MAYTE IN SANTA MARIA DE VALLBONA DE LES MONGES

Today, The Grandma has received news from Mayte, one of her closest friends.

Mayte has visited Santa Maria de Vallbona de les Monges, a Monastery in L'Urgell county, and she has shared her memories and photos with The Grandma.

 

Vallbona Abbey, otherwise the Monastery of Santa Maria de Vallbona, is a Cistercian nunnery in Vallbona de les Monges, in the county of l'Urgell, Catalonia.

Founded in the early 12th century, and built between then and the 14th century, it is one of the most important monastic sites in Catalonia. Its church represents an example of transition between Romanesque and Gothic architecture. The abbey was declared a national monument on 3 June 1931.

Together with the monasteries of Poblet and of Santes Creus it forms part of the Cistercian Route.

Initially the monastery consisted of a community of hermits or anchorites of both sexes, founded by Ramon de Vallbona and documented from 1157, which followed the Rule of St. Benedict.

In 1163 the community received a gift of land from Ramon Berenguer IV, count of Barcelona.

By 1175 only a small group of nuns remained, who decided to affiliate themselves to the Cistercian Order. The first abbess, Oria Ramirez, was appointed in the following year from Tulebras Abbey in Tulebras, Navarre.

The abbey received several privileges from King Alfonso II and his wife Sancha of Castile, and was subsequently able to expand thanks to the numerous gifts from noble families. From Pope Innocent III the abbey received in 1198 and 1200 the grant of Papal immunity and protection of goods, and a bull in 1201 regulated the enclosure and ensured its independence from the episcopate. King Jaume I not only stayed in the abbey on repeated occasions but also sponsored its construction.

Thanks to the numerous properties received through donations and wills, among them that of Count Ermengol VII himself, the sizeable lordship of the abbey was formed between the 12th and 14th centuries, especially in the County of Urgell. Legal confirmation was achieved under the mandate of Abbess Saurena de Anglesola (1379-1392), who bought from King Pere III the civil and criminal jurisdiction of all the monastery's possessions for 22,000 Barcelona salaries. These acquisitions allowed the establishment of the barony of Vallbona and made the monastery the centre of political and legal life for all the towns and districts that made it up. At this time, the community was made up of about 150 nuns, most of whom belonged to the Catalan nobility, from families such as the Cardonas, Cerveras, Queralts, Boixadors and Anglesolas.

More information: Monestir de Santa Maria de Vallbona

The abbey's library together with the scriptorium achieved great fame. Fourteen codices from the 13th century were copied and illustrated by the old nuns and are kept in the archive with numerous old documents of great interest for regional and national historiography. The pharmacy, which supplied all the villages of the barony, has surviving documentation from the 15th century.

The abbey was deeply impacted by the Catalan civil war of 1462-1472 and later the Council of Trent (1545-1563), which had a notable repercussion on the abbey: one of its agreements prohibited the existence of female religious communities in unpopulated places, which forced the nuns in 1573 to cede part of their lands to people from other places, mainly Montesquieu, in order to create a centre of population around the abbey so that it could stay where it was. This was the origin of the present town of Vallbona de les Monges.

For this purpose, all the monastery's external buildings were converted (similar to those that still remain in Poblet Abbey and Santes Creus), and only the strictly conventual premises were retained, apart from the church and the cloister. The following times were difficult. 

In the 17th century there were disputes with the Cistercian order, mainly with Poblet Abbey over the dues Vallbona had to pay them. These weakened the abbey's economy, and the financial situation was made still worse by the ravages caused by the Reapers' War (1640-1652), followed by the War of the Spanish Succession (1705-1717) and the Roussillon War (1788-1795). The nuns also had numerous disputes with the towns belonging to their barony. The Ecclesiastical confiscations of Mendizábal in the 1830s caused them to be exclaustrated for six months, but they were able to continue monastic life and did not suffer as much damage as the monasteries of Poblet or Santes Creus.

Since then the abbey has housed a community of Cistercian nuns uninterruptedly, with the sole exception of the period of the Spanish Civil War, and remains a functioning monastery, although it is open to visitors daily.

