Today, the final day of our holiday, we visited the Seville Cathedral and the Jewish District of Seville.
It is quite incredible how fast 5 weeks can go when you are having fun and gaining lots of interesting new information – history, geography, myths and legends. We walked from our hotel to the Cathedral and, Trevor and I, discovered how easily we could have got back to our hotel the evening before, if we had only known which road to follow!
The Seville Cathedral, Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See, is a truly imposing building, originally built as a mosque, between 1172 and 1182. It was developed as a Cathedral after 1248, when Ferdinand III (also known as Fernando) defeated the Moors, being finally completed 300 years later. It is the largest Gothic Church in the world with 80 Chapels in the building and a Nave is the longest of any church. Every door in the building is named. It is the burial site for many prominent people including Fernando III and Christopher Columbus and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
The Bell Tower was originally the Mosque Minaret and is known as the Giralda. It is 343ft (105m) from the base to the top of the weathervane and can be seen from almost every corner of the city. It is beautifully sculpted and the statue on its top, called “El Giraldillo”, was installed in 1568 to represent the triumph of the Christian faith.
On the north-eastern side is the Archbishop’s Palace, a long, ornate, red building. After the reconquest of Seville, King Ferdinand III gave a tract of land and houses to the Bishop of Segovia so that he could live in Seville. The Palace, which was built for the Bishop, has been extended and changed so much that little remains of the original. Since the 16th Century, it has been left untouched and is considered one of the best examples of Sevillian baroque style buildings. The red ochre and sangre de toro (bull blood) colours with which it is decorated also accompany other emblematic buildings in the town. The Palace was declared an Historic Artistic Monument in 1969.
When we went to purchase tickets to visit the inside of the Cathedral, we were told that we could only do so if we were part of a tour group. That was very frustrating as my, cousin had told us how beautiful it was on the inside and that the ceiling was extremely high. We were able to go into and admire one of the Chapels on one side of the Cathedral, which is used for minor services during the week. To think of it as a Chapel was quite difficult as it was large enough to be a Church in its own right. We are always so impressed when we see the amount of work and detail which has gone into the building of these churches and cities from hundreds of years ago. So many built today will possibly not be standing in 100 years’ time.
The area around the Cathedral has many beautiful buildings with wonderfully sculpted facades. The costs must have been enormous but, with the church being so powerful at the time, the leaders managed to raise money and workers without too much difficulty.
After an hour or more in the area, we walked towards the Jewish District which, during medieval times, had a wall built to separate Jews from the rest of the city. In the 13th century, when the city was reconquered by the Christians, the Jews were a very welcome people as they had money to share with the Christians. As the Christians became more settled and made their own money, they began to despise the Jews and, by 1391, there was a deep hatred and the Jews were attacked, with their Synagogues being changed into churches.s.
The area has very narrow, winding streets with fascinating shops. One of the most beautiful was one filled with ceramic plates and other pieces.
After lunch in one of the squares in the Jewish District, we walked down a hill which followed the line of the wall in the Jewish District and came to a beautiful garden with some Ficus macrophylla, commonly known as the Moreton Bay fig or Australian Banyan Trees. They were enormous with the most fascinating root systems.
At the rear of this garden was a gate, with the inscription Glorieta Garcia Ramos across the top, which led to a small garden and fountain. Although I have searched, I cannot find anything in English to tell us more about this beautiful and restful spot.
Trevor and I then returned to the hotel to pack and prepare for our long journey home to South Africa the following day.
