Aragon, Catalonia and the community of Valencia [antikvár]

ARAGON, CATALONIA AND THE COMMUNITY OF VALENCIA The regions described in this guide belong to a part of the Iberian Peninsula which is—from the point of view of nature — marked by the presence of the Pyrenees and by the Mediterranean coast. Both features play a leading role and to the eyes of the visitor both stand out as two different scenic and cultural units. Even if every valley has a distinct character of its own, the Pyrenees are one of those mountain chains the scenery of which is clearly different from the other large European mountain massifs. Bare peaks covered with snow for a good part of the year, slopes hidden behind dark forest, sunny alleys and narrow defiles which hardly leave room for a trout river are the main features in these surroundings of sav- age beauty which were difficult to reach until a relatively short while ago. Therefore, their way of life and native cultural treasures have remained almost untouched. The Mediterranean on the other hand is a cosmopolitan sea par excellence. Despite its fair size, it is almost a lagoon and in the course of the centuries the people on its shores have travelled from one part of it to another and exchanged their knowledge, art and myths. Since Homer's times one civilization after another travelled across the sea and all of them left its traces along the Spanish coast. Thus, it has become a perfect blend of cultures which little by little developed into one of the best defined groups of human beings on earth. The traveller will find successive layers of the Greek, Roman,