Look Up! The Naughty Architecture of Spain
Think Spanish architecture is all cathedrals, castles and grand Gothic buildings? Think again. Look closely — or, more accurately, look up — and Spain's historic buildings reveal a much cheekier side.
In this episode of Spanish Practices – Real Life, Real Spain, I go hunting for the rude, ridiculous and downright outrageous details hidden in Spanish architecture. We start at La Lonja de la Seda in Valencia, where medieval gargoyles include dragons, monsters, grotesques… and one particularly memorable gentleman who is rather enthusiastically holding his own dinky doo!
And he's not alone.
We head north to Cantabria and the remarkable Romanesque church of San Pedro de Cervatos, where centuries-old carvings include naked figures, exposed genitals and some spectacularly bawdy medieval sculpture.
Then there's Salamanca, where a modern stonemason continued the tradition of slipping unexpected jokes into historic buildings — including an astronaut on a cathedral and a devil eating an ice cream.
But why did medieval craftsmen carve such rude and bizarre images onto churches and civic buildings? Were they warnings about lust and sin? Symbolic representations of temptation and fertility? Political messages? Or were some medieval stonemasons simply having a bloody good laugh?
The truth is that nobody knows for certain — which makes the stories even better.
This is a slightly naughtier side of Spain, Spanish history, medieval architecture and Spanish culture, and a reminder that some of the best stories aren't found in the grand tourist guidebooks. They're hidden in the tiny details you almost miss.
So next time you're visiting Spain, remember:
Don't just admire the building. Look up.
You might discover that Spain has been making filthy jokes in stone for more than 500 years.
Spanish Practices – Real Life, Real Spain.
EU AI disclosure - my cloned AI voice was used in parts of this episode.
