Spain
We’ve just come back from Spain, having been searching for more suppliers of Stone from which to make our stone fireplaces. Strangely, although spain has a great history of building stunning buildings from stone, it is not so widely used now. In fact we struggled to find quarries that were geared up the fulfill our needs (unlike in France where there are numerous quarries supplying the still very active stone market) It may be of course that we were looking in the wrong areas, and we may have more luck on our next trip, now that we have some more information.
We did however see some incredible stone buildings. We stayed in several ‘Paradors’: These are state run hotels, that in most cases are situated in ancient buildings or castles, that have been renovated and turned into large hotels. They normally serve local cuisine, and are in spectacular locations.
On this trip we stayed in the ones in Jaen and Caceres, both of which are vast stone buildings containing numerous fine examples of the masons art, from stone fireplaces to stone staircases to statues and immense tracery windows.
These buildings are hundreds of years old, but due to the Spanish government’s innovative thinking they have been made to ‘pay their way’ and thus ensure that they are well preserved and looked after. There a good guides available that list all the paradors (there are many) and we can only recommend that they are a good option if you are planning a cultural tour of Spain