Corbels of Oviedo

Details of Casa del Cuitu

     In addition to walking around with one's head down looking down for fossils encased in the city's limestone paving slabs (see Feb. 15 entry), another great way to spend one's time in Oviedo is to look up.  Everywhere one turns, there are fascinating things staring down at you.  

    Today, on my way back from Oviedo's wonderful municipal swimming pool, I took a little detour down Calle Uria and Calle Marqués de Santa Cruz before turning into the casco antiguo where I live.  Here are a few snapshots of what I saw.

  The Casa del Cuitu, located at 27-29 Calle Uria, must take pride of place for over-the-top neo-baroque extravagance.  Built between 1913 and 1917 by the architect Ulpiano Muñoz Zapapta, the façade of El Cuitu drips with corbeled lions, protruding tritons, heads of winged Mercury and bearded men, and bare-breasted busts of Fortuna.

  When walking around Oviedo--usually with my head down looking for those pavement fossils or the occasional pile of dog poo--I have often felt that I was being watched.  I originally ascribed this feeling just to the fact that I was a stranger in a strange town.  Now I realize that I was in fact being watched--by the many stone faces in Oviedo's ornate buildings!

     In addition to gawking at the representational sculpture in Oviedo's architecture,  I have also become enamored with the marvelous consoles that support balconies and pediments.  These range from the traditional neo-classical S-curved console:

to some wonderfully creative, moderniste, variations:

   In the end, I made it back home today without encountering any dog poo, and I now have another diversionary hobby to keep me from undertaking the serious writing projects that, some day, I will sit myself down to tackle.