In 1986, the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya commissioned the architect Llorens i Perelló to restore the buildings and to construct a new building for the nuns' cells and work rooms. These works were resumed in 1997. Some rooms have been fitted out for accommodation which, together with ceramic works, word processing and computer music scores, and tourist visits to the monastery, represent a good source of income for the community.

More information: La Ruta del Císter

 I like the monastic life... in the prayer and the praising...
this has charged me with new energy, spiritual energy.
This is very important for my ministry outside the monastery.

Pope Theodoros II

FIGHT HUMAN & CIVIL RIGHTS, 'LLIBERTAT PABLO HASÉL!'

Pablo Rivadulla Duró (born 1988), aka Pablo Hasél, is a Catalan rapper.

He has been convicted for praising banned groups and insulting the monarchy, prompting a debate on freedom of speech in Spain.

Born in Lleida, Hasél took his artistic name from a revolutionary character in an Arabic short story.

In a March 2018 interview, Hasél said he was unable to find work due to his criminal convictions that disqualified him from the public sector for ten years, and that his last work had been grape picking in France.

In October 2011, Hasél was arrested and bailed for a song titled Democracia su Puta Madre in which he praised Camarada Arenas, a convicted member of the GRAPO.

In April 2014, he was given a two-year prison sentence for ten songs in praise of GRAPO, ETA the Red Army Faction and Terra Lliure. This sentence was suspended for three years in September 2019, on condition that he not reoffend.

In May 2014, Hasél was arrested again for being part of a group that attacked another which it believed to be linked to the far-right Platform for Catalonia.

In June 2016, Hasél pushed and sprayed washing-up liquid at a TV3 journalist. He received six months in prison and a fine of €12,150 in June 2020.

In the same month, he received a 2​1⁄2-year sentence and €2,500 fine for another assault and obstruction of justice, namely the beating of a witness in the October 2017 trial of a policeman who was eventually acquitted of assaulting a minor.

In March 2018, Hasél was sentenced to two years in prison for praising terrorism and insulting King Juan Carlos I on Twitter.

In early 2021, he was ordered to voluntarily enter prison to serve a nine-month sentence for this conviction. He publicly refused this order, and was eventually arrested on 16 February after barricading himself in the University of Lleida.

Hasél's freedom was supported by Amnesty International and a letter signed by 300 Spanish artists including Pedro Almodóvar and Javier Bardem.

More information: Twitter

Das asilo a mi dolor kamikaze.

You give asylum to my kamikaze pain.

Pablo Hasél

MANUEL DE PEDROLO, HOW TO SURVIVE CENSORSHIP

Manuel de Pedrolo

Today, The Grandma has visited L'Aranyó, in La Segarra county, Lleida the birthplace of Manuel de Pedrolo, one of the best Catalan writers.

The Grandma admires Manuel de Pedrolo and loves his works and she wants to homage him on the 29th anniversary of his death.

Manuel de Pedrolo i Molina (April 1, 1918-June 26, 1990) was a Catalan writer, author of novels, short stories, poetry and plays. He's mostly known for his sci-fi novel Mecanoscrit del segon origen, Typescript of the Second Origin.

Manuel de Pedrolo was born in 1918 in L'Aranyó, in La Segarra county, in Catalonia. After the Spanish Civil War he settled down in Barcelona, where he worked at a great number of jobs while writing as a background activity.

From 1974, he was able to devote himself to literature, creating works, translating, and doing other minor editorial tasks. He died in Barcelona, in 1990, after suffering a long illness.

Despite the fact that he is considered one of the most ambitious writers in Catalan, having cultivated virtually all literary genres, Manuel de Pedrolo is especially known for his vast production of prose, with more than 72 novels published between 1949 and 1985, many of which were detective novels.

The Grandma visits L'Aranyó, La Segarra, Lleida

Most of them were thoroughly censored under the following terms: catalanism, political opinions, religion, sexual morality and indecorous language. He also translated into Catalan works by John Dos Passos, William Faulkner and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Throughout his life, he had several run-ins with Spanish fascists around censorship issues. He also received many awards and was bestowed with the highest honors in Catalan literature.

