Long live the metal

Hello,

Metal, that's the theme proposed this week by @friendlymoose for the #pobphotocontest.

Since millions of years ago, our ancestors, after mastering fire, evolved, marked by metal (Iron Age, Bronze Age, etc.).

During these early years, the manufacture of tools was very archaic, but it was the first steps towards making life easier, as I was able to recall again on my recent visit to the Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos.

Over the years the techniques of fire and metal handling evolved into more modern forges in which the combination of fire, metal and tempering gave us better tools.

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Civil engineering has made good use of all this knowledge and we enjoy it every day in our metal bridges such as the bridge of Don Luis I in Oporto.

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Or in the development of the railway. One of man's best inventions in the midst of the industrial revolution.

But the handling of metals not only has practical uses, it also has a strong aesthetic impact and one of the examples I like to highlight is the famous Guggenheim museum in Bilbao whose outer shell is made of titanium, providing a spectacular beauty due to the colour changes it causes depending on the incidence of the sun's rays.

And if we are talking about the Guggenheim and metal, I always remember how I enjoyed seeing for the first time this giant chandelier called ‘Mama’ built in bronze, steel and marble by the artist Louise Bourgeois.

My entry to #pobphotocontest organized by @friendlymoose

And since we have come to an animal like the spider I am going back to the museum of prehistory in Burgos, where apart from an extensive exhibition of bones, skulls and other intricacies of human evolution I could enjoy an exhibition of animals built with metal by the artist Cristino Diez entitled Animalia: Fauna in iron.