@guidof

International Volvo Photo Locations Part 537

Cowdray Park lies near Easebourne, West Sussex, in the South Downs National Park. The estate belongs to Viscount Cowdray, whose family have owned it since 1909. It has a golf course, and it offers clay pigeon shooting and corporate activity days, as well as the more traditional activities of agriculture, forestry and property lets.

The preserved ruins of Cowdray House an important Tudor era great house lie in the park and are open to visitors.

The estate is home to the Cowdray Park Polo Club, which describes itself as the “Home of British Polo”. The club was founded in 1910. The Cowdray Gold Cup tournament was inaugurated in 1956.

The history of competitive polo at the Cowdray Park Polo Club dates back to the year 1910. By the 1920s, polo was underway at full swing with a complete series of many trophies and cups being competed for. This great run however, was put to a halt by the Second World War which began in 1939.

The club played a crucial role in bringing back polo to England after the war, when it hosted the country’s first post-war tournament- the Coronation Cup in 1953. Such illustrious past and significant contribution to the sport for more than 100 years now, has earned it the title of ‘Home of British Polo’.

In 1956 the world’s premier High Goal tournament, the British Gold Cup was inaugurated. Since then, the club has been home to the highly coveted and prestigious trophy. The current Viscount Cowdray is the president of Cowdray Park Polo Club.

More information at lapolo.in, cowdraypolo.co.uk and en.wikipedia.org.

International Volvo Photo Locations Part 536

In May 2025, Martin from @13xc70 visited this Volvo photo location and made the two photos shown above, taken from the place at the photohill towards the tenniscourt. Then, the wall was not yet built there and the trees were not there yet.

Martin told me further that he met the previous owner of a photostudio in Dernbach who used to make many photoshots on the photohill. Martin and some friends are planning to clean the place during the coming summer as preparation for a revisit with some special Volvo cars. More about that later…

The Dernbach Fotohügel is located near the Dernback Tennis Fields and Sports Park in Dernbach, Germany.
Dernbach, Westerwald is a municipality and town in the Westerwaldkreis in the federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz. The village is known throughout the country by the three-way interchange A48/A3, called Dernbacher Dreieck, and well known worldwide by the international congregation Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, called Dernbacher Schwestern.

This photo hill was created as part of the road expansion in the 1980s. A paved area with a concrete edging on the sides was created on it for professional photography of vehicles. The use as a photo location has since been abandoned and the ramp is no longer needed.

German professional automotive photographer Thomas Dirk Heere used this location for many automotive photo shoots during the years. He explained to me about this place: “this photo hill in Dernbach/Germany, was built especially for car photography. It has a steep incline and gets wider and wider towards the artificial horizon, so that two cars can be shown in profile against sky. There is a wall on each side (painted dark) so that the side line of the vehicles is shown absolutely clean and emphasised. I’ve photographed so many vehicles of different makes there in my life that I can’t remember how many times I’ve been there, must have been over 100 times.
For secret products, such as the above pictured Volvo S60, a man from Volvo Security was always there. After the people of Volvo in Sweden was so convinced of the quality of such a facility, they commissioned me to build a similar hill on the Volvo factory premises.”

In January 2025, @alte_kennzeichen and later in May 2025, Martin visited the location and they took most of the photos of the photo hill as it is today. It is about 15 meters by 15 meters with the depth of the road up is approximate 30 meters.

More information at en.wikipedia.org and Thomas Dirk Heere Portfolio.

Thanks to @alte_kennzeichen and Martin from @13xc70 for visiting this photo location and shared their photos.

International Volvo Photo Locations Part 535

Via de Sant Ignasi is a street in Manresa, north of Barcelona, Spain.

Manresa is the capital of Bages county, located in the central region of Catalonia, Spain.

Crossed by the river Cardener, it is an industrial area with textile, metallurgical, and glass industries. The houses of Manresa are arranged around the basilica of Santa Maria de la Seu. Saint Ignatius of Loyola stopped to pray in the town on his way back from Montserrat in 1522. He also read in solitude in a cave near the town for a year, which contributed to the formulation of his Spiritual Exercises. As such, the town is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics.

It is believed the comarcal name “Bages” comes from a corruption of the Latin “Bacchus” due to the extensive production of wine in the area. The wine was produced from grapes grown mainly in terraced vineyards, and many of these old terraces can be seen today. Wine ceased to be the main product of the area as a consequence of phylloxera, but is still a very important part of the Manresa/Bages economy.

