STONE SCULPTURE IN MAESTRAZGO: Studio Golondrina

Not so much a course, more a way of thinking

Studio Golondrina is situated in the ancient village of Cañada de Benatanduz. At an altitude of 1442 meters,  Cañada is the highest village in the Maestrazgo, a wild, ruggedly beautiful and little-visited region of Aragon, northeastern Spain.

The studio occupies the old  stables and corral of a typical Aragonese mountain house, perched on the upper slopes of  the deep limestone canyon that gives the village its Moorish name. Hundreds of nesting swallows – golondrinas – are constant companions from Spring to Autumn.

Work on the house is on-going but the sculpture studio will be open to visiting artists from May to September 2011. The house is top left in the following picture.

Cañada de Benatanduz is a hardworking farming village, famous in the region for wheat, potatoes and lamb. The tough landscape, turbulent history, extreme winters and very isolated  location have produced a ruggedly independent, warm-hearted and welcoming community.

Studio Golondrina is a small-scale addition to the green tourism initiatives that  are helping  to  counter depopulation in the Maestrazgo. Cañada de Benatanduz is a tiny community; to keep the project in scale, studio places are limited to four at any one time.

  ”Art is what makes life more important than art.”
                                                             Jean Willy Mestach

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