More information: Visat

Pedrolo's name will remain forever attached to the title of his most popular work, his first attempt at the sci-fi genre, Mecanoscrit del Segon Origen, Typescript of the Second Origin. First published in 1974, it became the most broadly disseminated Catalan fiction book in the following decade, with 26 editions and more than 270,000 copies sold in 1986.

The novel narrates the story of two children from a little country village named Benaura in Catalonia. Alba, a fourteen-year-old girl, and Dídac, a black nine-year-old boy, become the two only remaining humans on Earth after they accidentally survive an alien holocaust that eradicates all mammal life on the planet.

As Alba and Dídac bravely recover from the catastrophe, they not only insist on living in a post-apocalyptic world, inhabited by myriads of corpses and deranged, psychotic survivors, but they also take up the mission of preserving human culture and repopulating the Earth.

Although the novel was not addressed to youngsters, the dramatic and yet romantically attractive position of the main characters made the Mecanoscrit very popular among teenagers, and even though it is compulsory reading in many Catalan highschools today, many young people will have already read it at an earlier age.

From an adult perspective, Alba & Dídac's will to survive makes this novel a wonderful chant to life and hope. The well-documented scientific data and the use of cultured-but-readable language are just two of the reasons for the success of this book, which has had a deep impact on Catalan culture.

Download Typescript of the Second Origin-Prefiguring the Female Hero

Cal llegir llibres no recomanables.
You must read books not recommended.

Manuel de Pedrolo

MARIA MERCÈ MARÇAL: VOICE AND STRUGGLE OF WOMEN

Maria Mercè Marçal's mural painting in Ivars d'Urgell

Maria-Mercè Marçal is one of the most important writers in Catalan literature. She was born in Barcelona in 1952 and moved to Ivars d'Urgell, Lleida where she spent her childhood. Later, she returned to Barcelona to study Classical Philology in the University. 

She worked as a Catalan teacher in some high schools, one of them, Joaquim Rubió i Ors in Sant Boi de Llobregat. She died at 46 years old  in Barcelona fighting against a terrible disease.

More information: Fundació Maria Mercè Marçal

Today, March 8, The Grandma wants to remember and homage her with one of her most beautiful poems: Cançó de fer camí. Because we deserve equal salaries, because we do invisible jobs and because we want to be alive without any kind of genre violence.

 Vols venir a la meva barca?
—Hi ha violetes, a desdir!
Anirem lluny sense recança
d'allò que haurem deixat aquí.

Anirem lluny sense recança
—i serem dues, serem tres.
Veniu, veniu, a la nostra barca,
les veles altes, el cel obert.

Hi haurà rems per a tots els braços
—i serem quatre, serem cinc!—
i els nostres ulls, estels esparsos,
oblidaran tots els confins.

Partim pel març amb la ventada,
i amb núvols de cor trasbalsat.
Sí, serem vint, serem quaranta,
amb la lluna per estendard.

Bruixes d'ahir, bruixes del dia,
ens trobarem a plena mar.
Arreu s'escamparà la vida
com una dansa vegetal.

Dins la pell de l'ona salada
serem cinc-centes, serem mil.
Perdrem el compte a la tombada.
Juntes farem la nostra nit.

More information: Visat

I appreciate three gifts from the hazard: having been born a woman,
low class and oppressed nation. And the awkwardness of being three rebellious turns. 

Maria Mercè Marçal

CLAIRE FONTAINE & THE STRUGGLE OF LLEIDA FARMERS

Claire Fontaine in Lleida

Claire Fontaine is in Lleida today. She is supporting a farmers manifestation which reclaims better economical conditions and updated prices for their products. A successed society is one that takes care of all its members, from the first sector to the last. The Grandma, who is now enjoying some days of holidays, wants to support this manifestation, too. Claire and The Grandma want to reivindicate the importance of farmers in our societies and their enormous respect over them.

