Before Gerald Brenan moved into his house in Yegen in 1920, he stayed in the village inn known as Pensión ´Manuel Juliana´. This boarding house on the main road (Carretera 16) continued to offer lodgings until the mid-eighties. Brenan stayed in this posada again in 1974 with Alfredo Amestoy Eguiguren who made the documentary of Brenan called ´Agua pasada´. They spent a few weeks in Yegen about which Alfredo Amestoy wrote: "Dormíamos en la misma habitación, en la posada de Yegen, un dormitorio sin cristales en la ventana, sin retrete. Yo me encargaba de llevarle y traerle el orinal al ya anciano Brenan que rezaba al acostarse." The 23rd of June 2009, the town hall of Alpujarra de la Sierra bought this former posada with the idea to turn it into a Casa Museo dedicated to the hispanist that universalized the village of Yegen through his book ´South from Granada´. Internationally Brenan is best known for his publication ´The Spanish Labyrinth´: An Account of the Social and Political Background of the Spanish Civil War, first published in 1943.
Thirteen students of the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Granada made suggestions for a ´Casa-lugar para un Nuevo Brenan´. Two weeks ago the Fonda-Museo de Gerald Brenan opened its doors with an ´encuentro universitario´ during which the students were invited to explain their proposals and models for an Espacio Brenan. The result of their projects are exhibited in the new Casa Museo which can be visited from Monday to Friday from 16.00 to 18.00 hours. Apart from the exhibition nothing can be seen yet that has any relation with the famous hispanist. But looking through one of the old windows of one of the ´dormitorios´, you can do nothing else but wonder if it was the room in which the young traveller stayed, read and mused about his life and future... Many visitors will stil need to bow their heads before entering a room as the doorposts are original, thus very low. The shutters of the windows are of wood, without glass just as the journalist Alfredo Amestoy wrote in his article for El Mundo. The cane ceilings are still there and the stables cleaned, but luckily untouched. This makes the building just right for a Fonda-Museo. With the purchase, the stripping, plastering and opening important steps have been taken. We hope that through the years the local authorities find the means and collaboration to fill the new Fonda Museo in Yegen with books, reproductions of photographs and show films and documentaries like ´Mirada de Brenan´ and ´Agua Pasada´ of Alfredo Amestoy.
Thirteen students of the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Granada made suggestions for a ´Casa-lugar para un Nuevo Brenan´. Two weeks ago the Fonda-Museo de Gerald Brenan opened its doors with an ´encuentro universitario´ during which the students were invited to explain their proposals and models for an Espacio Brenan. The result of their projects are exhibited in the new Casa Museo which can be visited from Monday to Friday from 16.00 to 18.00 hours. Apart from the exhibition nothing can be seen yet that has any relation with the famous hispanist. But looking through one of the old windows of one of the ´dormitorios´, you can do nothing else but wonder if it was the room in which the young traveller stayed, read and mused about his life and future... Many visitors will stil need to bow their heads before entering a room as the doorposts are original, thus very low. The shutters of the windows are of wood, without glass just as the journalist Alfredo Amestoy wrote in his article for El Mundo. The cane ceilings are still there and the stables cleaned, but luckily untouched. This makes the building just right for a Fonda-Museo. With the purchase, the stripping, plastering and opening important steps have been taken. We hope that through the years the local authorities find the means and collaboration to fill the new Fonda Museo in Yegen with books, reproductions of photographs and show films and documentaries like ´Mirada de Brenan´ and ´Agua Pasada´ of Alfredo Amestoy.
Related articles:
- El municipio compra hoy la fonda donde se hospedó el hispanista Gerald Brenan, article from Granada Hoy written by R. Fernández.
- Yegen convierte en museo la antigua fonda donde se hospedó Brenan, article from the Ideal written by Rafael Vílchez.
- Don Geraldo, Uno de los Nuestros, article from El Mundo in memory of Gerald Brenan written by Alfredo Amestoy.
- Sendero Local ´Gerald Brenan´, Yegen
- Ruta literaria por el sendero de Gerald Brenan
Related keywords: Alpujarras, Sierra Nevada, wandelen, wandelingen, trektocht, hiking, trekking, Berchules, B&B, hotel, wanderungen
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