Ludzie – Jakub Zagrajek

Sevilla (August 2016)

There is a plenty of places worth seeing in Sevilla:

The cathedral (Catedral de Santa María de la Sede de Sevilla), in particular its bell tower, La Giralda, originally built as a minaret of the Seville’s impressive mosque, as well as the tomb of Christopher Columbus. More: http://www.catedraldesevilla.es/
Metropol Parasol (Las Setas de Sevilla), allegedly the largest wooden structure in the world. According to some estimates it cost EUR 100 m to construct, due to delays and changes in design. More: http://setasdesevilla.com/
Real Alcázar – a complex of royal palaces surrounded by impressive gardens. More: http://www.alcazarsevilla.org/. It was used as a filming location of the Water Gardens of Dorne in the Game of Thrones series (more here).
Plaza de España, built for Ibero-american exhibition held in 1929. More: http://www.sevillaonline.es/english/seville/plaza_de_espana.htm
The district of Macarena, in particular Basílica de la Macarena, with the famous statue of María Santísima de la Esperanza Macarena (http://www.hermandaddelamacarena.es/)
Numerous tapas bars, including the oldest one in Sevilla – El Rinconcillo (http://www.elrinconcillo.es/)

The tomb of Christopher Columbus in the Sevilla cathedral

View of Sevilla from the top of the cathedral bell tower

Metropol Parasol – allegedly the largest wooden construction in the world

El Rinconcillo – the oldest tapas bar in Sevilla

Streets of Macarena, a district of Sevilla

Basílica de la Macarena and the Macarena Arch (Arco de la Macarena)

Flamenco at night in the streets of Sevilla

Real Alcázar de Sevilla – Patio de la Montería

Real Alcázar de Sevilla – Patio de las Doncellas

Real Alcázar de Sevilla – Arco de acceso al salón de Embajadores (Palacio mudéjar).

Real Alcázar de Sevilla – Patio de las Muñecas.

Real Alcázar de Sevilla – Salón de Embajadores.

Famous tiles of Real Alcázar de Sevilla – Sala gótica de las Bóvedas

Real Alcázar de Sevilla – Estanque de Mercurio

Baños de María Padilla. Real Alcázar de Sevilla

Pabellón de Carlos V or Cenador de la Alcoba

Akademia Nikona – Fotografia w podróży (05-2016)

Below are the pictures I took during the travel photography workshop organised by Nikon’s Academy in Poland (Fotografia w podróży). I am still internalizing the knowledge, skills and inspiration gained during the workshop and promise to do my best to implement it while taking pictures in the future.

I almost pledged to myself that I’d start waking up before sunrise every weekend to take pictures – luckily, the common sense took over quickly :).

The workshop was held in the picturesque island of Karsibór of the Oder Lagoon near Świnoujście, home to a number of bird species, including cormorants and sea eagles.

Some of my workshop photos were also posted on the blog of Nikon’s Academy: https://www.akademianikona.pl/blog/wpis/fotografia-z-podrozy-13-15-maja-2016

Pedestrian zone in Świnoujście (or, judging by the number of German tourists visiting it, Swinemünde)

Trees full of (and completely ruined by the excrements of) cormorants

The Stawa Młyny – a navigation beacon built in the form of a windmill

Valle d’Itria (2015-09-07-12)

Valle d’Itria is a region in Puglia famous for the trullo dwellings (more about them in this post), olives and wines (surprisingly: white ones and not the red primitivo and nero d’avola for which the Southern regions of Salento and Manduria are famous). The official website of the Itria Valley is http://www.valleditria.it/.

Locorotondo is a town in the Itria Valley in the province of Bari with a circular historical centre (hence the name: loco rotondo – the round place). It is a calm place with whitewash houses and narrow streets. The last two pics show a festival of Apulian food which takes place in Locorotondo every September. The official website of the Locorotondo municipality is: http://www.comune.locorotondo.ba.it/comune-di-locorotondo

Streets of Locorotondo on a lazy Sunday afternoon

A view of La Valle d’Itria from Locorotondo.

Rooftops of trulli houses in the region of Alberobello.

An Italian guy preparing grilled octopus sandwich.

Martina Franca is famous for its Martina Franca DOC wines and for the Baroque old town. The official website of the Martina Franca municipality: http://www.comunemartinafranca.gov.it/index.php?lang=en

Ostuni is situated on a hill just around eight kilometres from the Adriatic coast and is an architectural masterpiece, with practically all buildings built from white stone and painted with bright white paint. It is thus often referred to as La Città Bianca (“the White Town” in Italian). The official website of the Ostuni municipality: http://www.comune.ostuni.br.it/.

Fiat 126 by FSM (made in Poland) in Ostuni, Puglia, Italy

Pilone is a fantastic beach just a couple of kilometres from the town of Fasano.

Alberobello (2015-09-08)

Alberobello is the capital of the trulli houses, limestone dwellings common in the Puglia region in Southern Italy.

It is not crystal clear how old the trulli houses are and there is a couple of interesting theories regarding their potential origin:

due to deforestation (forests were cut to make room for vineyards, olive trees and citrus groves) there was not enough wood to construct wooden structures, whereas limestone was abundant;
they were built by the ancients, similar to the nuraghi towers in Sardinia and the tholoi tombs of Mycenae;
they were built by the peasants as means of tax evasion, since only ‘permanent structures’ were taxed (whereas a trullo can be literally demolished in a couple of minutes: the stone can be pulled out of the roof because it is not connected with a cement or anything else);
they were built by poor peasants because, again, ‘permanent structures’ were forbidden by landlords to whom the land in Puglia generally belonged until 19th century.

For me the last one is probably the most convincing.

It seems that until recently people of Puglia were ashamed of living in trulli houses and were trying to move out to more ‘permanent’ structures as soon as possible. It is only a couple of years ago that the trulli houses were rediscovered as a tourist attraction and appreciated by UNESCO by being listed as world heritage.

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