Agriculture or farming is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. 

Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the development of civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science. 

More information: The World Bank

The history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology.

Claire Fontaine in Lleida

The major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats and spices. Fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo. Other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. Over one third of the world's workers are employed in agriculture, second only to the service sector, although the percentages of agricultural workers in developed countries has decreased significantly over the past several centuries.

The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, and cultūra, cultivation or growing. Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use natural resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops, and their related services. 

More information: Successful Farming

This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, animal husbandry and forestry. A distinction is sometimes made between forestry and agriculture, based on the former's longer management rotations, extensive versus intensive management practices and development mainly by nature, rather than by man. Even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture, the management of forests, and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry.

More information: Stories from the Stone Age First Farmers I & II

Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin. Wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago. Rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the wild aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey and Pakistan some 10,500 years ago. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs. Sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago. Cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time. In Mesoamerica, wild teosinte was domesticated to maize by 6,000 years ago.

Claire Fontaine in Lleida

In the Middle Ages, both in the Islamic world and in Europe, agriculture was transformed with improved techniques and the diffusion of crop plants, including the introduction of sugar, rice, cotton and fruit trees such as the orange to Europe by way of Al-Andalus. 

After 1492, the Columbian exchange brought New World crops such as maize, potatoes, sweet potatoes and manioc to Europe, and Old World crops such as wheat, barley, rice and turnips, and livestock including horses, cattle, sheep and goats to the Americas. 

Irrigation, crop rotation, and fertilizers were introduced soon after the Neolithic Revolution and developed much further in the past 200 years, starting with the British Agricultural Revolution. 

Since 1900, agriculture in the developed nations, and to a lesser extent in the developing world, has seen large rises in productivity as human labor has been replaced by mechanization, and assisted by synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and selective breeding. 

More information: TED Talks about Agriculture 

Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, 

but the only riches she can call her own. 

Samuel Johnson

THE SNAIL FESTIVAL IN LLEIDA WITH CLAIRE FONTAINE

L'Aplec del Cargol or the Snail Festival in Lleida

Claire Fontaine visits Lleida, the capital of the county of El Segrià. Today, it celebrates l'Aplec del Caragol, the Snail Festival, a meeting that is held annually, on a weekend in May, on the banks of the river Segre and the Champs Elysees since 1980. 

It is a gastronomic event where snails are the protagonists and which incorporates music, brass bands and parades through the city. In 2010 there were 200,000 visitors and twelve tons of snails were consumed.

Apart from the snail feast, the event includes numerous other activities such as concerts and charanga music, castells, performances, and competitions.

More information: Culinary Backstreets

In 1980, with about 12 clubs an event which incorporated a parade through the city of Lleida was born. About 300 club members participated in the first Aplec and around 4,000 visitors attended the first gastronomic demonstration of Lleida.

L'Aplec del Cargol or the Snail Festival in Lleida

The club of the Order of Caragol was l’Aplec’s mother club. The Order of Caracol gathered a group of 18 clubs to spend the day on the shore of river Segre in the neighborhood of Cappont.

On April 1, 1981, the Order of Caragol sent the first notice to the clubs where they informed of the main agreements adopted at the last meeting of representatives of clubs and of the registration of 34 clubs and 2,300 participants in the following Aplec del Caragol. Also in 1981, the Aplequet or Aplec de Tardor was born. In the first weekend of October, it gathered up to 60 clubs and 3,000 club members with a tribute to the origins of Aplec when it was a one-day celebration.

In the fourth celebration of l’Aplec del Caragol an album with folk songs from Lleida including one dedicated to the snail was recorded. In 1986, l'Aplec del Caragol was included in the program of la Festa Major de Lleida. A week before the celebration of l'Aplec, on May 8, 1988, Lleida entered the Guinness Book of Records with the achievement of a world record: the realization of the world's largest tray of snails. In 1990 a new edition of the album l’Aplec del Caragol was presented with nine popular songs from Lleida with lyrics and music of the brothers Angel and Joan Martinez and with the collaboration of Manuel Peralta, Eduardo Quijada and the Federation of Clubs of l'Aplec.

