The Round One
Almodôvar takes its name from the Arabic al-Mudawwar , meaning The Round One. I see no obvious traces of this or other, previous pasts, nor signs of its etymology. I can only wonder at what the settlement and its surroundings once looked like, forever on the fringes of imperial consciousness. Today, late-modern buildings––typical of the then Iberian peninsula and its corresponding colonies––create hap-hazard streets as they line up shoulder-to-shoulder to usher any pedestrian or automobile towards the mother of all churches, the igreja matriz . Atop a great sprawl of grey stone steps, t he regular base is c omposed of oversized cuboid blocks which, stacked full height in each corner of the edifice and either side of the giant doors, send the middle and upper sections over and above the surrounding village-town. Only the cellular communications tower with its skeletal scaffold-like red-and-white frame is taller. T...