Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-03
Valladolid. for Centuries One
of the Grandest of Cities.
THE GRANARY OF SPAIN
A LAND RICH IN HISTORY AND
ARCHITECTURE.
An Interesting Letter From the Noted
Correspondent, MI. VIM. E. Curtis,
Who is Touring the World.

special Correspondence of The Evening Star ana
the Chicago Record Herald
VALLADOLID, Spain, October 23 1903.
This, the ancient capital of Spain, and for
several centuries one of It's grandest and
gayest cities. is now slowly awakening from
slumber of $50 years. Few cities In Spain
have a better location for trade and man
ufactories There is abundant water power,
navigation by fiat boats down the Duero
river to the Atlantic, railway communica-
ton with France, southern Spain and Por-
tugal and around it the Terra de Campos,
a vast plain, which is called the granary OF
Spain. because. even under the present
primitive mode of cultivation, 1t produces
about seven and a half bushels of wheat If
the natives had modern implements ana
machinery and worked their land as it is
worked in Minnesota and the Dakotas this
Weld might be doubled, but what can be eX-
pected where farmers plow with crooked
stick, thrash their grain on stone floors ny
driving oxen over it, and winnow it by
throwing shOvelfuls into the air so that the
wind may blow out the chaff.
The land is owned in large estates and
leased in small sections to peasants who
work it on shares under the supervision Of
a manager The owners live in Paris or
Madrid and sometimes come here for few
days or a few weeks. They have preten-
tious palaces in Valladolid filled with gilt
furniture, mirrors, costly hangings and val
liable pictures by the old masters, but the
venerable city has no attractions for them,
and the money dug from the ground by
their faithful tenants is expended in lux
uries and dissipation elsewhere. That is
the curse of Spain. If the proceeds of the
labor of the hard-working poems could be
expended in the improvements OF the es-
tates in the purchase of labor-saving ma
chinery, in building decent houses for them
to live in, and in the establishment of fac
tories to utilize the magnificent water
power, Valladolid might again become a
prosperous and busy city. But the rich
Spanards spend their incomes abroad and
will not risk their money in local enter
prises. Yet even now under all the disad-
vantages it suffers Valladolid is slowly
picking up. Several new companies have
been organized of recent years by foreign
ers. two new banks have been started with
large capital, three of the principal streets
have been repaved, and, the Spaniards
put it, 'the sun is rising again upon this an
cient town" The climate is wholesome, the
air is pure and genial, the sky is cloudless,
the water is liquid crystal and the elevation
of the city, 2.1OO feet above the sea. makes
II one OF llt DedlIHleSl IN Spdill Tie uedtu
rate being only 12.2 per 1000
History and Architecture.
There is very little for visitors here, ex-
cepting students of history and architects.
For those two classes of travellers Vallado-
lid is mine of treasures. Medieval
churches and palaces in which the city
abounds we'll preserved and furnish as
fine examples of that period as can be
found anywhere. There is an unfinished
cathedral. which was begun in the eleventh
century. but was never completed and in
116S the court architect estimated that ST.,
CDo,O0l would be necessary for that purpose.
With the increased cost of labor and ma
terials in these days four times that sum
would be necessary to carry out the plans.
Work was stopped in 1861 when the court
moved to Toledo, and 1t has been prac-
tcally untouched since that time. One of
the towers 21O feet high. collapsed and
fell in 1871 and has never been restored.
Several other portions of the edifice have
suffered from old age. and portions are con-
sidered unsafe. The designs were of the
Doric school; the ground plan forms a cross
All feet long and 2O4 feet wide, with a clois-
ter 116 feet square.
The University of Valladolid was once ia
nous and was founded by Ferdinand the
Saint in the twelfth century. 1t attained its
greatest Importance in the sixteenth CEN
tury, when there were 6,O00 and 1000 stu
dents upon its rolls. Nowadays they num-
Der about 900. The building is a splendid
specimen of what Is called the Baroque
style. with the most elaborate and extrava-
giant carvings and stucco work showing
how much interest must have been taken in
the institution 400 years ago.
The royal palace is a noble building, with
similar decorations, and contains two gal
lerles of paintings and sculpture without
great Importance. The Plaza Mayor, lit
tie square in the center of the city, has
been the scene of many remarkable events,
and historians declare that the fetes and
jousts which took place there in the time
OF Charles have been unequaled since.
Cervantes who lived from 1903 till 1906 in
little house behind the Hotel Norte, was
commanded to write a description of the
fetes which celebrated the christening of
the son of Philip III, and his account still
remains.
Identified With Queen Isabella