Hola Valencia

After 6 years of dominance by Nou Campanar, the judges of Fallas’ “Special Section” monuments have crowned a new champion. Ladies and Gentleman, put your hands together for Convento Jerusalen.

When I first heard the results, I was unbelieving. At $300,000, Convento’s monument cost just a fraction of Campanar’s obscene final $1.6 million tally, and it was much smaller. One conspiratorial theory I’ve heard is that the jury decided to award frugality in this Year of the Crisis. But perhaps Convento just deserved it more. We loved their creation, and have no quarrel with its victory.

“Path to Paradise” was the theme, with a humongous tree playing host to the lady of summer, the old man of autumn, the lord of winter and the beauty of spring. The summer lady held a winking sun made up of figures of flame — one of the the monument’s most beautiful touches. Around the base, were ninots who described our various paths to paradise, including a humorous tribute to the deceased Michael Jackson (whose accompanying angels were confused that he was white, and were about to repaint him).

Enjoy the pics of Fallas 2010’s best monument — if you didn’t get to see it, too bad! Now, it’s no more than a pile of ash.