During the Napoleonic invasion, the volunteer troops of Manresa defeated the French troops in the Bruch Pass (June 1808), but the retreating French burned and demolished much of the town. After the expulsion of Napoleon’s troops, Manresans rebuilt the town using the rubble.

More information at manresaturisme.cat and en.wikipedia.org.

International Volvo Photo Locations Part 534

Park Güell is located on Carrer d’Olot in Barcelona, Spain.

Park Güell is a privatized park system composed of gardens and architectural elements located on Carmel Hill, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Park Güell is located in La Salut, a neighborhood in the Gràcia district of Barcelona. With urbanization in mind, Eusebi Güell assigned the design of the park to Antoni Gaudí, a renowned architect and the face of Catalan modernism.

The park was built from 1900 to 1914 and was officially opened as a public park in 1926. In 1984, UNESCO declared the park a World Heritage Site under “Works of Antoni Gaudí”.

Park Güell is the reflection of Gaudí’s artistic plenitude, which belongs to his naturalist phase (first decade of the 20th century). During this period, the architect perfected his style through inspiration from organic shapes. His practice introduced a series of new structural solutions rooted in the analysis of geometry, thus, adding creative liberty and an imaginative, ornamental style. Starting from a sort of Baroquism, his works acquire a structural richness of forms and volumes, free of the rational rigidity or any sort of classic premises. In the design of Park Güell, Gaudí unleashed all his architectonic genius and put to practice much of his innovative structural solutions that would become the symbol of his organic style, and that would culminate in the creation of the Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family or Sagrada Família.

The focal point of the park is the main terrace, surrounded by a long bench in the form of a sea serpent. The curves of the serpent bench form a number of enclaves, creating a more social atmosphere. Gaudí incorporated many motifs of Catalan nationalism, and elements from religious mysticism and ancient poetry, into the Park. Much of the design of the benches was the work not of Gaudí but of his often overlooked collaborator Josep Maria Jujol.

More information at en.wikipedia.org and whc.unesco.org.

International Volvo Photo Locations Part 533

Plató Granollers with Roca Umbert Factory of Arts is located on Carrer d’Enric Prat de la Riba in Granollers, north of Barcelona, Spain.

The textile factory that became an arts factory.

The origin of the factory dates back to 1871 in Sant Feliu de Codines, when Josep Umbert i Ventura (1844-1917) opened a textile factory that only five years later was expanded with the acquisition of ounce of land in Granollers, specifically in Palou. The industrial growth in the rapid consolidation of the Catalan textile sector began to triple the company’s production, in 1904 the construction of the Roca Umbert factory was started, and the first telers were installed.

In 1936 the company was requisitioned by its workers and the name of Espartacus was taken. In 1939, there was a strong destruction caused by a provocative fire, but slowly it began to recover and in the fiftieth decade the thermal power plant was built, to allow the factory’s autonomy in electrical supply, so that the constants Electrical restrictions force fer atures in production. The modernization of the industry begins and a large quantity of products are manufactured, among which the cotó fish stand out: bates, taula jocs, llençols, military clothes, Texan clothes… Surely the goal of unifying everything in a single company The production process (batanar, filar, sorting, weaving and tening) goes beyond the fact that Roca Umbert’s fabrics are so appreciated by its quality.

In 1971 the Sant Feliu de Codines ships were tanked and the owners joined the textile restructuring plan. Five years later the transfer of the filatura from Granollers to Batllòria (Sant Celoni) begins. The second restructuring plan was in 1978 and, in all vague generalities, the factory only began in 1991.

Roca Umbert will be an exemplary factory that produces some projects that go beyond legal obligations. In these examples, the cradle house is raised at 5 years old by the infants of the working seas, and the seamstress, a Spaniard, can train single workers to know how to run a house.

A third of the surface of the former Roca Umbert textile factory is municipal. In 2003, the Granollers City Council approved the Use Plan for the Roca Umbert project as a factory of arts and in November 2004, the Architectural Director Plan was approved. Both documents have established the full route that has guided the rehabilitation of the 21,000 m2 that Roca Umbert currently has, leading to a new center of contemporary creation.

Since the Technological and University Center was built (2003), Roca Umbert has been a project in continuous evolution: in 2005 the library was inaugurated; in 2006, La Troca Center of Popular and Traditional Culture, the bar, the CUB espai d’assaig musical and the offices; 2008, l’Espai d’Arts; in 2009, the Audiovisual Center; In 2010, the NauB1 Musical Creation and Diffusion Center and the Dents de Serra multi-purpose nau, and in 2011, the production workshops of the major festival and the Thermal Festival were rehabilitated in a first phase of the works, as a performance center of the industrial passat.

