In Rubielos (a photo gallery)

October 19, 2023

So my first impression was wrong. There’s more to Rubielos than Mora. We’re grateful for the rain that caused us to change our plans and stay here, and for the brief break that let us get out and appreciate it.

Our hotel is about a quarter mile out of town, so once the rain stopped I quickly walked toward the central gate into the walled city, stopping just long enough to admire an attractive brick building along the way with a different style than I’ve seen before. I’m not sure what it’s used for now - some civic purpose - but it looks like it was originally an elementary school.

And then through the gate, and an aimless wander through its streets. it seemed fairly ordinary at first, but as I walked and looked around more closely it quickly grew one me. It’s quite an empty place this afternoon, with virtually no vehicular traffic and very few people other than a group of four tourists and a guide from the information center that I ran into from time to time.

What appealed to me? At first, the general appearance of the streets and the buildings lining them, nearly all with prominent grillwork - balcony railings and window and door coverings everywhere you looked. And then I was bemused by the haphazard electrical wiring, with cords slung slapdash from utility poles across the front of buildings and back and forth across streets.

Note the bas relief figure beneath the wiring, above th3 doorway of what looks like a private residence.

And then I came to a plaza that puzzled me. As I looked around, the streets entering it all had grill gates, like you see at the entrance to gated communities; open now, but clearly meant to be shut them off for some reason. Strange. But then I noticed the street sign, and what looked like an intricate flagpole mount with the head of a bull on it and surmised that maybe the plaza was sealed off for bull events.

And then, as so often seems to happen, Rachael entered the square. We touched base and discussed what we’d seen so far, and then she was off again - across the small stone bridge across the Rubielos and up into the hills.

I crossed the bridge myself for an look around the other side, which is for the most part in ruins with broken down stone structures surrounding what looks like must have been a real bull ring in the past. The ruins themselves are of interest, but also by climbing up the hill just a bit you get a nice vantage point for looking across them and the arena back over the town.

It looks like this row of structures bordering the bull ring may have been residences at one time.

Looking through an upper entrance to the bull ring.

Afterwards I recrossed the bridge back to town and continued my random ramble through its streets. They’re nearly all of interest, including the rough lanes near the river that look like must have been the oldest or poorest neighborhood in the past. It’s a town I’d like to read the history of and know more of what I’m looking at here.

I’m starting to lose the light and it feels like it could start raining again by the time I make it back to the entrance gate. On impulse, I stop in at the visitor center on the way out (something I very rarely do for some reason) to see if they had any information in English. They didn’t, but the tour guide who was back from leading his group through town spoke just a bit of English and started directing my attention to the grillwork and especially the lamp posts. He pulled out a hardback album of photographs of the street lamps, something I had only generally taken note of, showing that they’re all different and capped by iron figures that reflected the neighborhood or building.

So of course I had to go back. I only had about fifteen minutes of light left so I quickly went through streets again snapping photos of grillwork and lamps, astonished and delighted by the amazing variety. It’s like every other building has a unique, individualized pattern.

So you be the judge. Mora, Rubielos? Which looks the most worth a stop? Why not both?

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