Many historical buildings were damaged or destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. The buildings in the Plaza Mayor were among those spared. The formal lines of the Casa de Panaderia (it was built over a bakery), fronted by an equestrian statue of King Philip III have survived to instill a bit of hushed reverence among us tourists.

During the Franco Dictatorship, most civil liberties were curtailed. In addition, a dreary puritanical moral regime was imposed. Imagine the joy when the old Fascist died and democracy came to Spain. Apparently, the Spanish people, unleashed from the old restrictions, took full advantage of their new freedoms.

James Michener writes in Iberia about the post-Franco arrival of Suecas, blonde Northern European girls visiting Spain, looking for vacation romances. Competition with Suecas quashed the traditional reticence of Spanish women to pair up with their boyfriends unchaperoned, and today you see a lot of public smooching—unthinkable in the '60s.

The new morality finds expression in public art. The façade of the Casa de Panaderia pictured above contains what have been described as "playfully erotic" frescoes.

Maybe one of you knows of another place where government-sponsored works of this nature are commissioned. I can't think of one myself.

The group of images in the Plaza Mayor is not an isolated instance. Apparently those randy Spaniards can hardly contain themselves. Here, a couple of amply-endowed nudes grace the front of a store.

Quick, Henry! Cover the kids' eyes! And stop gaping! (Sheesh. I bet they teach evolution here, too.)