Located approximately thirty kilometres from Bilbao, crossed in just under half an hour by that vital communication hub that is the Cantabrian Highway, Castro Urdiales, the ancient and Romanised city of Flabrióbriga, is not only one of the most beautiful and important cities on the Cantabrian coast, but is also one of those metaphorical time capsules where History and Architecture cordially shake hands, helped, in large part, by those no less metaphorical geniuses of illusion, which, of course, are always the legends.
Apart from beautiful beaches, such as Brazomar, which serves as the culmination of a spectacular seafront promenade, we have, in Castro Urdiales, one of the main ports, which, since time immemorial, has seen this privileged city enriched, with a very intense maritime traffic, whose most immediate effect was to boost trade to truly superlative levels.
This detail is important, because, thanks to it, there were many great families in the area who became rich with trade and with the benefits of fishing fleets, including whaling fleets, which, for centuries, provided them with the opportunity to increase their wealth and make great fortunes.
A detail that, of course, is immediately felt in the elegant and fanciful buildings, which, extending the length and width of this immeasurable promenade, enclose and at the same time, enrich the characteristics of a port, which, since ancient times, must have been, quite simply, spectacular.
As is often the case, not only in Castro Urdiales, but also in many of the main towns and cities of Spain, whether or not they are conveniently located on the banks of a magnificent port, the modernist architecture, with its characteristic buildings, where it is worth mentioning that fascination for introducing a fanciful variety of elements within the canons of an eclectic classicism, makes many of them immediately captivate attention, awakening, in the feelings of travelers and curious people, a warm romantic reverie.
It is also true that many of them, currently converted into cozy hotels or convenient offices, as well as bank branches in many cases, induce one to think, in some way, that the passage of time is inexorable and that sooner or later, it reaches everyone and everything, forming invisible borders in the pages of a History, where in the end it seems that Art and Architecture are the most determining resilient elements in a world that, of course, always stands out for its ephemeral nature.
And it is precisely here, in the sweet torpor of the terraces situated at the foot of the port, where fantasy continues to lavish dreams of beauty to the rhythm of the waltzes of a sea, the Cantabrian, which does not always rock with the sweetness of those that Strauss composed for the emperor.
NOTICE: Both the text and the accompanying photographs are my exclusive intellectual property and therefore, are subject to my Copyright.
