Spain

Madrid: La Charca Verde and Manzanares Just over an hour from Madrid, the granite outcrops of La Pedriza, in the Cuenca Alta del Manzanares regional park, provide the backdrop to a wonderful wild swimming spot. These mountains are the backdrop for Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, set during the Spanish Civil War. Today, the area is popular with hikers, climbers and wild swimmers.We expected to pay an entrance fee but the men in the hut at the gates smile and wave us through. We drive 5km up through pine forests beneath the imposing mountains to a small bar and car park by the Manzanares river. We follow the river upstream. From its source near the Navacerrada pass, the water has smoothed and sculpted the rocks into surreal shapes. Families are having fun in the pools, but the sheer length of the river, the abundant vegetation, and the wide choice of swimming spots means it never feels crowded. When the path divides, we take the right fork, cross a bridge and continue … [Read more...] about Different strokes: wild swimming in Spain

The Spanish Supreme Court on Friday ordered 25 Catalan leaders be tried for rebellion, embezzlement and disobeying the state — charges which could earn the secessionist politicians up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Judge Pablo Llarena backed his ruling by stating that secessionists had been planning ways to split with Spain for the past six years. He described the case as "an attack on the constitutional state ... of unusual gravity and persistence." Of the 25 people charged, 13 will face charges of rebellion. Read more: Catalonia fails to vote in new president as third pro-independence candidate loses secessionist support Tough run: Jordi Turull lost his Catalan presidency bid and was jailed soon after Five jailed Llarena also ordered that five of the politicians be placed in preventive detention without bail. Among them was Jordi Turull, who on Thursday failed in his bid to become Catalonia's regional president. While he could be elected … [Read more...] about Spain charges 13 Catalan politicians with rebellion

After police arrested Falciani in Madrid on Wednesday, a Spanish National Court Judge Diego de Egea released him on bail on Thursday, telling the French-Italian national he had to stay in his Spanish home while the Swiss extradition request was considered. The 46-year-old's passsport was withheld and he needs authorization to leave the town where he lives. He also has to report to the court once a week. Read more: From Panama to Paradise: the biggest tax evasion data leaks in history Falciani came to fame in 2008 when, as a computer analyst working for the Swiss branch of global bank HSBC in Geneva, he leaked information on thousands of bank clients to tax authorities in France. The information he supplied led to the prosecution of tax evaders in France and elsewhere in Europe. For Falciani it led, in absentia, to a five-year jail term from a Swiss court in November 2015 for financial espionage and data theft. Swiss authorities want him to serve the term in Switzerland. Arrest warrant … [Read more...] about Spain considers Swiss extradition bid for HSBC data whistleblower Herve Falciani

Four years ago, 81-year-old Cecilia Giménez noticed that the fresco of a scourged Christ that adorned the wall of the Santuario de la Misericordia in the Spanish city of Borja was looking a little tired, and she decided to do something about it. Her decision to reach for her paintbrushes was well intentioned but spectacularly misguided. Giménez’s less than expert efforts ruined Elías García Martínez’s fresco, transforming his Ecce Homo into a work dubbed the “Monkey Christ”, unleashing countless memes and setting a new global standard for botched restorations. However, fears that the divine countenance had been obliterated forever appear to have been premature. This week the original painting that García is thought to have used as the model for the fresco resurfaced in Zaragoza. Ricardo Ostalé, an antiques dealer in the Aragonese capital, arrived at his gallery on Tuesday afternoon to find a man waiting for him on the doorstep … [Read more...] about Painting matching fresco that became ‘Monkey Christ’ resurfaces

Somewhere in the north-eastern Spanish city of Borja, an elderly woman is probably praying that the road to hell is not really paved with good intentions. There can be little doubt that the woman, identified only as an octogenarian local, was just trying to help when she noticed that the face of the scourged Christ on the wall of a small church in the city was looking a bit faded, and decided to freshen it up a bit. Sadly for her – and Elías García Martínez, the 19th-century artist who painted the mural – her brush skills were not quite up to the job. The unnamed amateur has transformed what was once a pleasant, if unremarkable, Ecce Homo into something that more closely resembles a bloated hedgehog than the image of Jesus before Pilate. The press have dubbed her efforts "the worst restoration in history" and "a botched job", and the Borja authorities fear they are right. According to the local paper, El Heraldo de Aragón, the damage inflicted on the … [Read more...] about Spanish church mural ruined by well-intentioned restorer