While everyone was engrossed in the lights, games, food stalls, crafts, decorations, sweets and more, I discovered a small space where art shone and told a story.
Behind a wooden fence, there was a house where the walls were made of glass. Well, it looked like a house, but in reality it was a space where other miniature constructions lived. When I saw it from afar I got excited. There had never been anything like it at this Christmas market before and I went there immediately.
Inside that big glass box there were several very rustic nativity scenes that were real works of art. I love the rustic, the warmth, the simplicity, but most of all to look at and admire the little figures, a miniature world that tells a special story.
In total there were four constructions, four stories and each one had its own particularities. I always talk about details, they make great art and in this case there are details everywhere. Every rock in its place, the little stairs, the interior lights of the houses. I wasn't just looking at the little figures that referred to the people in the story but to the environment itself.
The people in the scenes tell what they were doing at a given moment, if you look at them carrying pots, others selling things, others collecting water from the fountains. I stopped to look at the trees, the details of the houses, the fountains, the floor, each one of the bricks and in a section there is the crib. So much beauty. I loved seeing the little kittens on the walls.
In the second one I was struck by the windows, the people on the balconies, the animals and the little lanterns hanging from the ceilings, when I looked inside that huge house that looked like it had two floors. See the corn hanging on one of the walls? Unbelievable the amount of detail.
In the third one I could see things hanging on the doors that seemed to be loaves of bread, although I am not sure, and also garlic, I think it is a bakery, if I look inside I see more loaves of bread. How beautiful the bird cage, everything in miniature, a magical world.
The cistern, the sheep, the little pigeons on the roofs and down below the wise men coming to see the newborn child. I could even see a lone man on one of the terraces at work. What does it look like he is doing?
On the last one, children play, while women hang clothes to dry and a shepherd looks after the sheep. I love to see so many small vessels and utensils everywhere. In each of the nativity scenes there was of course the beautiful crib.
In every part of these small constructions the lighting was perfect and allowed one to enter an incredible world, to see moments, as I always say, of history. But beyond religious belief, to see this beauty captured in small models is admirable.
I think of the work that goes into all this and I am glad to have passed through this place. There are countless Nativity scenes in the city, I will manage to visit them all, but I loved this one.
Thank you very much for joining me today, I wish you a good Sunday. See you soon.
Amonet.
All photographs are my own.