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B5 The Balconies

These are the famous balconies in Santa Cruz de la Palma. The buildings are about 350 years old, and when they were first built, they were right on the beach. I've seen old photos of this, and the front doors seem to have been only about a metre above the highest tides, so they must have flooded in a storm. These days the Avenida Maritima runs just behind the camera position, about 60cm above the cobbles.

When I first came to the island in 1990, all the plaster on these buildings was white, and all the woodwork was painted dark green. Then in 1993, for the 500th anniversary of the conquest (or invasion, depending on your point of view) these houses were painted in the best possible guess at the original colours. The whole frontage was covered with plastic for some time before, and the painting went on in great secrecy. Then one evening they made a ceremony of it. (This is something they do rather well here.) Some dignitary or other made a speech about the changing fashion in house colours, then - TA DA! - they pulled the cover down and everybody's jaw dropped because it looked so very different. Then they had jugglers, men on stilts, and fireworks. The whole thing was great fun.

After a couple of days, when I'd got over the shock, I decided I liked the new colours even better than the old ones, so of course I wanted a photo. I got up early to catch the warm light just after dawn. On my first attempt the sun stayed behind the clouds until it was high in the sky and the shadows of the balconies reached down to the doors. I didn't like it, so I tried again the next morning and got lucky.

These days, most of the buildings are painted white and green again.

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Large size: 60 x 40 cm unframed	20€
Medium size: 30 x 20 cm unframed	10€
Small size: 15 x 10 cm unframed	0.79€

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