LEÓN, 2.000 years of Spanish Soul

[Filandon]

---L E Ó N---

image hosted on flickr

The historic region of León is located in the North-West of Spain. The city is the most important crossroad in NW Spain and has a metro area of around 225.000 inhabitants. Due to its location, it has been since long populated. Next to the Cantabrian mountains and irrigated by numerous rivers is the main city in the St. James Way before arriving to Santiago de Compostela.

image hosted on flickr

The city was founded by the Romans more than 2.000 years ago to defend the mines in the mountains, but the area was before populated by Celts and Iberians,during the Middle Ages it was the main city in Christian Spain. It had its own Kingdom which controlled a vast territory and somehow it´s been the origin of what we now know as Spain. The main land of the Old kingdom of León is what nowadays are the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca, even though some parts of Portugal, Galicia, Asturias, Castille and Extremadura also formed part of it.

In Modern days, the city is a place with lots of cultural life, green areas and historic buildings; the nearby mountains make it even more attractive and within a 45 min. ride you can do winter sports or visit wonderful charming villages. Behind the mountains you´ll find our brother region of Asturias with the wild Cantabrian Sea; to the west, León limits with the beatiful Galicia and to the South-East with the historic and rival region of Castille.

But let´s stop the talk and see by yourself the beauty of my historic home-city.

Comments are very welcome

You can arrive to León by foot, horse or bike (mainly pilgers) but if you are not one of them you still can come by road, train or by plane in the new terminal. León is one of the main military airports in the country and has a long flying tradition. During the Spanish Civil war the Condor Legion (Hitler´s aid airforce to Franco) settled here. Still a very important military base and since almost twenty years it shares the base with civil flights.

Outside the terminal



The interior

[Filandon]

THE MUSAC (Museum of Contemporary Art). Let´s continue with some more modern architecture and one of the most important museums in the whole country

Opened in 2005, realizated by Tuñón and Mansilla received the Mies Van der Rohe Prize. The colors are inspirated in the colors of the stain glass of the Cathedral and the museum itself exhibit pieces of new artists. It also organizes art classes for children and people from the city, has a wonderful cafeteria and restaurant and you never get dissapointed visiting an exhibition, although a guided tour is always very much recommended.





Entry Hall



This is the art lab, 987 refers to the telephonic code by all fix telephone numbers of León start

[Filandon]

Now some more modern buildings of the area around MUSAC. This is the main building of the regional government in León. Not difficult to notice it is architecture from the beguining of the 90`s

[Filandon]

León Plaza Shopping Center

[Filandon]

Eras de Renueva High School

[Filandon]

Center for Fire Studies. Very useful to prevent the devastation of our beatiful forests

[Filandon]

EREN Regional Center for Renewable Energies. This building is prepared to have a negative balance of CO2 emissions, solar pannels, plugs for electric cars, reutilization of water...

[Filandon]

Europa building, some more glass in the area

[Filandon]

New Civic Center for meetings of the people in the neighborhood, it is also a sport center which also opens during the week-end nights so the youngsters of the area have othe possibilities more than spending the night from bar to bar

[Filandon]

Espacio León, another shopping center

[Filandon]

[Filandon]

Interior

[Filandon]

Street level

[Filandon]

[Filandon]

Sculpture in La Lastra Neighborhood

[Filandon]

The National Institut for Technology and Communications INTECO has its headquarters in León. This has attracted many High-Tech companies to the city

[Filandon]

Another sculpture, even though this one does not touch my taste

[Regener8tor]

I like the look of this place, in a funny way it looks quite similar to Milton Keyens yet much more interesting! Quite sci-fi

[Pablooox]

Nice photos.

[alexander2000]

these modern midrise buildings are great in designs..
perhaps, you're going to show us the really old section of the city.
that would be great.