Picturesque Spain Architecture, Landscape, Life of the People

Excerpt: "Spain is one great open-air museum containing the cultural wealth of the most varied epochs and peoples. On the walls of the Altamira cave is blazoned that much admired steer painted thousands of years ago by men of the Ice Age. In Barcelona stand the fantastic buildings of neo-Castilian present-day art. Celts, Iberians, Romans, Carthaginians, Moors and Goths have fought and struggled for supremacy in Spain. Of all this the stones tell us to-day. They are the chronicles. They relate of bitter strife; of the culture and art aspirations belonging to times gone by. Much has vanished into dust and ruin. That which has survived time’s fretting tooth serves as a giant bridge to lead us back to the past."