While it was great to have the Concavenator fossil (a.k.a. Murderbird in my headspace) in the Dragon Hunters exhibit in Alcalá de Henares close enough to visit at will, the time had come to see it move on. Just in case there was any information I was missing, I decided to book a guided visit to the exhibit. As it was scheduled for 12:00, I decided to look for something to do beforehand, and I found guided visits to the monastery Monasterio de San Bernardo at 10:00. I had seen the building before, as it stands next to the MARPA, I just had never given it much of a thought.
The monastery was established under the patronage of Cardinal Bernardo Sandoval y Rojas around 1620. He bought land cheap because it was near the Moorish quarter. The church was erected in brick with decoration in stone on the outside. The inside has an elliptical dome, and it was heavily damaged in a fire during the Civil War, so it had to be restored – the work on it was a Rehabilitation prize in 2019. Most of the decoration of the church was lost and today walls and roof are just white and gold. The building is attributed to architect Juan Gómez de Mora.
There is a free-standing ciborium in gold, with a number of sculptures of Saints instead of an altarpiece. Behind the altar and ciborium, there are a number of paintings – they were created by Italian artist Angelo Nardi. Nardi was born in the late 16th century, and studied in Venice before moving to Madrid, where he became a Court Painter. His style evolved from late-Renaissance (mannerism) to Baroque, and he is known for his expressive faces. He was friends with Velázquez, and famous for being quite kind, though his style eventually fell out of grace. He painted most of the pictures in the church, although some of them are now out of order as they were moved during the Civil War.
The visit was interesting albeit a little underwhelming. It felt a bit weird to be the only visitor and having the whole thing explained to me – that has only happened once before, in Recópolis. However, that was epic, because I ended up getting the whole archaeological place for myself. The monastery was more of a serious experience – and it did not rain on me. But still it felt… colder. And like being in an exam, the guide kept asking me questions about history, architecture and hagiography.
I had a bit of time before my following visit, so I decided to run to the Sala Museográfica de la BRIPAC, a tiny museum about the history of the Army’s Parachuting Brigade. The Brigade was created in 1953, and the parachuters participated in combat for the first time in 1957. In its origin, it was established in Alcalá, so there is a historical connection there. The hall hosts uniforms, flags, medals, and reports about the peace missions in the 1990s. I am not much of a fan of Armed Forces museums, but today the BRIPAC is considered a peace corps. The museum opened in February 2023, on the 70th anniversary of the foundation.
I still had a bit of time, so I dropped by Plaza Cervantes, which was full with Christmas lights and shoppers at the small market. There were food stalls, a small bookshop, some rock shops… Nothing really caught my eye though.
I finally headed back towards the Archaeology and Palaeontology museum MARPA Museo Arqueológico y Paleontológico de la Comunidad de Madrid. It was one of the last chances to see the exhibition on the history of palaeontology “Dragon Hunters” Cazadores de Dragones with a guided visit, and I figured out that maybe I could learn anything new – despite the fact that I’ve been there a few times and bought the book. We had a nice fun guide who relied a lot on asking questions to her audience. Apparently I was the only one with… some knowledge of… anything she asked – what’s with guides in Alcalá de Henares trying to have you do their job? I felt a bit sorry for her so I answered her questions – with a higher success rate than the ones from the Monastery, to be honest. She did not impress me with the depth of her knowledge, to be honest. She actually looked at me a bit panicky when I asked her t confirm that the T-Rex replica was a cast of the famous Stan.
I stayed back for a bit longer after the visit ended. I’ve ranted on and on about the Concavenator before, both the fossil slab and the actual-size reconstruction. I just loved having both so at hand. When I was young, the scientific community came to the conclusion that “birds descend from dinosaurs” but today it is actually believed that birds are actual dinosaurs. And since the poor beast has such a ridiculous name, I’ve just been calling it “Murderbird” or “Murderchicken”, for kicks and giggles.
There were these two little kids who kept grilling their dad about the skeletons, and the poor man was a bit overwhelmed. I decided to give him a hand with the questions and explained a little. I thought that was it, but the smallest child pointed at the Concavenator and blurted out “can you tell us more things about that one??” He was so eager that I just took the family to see it and told them a few things further. The family was on their merry way in five minutes – four-year-olds only have so much attention span. The kids were happy, the parents were relieved and I got to geek out about dinosaurs with appreciative public. I think the interaction was an all-around win.
At first I had thought that I would be staying in Alcalá for an exotic lunch, but I was not really feeling up to it. With great sadness, I said goodbye to the Concavenator and moved on to drive home.
JBinnacle – A Travel Logbook 