In 1994 the first democratic assembly of the Aplec is constituted. The Aplec of 1997 was starred with the celebration of the first Cultural Week and the first Caragol Rock.

More information: Telegraph

Festivals promote diversity, they bring neighbors into dialogue, 

they increase creativity, they offer opportunities for civic pride, 

they improve our general psychological well-being. 

In short, they make cities better places to live. 

David Binder

CLAIRE FONTAINE & LA SEU DE LLEIDA: WHERE TIME STOPS

Claire in La Seu de Lleida

Claire Fontaine talks about La Seu de Lleida, one of the most beautiful monuments you can visit.

The Cathedral of St. Mary of La Seu Vella is the former cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lleida, in Lleida, Catalonia located on top of Lleida hill.

Nevertheless, the Seu Vella is the defining monument of Lleida, the symbol of the city, being visible from its hilltop site anywhere in the city.

The site was previously occupied by a Palaeo-Christian and Visigothic cathedral, which later, after the Islamic conquest of Spain, was rebuilt in 832 to be used as a mosque. In 1149, after the city's conquest by the Christian Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona and Ermengol VI of Urgell (1149), the structure was reconsecrated as Santa Maria Antiqua, and entrusted to canons regular.

More information: Turisme de Lleida

In 1193, however, the Lleida cathedral chapter ordered the construction of a new edifice, following the contemporary Romanesque architectural canons, to master Pere de Coma. The first stone was laid in 1203 by King Peter II of Aragon and count Ermengol VII of Urgell. Construction continued throughout the reign of James I. It was consecrated to the Virgin Mary on 31 October 1278. The cloisters were not completed until the 14th century, at which time work on the belltower was begun. It was finished in 1431.

In 1707, the city was conquered by the troops of Philip V: the king ordered the destruction of the cathedral because it has taken a prominent part in the city's defense. Nevertheless, the order was never executed, and the cathedral was converted into barracks. 

Silvestra and Mònica, the bells.

The building was declared a national monument in 1918, and restoration works were started in 1950.

The cathedral is designed in a transitional style between Romanesque and Gothic. It lacks almost any influence of Islamic architecture. The floor plan is of a basilica in a Latin cross with a nave and two aisles. The tower is octagonal with a central space of five apses. The interior was decorated in painted murals and sculpture, much of which is still preserved, but much of which has been despoiled during the War of Spanish Succession.

More information: Turó Seu Vella

The octagonal tower is 12.65 metres in diameter at its base, but 9.62 metres at the top. Its maximum height is 60.00 metres and it contains 238 steps. A bell named Mònica announces the quarter-hours and one Silvestra announces the hours. The bells are of the international Gothic style of the 15th century.

The cloister is unusually placed in front of the main entrance of the church, and is notable for both its rare opened gallery with views over the city and for its extraordinary size. In fact, this cloister has been regarded as one of the largest cloisters in Europe. This cloister has 17 ornate Gothic windows, each them different. Among them, one could point out the Muslim window of the palmtrees and the central one of the westernmost wing, with a complex decoration witch includes both a King David's Star and a Christian cross.

 Quan per la muntanya que tanca el ponent
el falcó s'enduia la claror del cel,
he mirat aquesta terra,
he mirat aquesta terra.

When the hawk takes away the light of the sky
on the mountain that closes the west,
I have looked at this land,
I have looked at this land.

  Salvador Espriu

TINA DISCOVERS INDIBILIS & MANDONIUS IN LLEIDA

Tina on the top of the Seu Vella main tower

Tina is in Lleida today. She’s enjoying the big party of the city because today is Sant Miquel (Saint Michael) one of the patrons of the city. Lleida is an old city full of tradition with a history of more than one thousand years. Since the Iberian tribes to nowadays, the city has resisted dozens of attacks and its population has survived to different invasions. 

