Andalusia

For 19th-century Britain, the southern region of Andalusia was the epitome of wild, Romantic Spanishness. The popular figures of the gipsy Carmen, bullfighters and bandoleros, together with the Moorish sites and sights of Granada, Córdoba and Sevilla were seared into the British popular imagination through literature, music and art. But Victorian and Edwardian travellers arriving in Andalusia by rail or sea were often surprised by the region’s busy commercial settlements and great modern cities, such as Málaga, which in 1897 became home to the first professional organization aimed at attracting tourists to Spain. In this talk, we’ll explore 19th- and early 20th-century British tourists’ and travellers’ experiences in Andalusia, a region many felt they knew, but soon discovered they did not.