Castellfollit de la Roca, northern Catalunya

Castellfollit de la Roca (incomplete) acrylic on canvas

Incomplete work inspired by a visit to Castellfollit de la Roca, a town and a castle related to Isabel's Catalan family in northern Catalunya, Spain.  It is an impressive place for several reasons, perched precariously, as it is, on the precipice of a deep gorge-- but also because of the very high bridges that surround it, at least two of which are steeped in Spanish history.  The name Castellfollit refers to the layered, "leaves" of basalt stone in the area.

The municipality has a website in English at: http://www.castellfollitdelaroca.org/?c=1

The castle, Castel de Canadell, was once owned by Isabel's great great grandfather from Castellfollit de la Roca.   It still exists, though we did not visit it yet this trip.  His daughter, Sabina Canadell (married to Joan Espigulé from Ribes de Freser), was Isabel's great grandmother on her mother's side and is Isabel's and her mother's namesake.  Sabina did not inherit the castle since it passed to the first born—male or female in Catalán tradition—in this case her brother.  Isabel's grandmother, Adelaida Aparici Bataller, (another of Isabel's namesakes) was married to Fransísco Espigulé Canadell.  Isabel's mother, Sabina Espigulé Aparici, was married to Ramón Piñas Gutierrez.  They had two children, Isabel and her older brother Ramón.  Isabel's full name is now María Isabel Sabina Adelaida Pinyas de Mills (though she has returned to the phonetic spelling of Piñas as Pinyas.  Though not traditional in this form, I have taken her name, as she has mine.

The clippings below show what was the principle bridge linking Castellfollit de la Roca with the outside world, destroyed by receding Spanish troops during the Spanish civil war in 1939.  The second clipping is of nearby ruins of a much earlier bridge from the Roman occupation of what is now Spain.

I am interested in the connections made through daunting human effort only to be destroyed either by intention or time.  Though more illustrative than I usually work, I hope to make this piece more subtle, at least as a ghost of the past, reflecting the meditation I have been in on the impermanence of "bridges", of human endeavors, relationships...cultures, really all human constructs...of what remains when bridges are broken, then rebuilt, of the turbulence of change and transformation, what falls, what stands, how towns and individuals are isolated, then connected again...of our collective capacity to destroy and create...  The depth of history in this part of Spain, with the many waves of cultures that have occupied this place for thousands of years, serves to accentuate such reflections.

Destroyed during the Spanish Civil war in the 1930s

Ruins of Roman bridge, Castellfullit de la Roca