If you go to Lleida, don’t forget to taste the most popular local dish Cargols a la llauna (grilled snails) and try to visit the most emblematic places: the river Segre, the Paeria (City Hall), the Roser Convent, the old Hospital of Santa Maria, the Sant Martí Church, Champs Elysees and especially, the Seu Vella, the most beautiful building of the city, an incredible cathedral built on the top of the mountain which was a mosque, a cathedral, a prison and nowadays is a cathedral again and a museum.

More information: Turó Seu Vella

Geographically, Lleida is located in the Catalan Central Depression and it is one of the oldest towns in Catalonia, with recorded settlements dating back to the Bronze Age period. Until the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the area served as a settlement for an Iberian people, the Ilergetes. The town became a municipality, named Ilerda, under the reign of Augustus.

Indibilis and Mandonius

The history of Lleida talks us about Iberian tribes, Roman, Visigothic, Muslims, the Crown of Aragon, the Succession War, the Reaper's War and the Spanish Civil War. In all these ages, Lleida had an important role and today is one of the four Catalan capital cities but if there's a legend that all the citizens explain is the story of Indibilis and Mandonius the local heroes during the 3rd century BC.

Indibilis and Mandonius were chieftains of the Ilergetes, an ancient Iberian (pre-Roman) people of the Iberian Peninsula. Indibilis fought against the Romans and sided with the Carthaginians at the Battle of Cissa in 218 BC, when Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus fought them. Indibilis was defeated at this battle and became a prisoner.

In 217 BC, Indibilis had regained his freedom and, with his younger brother Mandonius, decided to harass neighboring Iberian tribes that were friendly to and in alliance with Rome.

The two brothers soon abandoned the Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus and sided with the Romans. In 209 BC, they concluded a treaty of alliance with them. They then collaborated in a campaign against Hasdrubal Gisco which ended in a victory at the Battle of Baecula in 208 BC.

Indibilis and Mandonius with their influence over all the territories of Iberia participated in a rebellion against the Romans but they soon realized their mistake. In a battle with the Romans, the Iberian tribes were all totally destroyed. Indibilis was killed in this battle and Mandonius escaped with the remnants of the army. He was soon given up by his own tribesmen and then killed by the Roman generals.

More information: Turisme de Lleida-Tourism of Lleida

La veu Mandoni i les cadenes trenca,
i estén los braços de genolls alçant-se...
Mes ai que xiula la destral, llampega,
i un tronc desploma’s i una testa salta.

La mare al poble gemegant la mostra:
-Què has fet, oh raça de tants hèroes? Guaita,
 i a eix preu te vens a los botxins? Desperta!  

Venjança i llibertat!... I el poble calla.

Angel Guimerà, Indíbil i Mandoni, Mar i Cel

ADRIANA, RHODES AND HARIS ALEXIOU

Rhodes, Greece

Latest news about the family!

Although Adriana was born in Ithaca, Ulysses hometown, her parents decided to name Adriana in honour to Hadria, the ancient Latin city on the Adriatic Sea banks. Nowadays, she lives in Rhodes (Ρόδος in Greek) where she’s studying History of Art in the Aegean University. She chose this University because this island could offer her a mix of cultures (Latin, Greek, Byzantine, Turkish and Medieval) and she could become an expert in The Order of the Temple. 

Adriana receives some help from Eva, our Maltese gymnast. They share knowledge about these Medieval Knights who dominated the Mediterranean in the XII and XIII centuries and further Malta and Rhodes established in other places of the Catalonia and Aragon Crown as Lleida, Majorca, Miravet, Monzón, Tortosa or Montpellier. Adriana respects and conserves her Greek traditions strongly and she always sings songs of her favourite singer, Haris Alexious, who is considered, nowadays, one of the best female Mediterranean voices, shared honour with Maria del Mar Bonet.

More information: Knights Templar Order

Έχει πανσέληνο απόψε κι είναι ωραία
είναι αλλιώτικη η σιωπή χωρίς παρέα
Δε νιώθω θλίψη μα μου 'χει λείψει

There is a full moon tonight and it is nice;
silence is different without company.
I feel no sorrow but I have missed.