Parma Hotel

PEINE DE LOS VIENTOS

by DPando

Special place built by Chillida... located in Ondarreta Neighbourhood under the hill where you can go up by a teleferic
it looks where the wind gets the coastline and the sculpture (combs) "comb" the air

The Aquarium

by bushes39

By the port, as the stairs decend from the Plaza Jacques Cousteau, is the Aquarium in San Sebastian. While being a little small, it's actually quite enjoyable. The highlight is a large tank housing a number of sea creatures (including a couple of large sharks) with a clear tunnel running through the middle of it that can be walked through. The aquarium is especially good for younger kids and serves as a good middle-of-the-day diversion.

Basílica Santa María

by mikey_e

The Iglesia San Vicente, like the Basílica Santa María, is one of the stone churches that services the city’s Parte Vieja. The original church on this spot was built in the 1300s; it was destroyed by fire. In fact, most of the city (which consisted mainly of Antiguo and Parte Vieja) was reduced to cinders in the fire of 1489, which led to the reconstruction of the entire town with stone in the following centuries. The Iglesia de San Vicente was completed in its current form in the 1500s. The church is rather interesting because of its clean simple lines. It is obviously too late to have been Romanesque, but it doesn’t show the obvious signs of being Gothic or Baroque. Although the 1500s would technically belong to the renaissance period, it is also largely devoid of the Classical elements typically associated with renaissance architecture. This was, of course, constructed during the Siglo de Oro, but I doubt that that was the motivation behind the style employed in this project. Rather, I like to think that the design was preempted by the general need to rebuild the city (and a church would have been absolutely essential) and also the concentration on fortifying San Sebastian rather than making it beautiful. In any case, it blends quite well with the general architectural traits of the Parte Vieja.

Ongi Etorriak Donostia

by Kushelkitten

"Where are we?"

Donostia or San Sebastian is in my favorite place in Spain, not that I have seen that much of the country. I enjoyed the beauty of the city and the friendlieness of the residents so much I would love to move there at some point.

Finding the town was a challenge. We left Bilbao armed with a Spanish map to travel through Basque Country. Little did we, the naive travelers we were realize that the town had two names and we were looking for the Spanish San Sebastian when we should have been looking for the Basque Donostia. After sort of guessing at road signs and eventually realizing what we were doing wrong we found where were were going.

Many of the other town I visited while in the Spainish Basque Country had lovely buildings but I was most impressed by the architecture of Donostia.

(to be continued...)