfs. At the end of the parade come Saint Lucas himself on horseback in battle with the Lagarto, a dragon that apparently terrorized Jaén in the middle ages and whose skin supposedly hangs in one of the churches.

Anyway, check out the pictures. It was awesome.
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Jamón, Más o Menos

Ian — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:36:05 +0000

We’re here!

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