This past friday afternoon we left Granada for Sevilla, Spain. After a four hour bus ride we arrived in Sevilla. Sevilla is a much larger city than Granada (Granada has about 250,000 people and Sevilla has about 750,000). We were taken to Hotel Becquer, named after a famous Spanish author, sculptor, and painter, and then went on a walking tour of the Triana neighborhood. Triana is located on the far side of the Guadilquivir river. Sevilla had a very romantic vibe to it, and reminded me a lot of Paris and the Seine river. The river, the lights, bridges and buildings seemed very Parisian. Secilla is the capital of Andalusia... it was my favorite Spanish city outside of Granada. I absolutely loved it!
The next day we toured the city. We started at the Alcazar, the palace in Sevilla modeled after the Alhambra. The alhambra was deserted for a short while and wasn't taken care of, but the Alcazar had the colors that the Alhambra should have and was unique for that reason. It is one of the oldest palaces in Europe still in use. It was very reminiscent of the Alhambra, but had been added on to by various rulers, so it incorporated many other styles as well. Interestingly enough the Alcazar has many monuments and elements in honor of Christopher Columbus and his discoveries. Christopher Columbus set sail for the Americas from the city of Sevilla. One of the paintings in the palace shows the very first depiction of the native americans by Europeans after their discovery. They weren't painted savagely or anything but in a pretty realistic form. Overall, the Alcazar was beautiful and encompassed all of those things I loved about the Alhambra.... minus the fantastic gardens.
After visiting the Alcazar we visited the Cathedral in Sevilla. I was excited to see the Cathedral after learning about it in my art history class. When the Catholics conquered Spainm they destroyed all of the mosques to build cathedrals of their own. But rather than destroy the call tower of the mosque, they added to it and made it a combination of both styles and uses by adding a bell tower. The Sevilla Cathedral is one of the three largest cathedrals in all of Europe... it was impressive for this reason. I am not a fan of large, gaudy Cathedrals, but I could appreciate its size and grandeur. There was a large, silver altar made from the silver of the Americas, after its discovery, and it had a very "mayan" flare to it.
Following Columbus's death, he was "buried" in Sevilla, then Valladolid, then Santiago, then Habana and back to Sevilla. In the process of his post-life travels, the actual remains of his body were unknown. Both Sevilla and Santiago claimed to have the body of Columbus until 2000 when researchers did a DNA sample of the body in Sevilla and confirmed the remains to be that of Columbus. So... there remains a tomb and monument to Christopher Columbus inside the cathedral. When Columbus died he was still under the impression that he had found a new route to India, rather than a new continent. For this reason, America is named after Americo Vespuce who was the first to declare America as a new continent previously unknown to Europe.
After touring the cathedral, we went up in to the Giralda tower (the bell tower). We climbed 36 ramps to make it to the top of the tower. The Moorish ruler originally had it built with ramps rather than stairs, so that he could ride his horse to the top of the tower. Once at the top we were situated underneath the bells and looking out over the city of Sevilla. It was a fantastic view!
After lunch, my friends Ellen, Nicole, Melissa, Cate and I went on a carriage ride throughout the city. It was a blast! Sandwiched in to the carriage, we saw the res of Sevilla on our carriage ride. We went along the river and saw El Torre del Oro, the Bull Ring, the university, Plaza Espana, the large public park and arrived back at the cathedral. We had entirely too much fun and laughed hysterically all day long.
Sevilla has a lot of history in Flamenco and Torreros. A large portion of Flamenco originated in Sevilla and the bull ring in unique to Sevilla as well. This particular ring has eight sides, rather than being a circular ring, and has unique yellow, sand in the arena.
After visiting Sevilla for a day and a half, we went to COrdoba to visit the Mosque of Cordoba (La Mezquita). La Mezquita en Cordoba is the only one of 300 mosques still standing in Spain. The Catholics demolished the other mosques in order to further weaken their moral and establish their own religious customs.
There are three main sections to any mosque ; the tower, the patio, and main church. The Mezquita in Cordoba is a mixture between the old mosque and catholic cathedral. The call tower of the mosque was altered, like the one in Sevilla, to become the bell tower of the cathedral. The patio was left the same and the "Salon de Oraciones," or main room, was altered drastically. The mosque itself was built to look like a forest of candy-cane striped columns and the effect is beautiful. HOwever, the catholics decided to build a cathedral right, smack-dab in the middle . You can no longer see through the forest of columns and the entire flow is broken.
While it is a shame that such a beautiful building was tampered with, it probably only today because of the cathedral within it. Had the cathedral not been built, it is likely that it would have been demolished like all of the others. When the architect contacted the King, King Ferdinand III, the king had never been to Cordoba and seen the Mezquita, and okayed the construction of the cathedral. It is said, that later when the King passes through Cordoba on his honeymoon he was horrified. He said, "Had I known what they were damaging to build this cathedral, I never would have allowed it."
The Mezquita is truly astonishing, unlike anything I have ever seen before. The columns are astounding and provide a very serene ambiance. It is exactly the kind of place I would like to go to for worship. The pulpit is decorated, but no where as distracting and overwhelming as the altars of a Catholic church. The simple, intricacy is stunning. All mosques are supposed to face the direction of Mecca, but.. the architects that built the mosque were from Sevilla and oriented the mosque in the same direction, thinking the direction was the same as Sevilla. So, the mosque is not actually facing Mecca as it should be, go figure. Never the less it has captivated the hearts of many for centuries.
All of the columns throughout the building are different from one another. They didn't have the time to build them all, so they sole them from various locations. Although this is an odd way of going about building a house of worship, it provides for an interesting result. What a way to end my adventures with ISA! It was a fantastic weeked :)
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