We’ve borrowed a photo of Órgiva from an earlier post to compare the same scene painted many years ago. The picture hangs upstairs in Galindo’s bar next to the church. We don’t know anything about the artist – L Medina – but they had a good eye, capturing the whitewashed facades and evergreen valley which the town gentle tumbles towards.
The streets are strangely empty, devoid of vehicles and people; the artist’s choice – or was the town really quiet ‘back then’?
The sports centre now stands where an olive (or almond) grove once was and it’s clear that the Rio Chico was much wider. Today its waters are much-diminished and the area more a collection of boulders and stones, for most of the year at least. And the bridge supports were no doubt pristine and not covered in the mindless graffiti of today (can the people who do this just, you know, go away…).
The buildings in the middle of the picture are largely unchanged, including the cute building that was once home to Durcan vet. The bank of earth to the right was yet to make way for the oficina de correos (post office), plumbing merchant and ‘veg man’ – thanks for being open on a Sunday! We wonder how many more paintings exist of the area, hanging in the cool, sun-starved houses of the town… [click pics to enlarge]
Related posts:
More: Órgiva Then and Now photos
More: stuff about Órgiva and environs
© con jamón spain
con jamón spain 
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