Thursday 28th October 2021
We travelled north west today stopping along the route to take on LPG and buy bread. We were held up temporarily by this accident which reduced the road to one lane with the police letting traffic through alternately in each direction.
We stopped for the day at the Basque town of Elorrio. We are at the town's very nice aire.
There are some fine views from the aire.
We walked downhill to the old town.
This is the main square.
The church is absolutely enormous - big enough to be a cathedral!
Inside the church you can put a euro in this little machine and the whole massive interior is flooded with light.
The interior is ornate in the extreme.
A whole wall is taken up by this massive depiction which commemorates the martyrdom of the local saint in Viet Nam.
The scale of the place is really breath taking.
What's going on here. Maybe a case for Anne Marie?
And what about this picture. Sorry it isn't clearer.
Who is this in a glass box? Possibly the martyred saint.
This plaque outside says something about the church in Basque and Spanish - unfortunately I don't know either language.
It seems a lot of the old town was destroyed in a fire in the 15th Century.
You can only see the church tower from a distance. Close up it is obscured by surrounding buildings.
The aire here is extremely well appointed with an excellent service point which allows two vans to dump waste water simultaneously.
Today we travelled 57 miles (92 kilometres). We are at:N43.1283 W2.5462
2 comments:
What an wonderful town Elorrio seems to be. I have been looking at some pictures of it online and am stunned by the main altarpiece in the Basilica. It is apparently one of the finest Baroque altarpieces in Spain. It seems to fit so beautifully into the apsed chancel. The figure of the winged angel striking the horned demon is the archangel Michael striking down Satan. The arched frame painting although not very clear seems to depict the Last Judgement with the saved being welcomed to Paradise and the wicked being shunted unceremoniously to Hell. The local martyr was a Basque priest from Elorrio who worked as a missionary in Vietnam and who was beheaded in the 19th century for attempting to disseminate Christian doctrine along with many other locals and European missionaries who were tortured and killed. They were canonized in more recent times and this particular man’s remains was brought back. The altar shrine shows the act of beheading and did you notice the the depiction of the elephant? The effigy in the casket was made as late as 1925 and appears to be very lifel like
Anne-Marie.
Many thanks Anne Marie for your expert commentary. We hope to see you and Richard before too long.
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