Parallel to this, private companies have been established at Roca Umbert: the Taller Sarandaca (2005), Arsènic, Espai de Creació (2011) and the workshop of the visual artist Joan Fontcuberta (2013).

Roca Umbert is a cultural space in constant transformation, serving the creative processes, artistic training and the dialogue between the arts, which advances cooperating with the emerging economic system, especially with the audiovisual industry.

Its multidisciplinary character and comprehensive approach to creation, which includes research, creation, training, production and dissemination, are the areas of action of the areas that make up Roca Umbert, and its activity is intensifying. As the rehabilitation of the naus progresses, the rehabilitation of the naus also progresses.

A unique scenario where literature, music, popular culture, visual arts, audiovisuals, thought, heritage can be combined and intercreated to be experienced in all fields of contemporary creation and can be shared among the creators and the citizens.

An open and collaborative innovation that makes Roca Umbert a laboratory more than a container, which cooperates with the economic and social security of the city of Granollers.

Una innovació oberta i col·laborativa que fa de Roca Umbert un laboratori més que un contenidor, que coopera amb el teixit econòmic i social de la ciutat de Granollers.

More information at rocaumbert.com and instagram.com/rocaumbertfabricadelesarts.

International Volvo Photo Locations Part 532

Casa MP is a house located on Calle Doctor Magallón in Sesma, Spain.

This is what the architecture firm alcolea+tárrago arquitectos said about the project and the house:

The commission began in a private competition, in which our office was selected not by a particular project, but by the attitude showed to the clients to build a maximum house with a very small budget in a plot with a very sharp slope. And not least, the involvement and commitment, perhaps beyond any logical reason, to propose successive approximations to the project (up to five preliminary projects and a full executive project with its visa) before the final solution.

Anyway, the program answers common needs for a young couple with two young daughters, including a garage for two cars and a small garden and orchard. It is a monolithic volume, which emphasizes its archetypal geometry using concrete and stained pinewood. Any gesture is made to the better orientation and views, and to clear the plot as much as possible for the small garden and orchard to plant some vegetables and fruit trees. The house, therefore, is set at the highest level of the site. It follows a restrictive regulation on alignment and height. But this also permits to dominate the southern view towards the grain fields and smooth foothills of the River Ebro.

Following similar strategies, the two car garage is separated from the main volume to close the north limit. Between the house and the garage, there is an entrance and patio access three meters wide. Large sliding doors in pine board communicate the garage and garden. The ground floor of the house is linked to the garden through large windows. A single space includes the living, kitchen and a place for leisure and work. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a laundry room are in the upper floor. In the basement there is a multipurpose space, facilities and storage rooms.

The building details in reinforced concrete unify structure, finishing and texture, and control the total budget. The windows have shutters in stained pine board, very common in the popular architecture of the area. The thermal inertia of the concrete volume as well as an under floor heating and cooling system using geothermal energy determines a high efficiency in a quite extreme climate, very cold in winter and very hot in summer, without resigning to large windows for a maximum use of natural light. A very small local construction company owned by a family friend and local subcontractors carried out the construction. And explains the delay of the execution process.

More information at alcoleatarrago.com and archello.com.

International Volvo Photo Locations Part 531

Casa Mono is a restaurant located on Calle del Tutor in Madrid, Spain.

This bar and restaurant with a New York feel at the Argüelles neighborhood, divided in several areas, offers a varied Mediterranean menu that combines modern with the traditional.

The restaurant is divided in five different spaces: a traditional bar, perfect for a snack without the need for a prior reservation; the cocktail bar, located at the top floor, with low tables and designer armchairs that give it an elegant and sophisticated feel; a terrace; the restaurant; and a private area for up to 12 people.

The menu includes home-style Mediterranean and other more international dishes.

Calle del Tutor was one of the first ten streets in the Argüelles neighborhood, the result of the urbanization in the mid-nineteenth century of the area known as Montaña del Príncipe Pío, which had the purpose of undertaking the expansion of the city by building an elegant residential neighborhood. Its name, like that of the neighborhood, refers to Agustín Argüelles, tutor of Queen Elizabeth II.

Located in the Moncloa-Aravaca district, its route runs between Ventura Rodríguez Street and Romero Robledo Street; numbering odd ranging from 1 to 65, while pairs 2 to 70. On the way different buildings are featured as the old asylum of the Good Success, residence of the Trinitarian Sisters, the Argüelles Market, the Meliá Madrid hotel or the Palace of the Infanta Isabel de Borbón. The street is also home to the Alberti bookstore.

More information at es.wikipedia.org and casamonomadrid.com.

