Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
suspicion after the failed coup of General
J
OSÉ
S
ANJURJO
in 1932, Maeztu was able to
travel abroad in 1934 and revisit Germany.
There he became an outspoken admirer of
Adolf Hitler's authoritarian regime. With
the establishment of the left-wing Popular
Front government in M
ADRID
early in 1936,
Maeztu was denounced as a fascist enemy
of the republic. He was jailed despite pro-
tests from Britain and Argentina. In July
1936, on the outbreak of F
RANCISCO
F
RAN
-
CO
's insurrection, Maeztu was taken out of
prison and killed by “persons unknown.”
Maeztu was neither a consistent nor a
particularly original political thinker; how-
ever, once he found what he evidently con-
sidered his true ideological home, his
eloquence and persuasive journalism gave
him great influence in shaping the thoughts
of those who launched, waged, and won
the S
PANISH
CIVIL
WAR
. In his early mindset,
displayed in
Hacia otra España
(Toward
another Spain, 1899), he deplored Spain's
shortcomings and urged his country to
Europeanize itself and to choose the pro-
gressive, modernizing models presented by
Britain and Germany. After his transforma-
tion Maeztu published, in 1919,
La crisis del
humanismo
(The crisis of humanism), in
which he completely repudiated the princi-
ples he had embraced 20 years earlier. He
declared that the ills of modern society were
the poisonous fruit of humanism and pre-
sented the Enlightenment and marxism as
stages in a process that portended disaster
for Europe. Spain, he now asserted, was the
potential savior of Western civilization,
having historically preserved the essential
Christian roots of that civilization. Spain,
he argued, must renew its commitment to
its traditions, reach out to the lands of its
former empire, which it had lifted from
barbarism, and resume its rightful place in
this age of crisis. These ideas are reiterated
and expanded in
Don Quijote, Don Juan y La
Celestina
(1926) and
Defensa de la hispanidad
(Defense of Hispanic culture, 1934), in
which an increasing emphasis is laid upon
the necessity of the Catholic faith to over-
come the profoundly sinful nature of
humankind. Maeztu's ideas were unwel-
come in the aftermath of the Franco dicta-
torship but still command a following in
some circles.
Mafra
Located some 25 miles northwest of L
ISBON
,
the palace-monastery-basilica complex at
Mafra was built by order of J
OHN
V between
1717 and 1735. Officially it represented the
fulfillment of the king's vow to express his
gratitude to God for providing a male heir
and to demonstrate his ardent religious
feeling. In fact the splendid edifice is equally
a gesture of monarchical vanity. Although
its conception and general style are remi-
niscent of E
L
E
SCORIAL
in Spain, it is even
larger and evokes the grandiosity of Louis
XIV's Versailles. John V clearly wished to
glory in his wealth, newly derived from the
gold and diamonds lately discovered in
B
RAZIL
. The sheer size of the apartments
and the splendor of their adornment
reflected the king's desire to be perceived as
a major figure on the European stage and to
remind fellow sovereigns that he, too, pre-
sided over a colonial empire.
The German architect Johann Friedrich
Ludwig was given a free hand to create the
most splendid possible monument of the
Portuguese baroque built with colossal
quantities of marble (both from Portuguese
quarries and imported from Italy). When
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