Andalusia - III. Sevilla

From Cádiz we traveled on to Sevilla, the only place on this trip we had visited before. We were there briefly in 2005 (with Alan) when Pat was on an IMF mission to Spain. Much of our time was spent revisiting old favorites (not all of which Pat had had time to see): the cathedral and Giralda, the Barrio de Santa Cruz, and the Real Alcázar.

Most of our first afternoon we spent wandering through the Barrio de Santa Cruz, originally the Jewish quarter that later was favored by Spanish nobility after the Jews were expelled. It is an area of narrow streets and pleasant squares and cafes.

The Plaza Dona Elvira.


And the Plaza los Venerables.












The next day we toured the cathedral and Real Alcázar. The cathedral's most obvious characteristic is its size.
As all the guidebooks say, when the chapter decided in 1401 to build a new cathedral to replace the converted mosque they had been using (Sevilla was captured by the Christian king in 1248), their announced objective was to "build a cathedral so immense that everyone, on beholding it, will take us for madmen." They succeeded - only St. Peter's and St. Paul's are larger.

Inside one feels the intent to stun with immensity and display. I wouldn't call this cathedral warm or lovable, but there certainly are impressive features.

The retable of the central Capilla Major is 60 feet wide by 91 feet high, with 45 highly detailed groupings of figures, and very gold.
The retable, which took nearly 100 years to complete, was carved of walnut and other woods, and then covered with gold leaf. Each grouping, and framing, is crowded with figures and detail.

Carved wood choir stalls combine a variety of styles -- gothic, plateresque, and mudejar or moorish (especially in the geometric decorative patterns at the top).
Impressively high, elaborate vaulting at the crossing of the nave and transept differs from that in the rest of the cathedral because it was redone when the original dome collapsed five years after the cathedral was completed.
But perhaps the cathedral's best known feature was part of the earlier mosque. La Giralda, now the cathedral bell tower, was built in the 12th century as the minaret of the mosque (with new top stories and bells added in the 16th century).


It is a landmark visible throughout Sevilla.











When we were in Morroco in late 2006 we saw two similar minarets built at about the same time.


The unfinished Hassan Tower in Rabat.














The Koutoubia in Marrakesh.















The other survivor from the old Sevilla mosque is the Patio de los Naranjos (here seen from the top of La Giralda), which now adjoins the cathedral, originally was the ablutions area of the mosque. A similar patio adjoins the great mosque in Córdoba . Unfortunately this did not live up to memory as the fountains and intersecting channels that carried water across the plaza were dry.

Near the cathedral is the Real Alcázar, a complex of royal palaces and gardens. Little is left of the 12th century palace built here by the Moors. The most impressive palace in the complex was built in 1362, at almost exactly the same time as the Nasrid Palaces of the Alhambra. And the style is quite similar to that of the Alhambra.

Courtyards around fountains.
Mudejar arches between rooms decorated with geometric motifs and Arabic script.
Domed and carved ceilings.
From one perspective this palace's similarity to the Nasrid Palaces of the Alhambra is not surprising, since it was built at about the same time, and largely by artisans brought from Granada. But from another it is, since the Nasrid Palaces were built for the Moorish Nasrid princes while this in the Real Alcázar was built for the Christian King Pedro I.

We had enjoyed the Real Alcázar in 2005, but wondered if this time it would be disappointing after seeing the Alhambra. It was not.

There was still more to enjoy in the Real Alcázar: the extensive gardens....

I wish I had taken more pictures of the many flowers, pools and fountains, and tiled benches of the gardens. I did at least get this of what looked like fancy dandelions.









And a beautiful bath below the palace.
In between sightseeing, we enjoyed our meals, several times ordering that Sevilla standard, pescado frito, selections of lightly breaded, fried calamaris, bocquerones (small sardines, eaten whole except for head and tail), pieces of swordfish, etc. Yummy.