International Volvo Photo Locations Part 530

Sixty is located on Green Street in the North Beach area of San Francisco, USA.

Green street is named after Talbot H. Green, who arrived in California in 1841 and became a wealthy local businessman, but in 1850-1851 it came out that he was actually Paul Geddes, a man wanted for embezzlement in Pennsylvania who had abandoned his wife and children there. He fled the city under false pretenses, later returning to San Francisco and then Pennsylvania much later and repaying his debts with the help of his friend Thomas Larkin.

Green street is located in North Beach, a neighborhood in the northeast of San Francisco adjacent to Chinatown, the Financial District, and Russian Hill.

The neighborhood is San Francisco’s “Little Italy” and has historically been home to a large Italian American population, largely from Northern Italy.[5] It still has many Italian restaurants, though many other ethnic groups currently live in the neighborhood. It was also the historic center of the beatnik subculture and has become one of San Francisco’s main nightlife districts as well as a residential neighborhood populated by a mix of young urban professionals, families, and Chinese immigrants.

The American Planning Association (APA) has named North Beach as one of ten “Great Neighborhoods in America”.

More information at en.wikipedia.org and sfstreets.noahveltman.com.

Volvo Photo Locations Part 424

Stora Sannå Stall is a horse stable located on Sanå Dalavägen in Särö, Sweden.

Särö is an area in Kungsbacka Municipality, Halland County, Sweden. It is located south of Göteborg on the Särö peninsula. Geographically, the peninsula marks the transition from the Bohuslän archipelago in the north and the long, flat Halland coast in the south. The nature reserve Särö Västerskog is located nearby.

Originally an agricultural area, Särö became most popular during the end of the 19th century when the middle class of nearby Göteborg started to use the peninsula as a summer resort. A railway from central Göteborg was built, and the kings Oscar II and Gustav V frequented the area during the summer. Today, Särö is an affluent suburb of Göteborg and Kungsbacka. Now the older part of the town of Särö is located on the peninsula of the same name and is a villa community with several centuries-old villas. Särö now has many well-located Göteborgers which have had summer villas there.

Särö Lawn Tennisklubb is the local tennis club in Särö. It was established in 1897. King Oscar II of Sweden and Crown prince Gustaf V were frequent visitors to the club during the late 1800s through the 1900s. Today SLTK have both indoor and outdoor courts, located in different areas of Särö.

More information on storasannastall.com and sv.wikipedia.org.

International Volvo Photo Locations Part 529

Plaça de Carlos Ibáñez is located at Jardins de Miramar on MontJuïc in Barcelona, Spain. From here, you have a great view on the city Barcelona!

Located on Montjuïc Mountain, the Miramar Gardens were landscaped from 1919 to 1923 for the 1929 Barcelona Universal Exposition. They were designed by the French engineer and city planner Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier, one of the best international landscapers of the time, who introduced the concept of Mediterranean gardens to the city of Barcelona. He was aided by Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí, the director of Barcelona Parks and Gardens Department.

The Miramar Gardens are located on a balconied area some 60 metres above sea level. They offer magnificent 270º views of the city and contain hundred-year-old trees and numerous species of great interest. They are structured into regular terraces, held in place by walls made of stone from Montjuïc and wrought iron railings, with trees and various types of flower beds mainly containing species from warm zones.

The water features and sculptures indicate the main and secondary paths. In the central part of the garden is a stone fountain surrounded by three female sculptures: “Fertility” and “Serenity” by Josep Clarà and “Pomona” by Pablo Gargallo. The “Serenity” sculpture had been previously installed in the Joan Maragall Gardens, at Palauet Albéniz, near the Olympic Stadium.

The Miramar Hotel is a stone’s throw away from the gardens. Its building is an old palace that was designed by the architect Ramon Reventós for the 1929 Universal Exposition. From 1959 to 1983 it was the headquarters of Televisión Española in Catalonia. Finally, in 2006 the building was remodelled by the architect Òscar Tusquets as the Miramar Hotel. The building conserves the original facade of the former palace.

Did you know? Miramar was created as a gardened lookout point and as a nexus between the upper part of the 1929 Universal Exposition and the maritime section at the port. Unfortunately, the project, whose aim was to provide direct access to the mountain from the sea, was never executed.
Local’s tip: The Miramar Gardens lookout point is located at one of the lowest parts of Montjuïc Mountain, allowing you to contemplate the various points of interest of the city more closely.
A must: For those seeking calm in Barcelona, without losing sight of the city.

More information at es.wikipedia.org and ticketshop.barcelona/montjuic.html.