Mezquita, Part Three, the Christian Bits

Smack in the middle of the Mezquita, an enormous (acres 
and acres) building, the Christians erected a Baroque 
cathedral, which hardly compares with the much older 
Moorish structure...the king who ordered it (either Pepe 
the Quick or someone else) is reputed to have said "you 
have taken something unique and given me something 
ordinary"; fortunately, they left most of the unique intact

Ceiling over the altar

In the beautifully carved but otherwise unremarkable 
choir...a clock! Definitely not sacred time...

San Sebastina?

The Moorish and the Baroque really don't mix that well; 
fortunately, however, the Moorish wins

Mezquita, Part Two, the Visigothic Bits

At the entrance to the modern building, a Roman column, 
as if to remind us that before the Visigoths, the Moors, and 
the Christians, they were there; and thousands of years of 
civilization before them...

Remnant of the Visigothic church, with a chi rho in the middle

Variations on the cross

All kinds of early Christian symbolism

Mezquita, Part One, the Exterior Bits

Cordoba's Mezquita is one of the great buildings of the world--I was transfixed, sort of--so you'll have to bear through three or four posts to get it all. It is now the cathedral of Cordoba, but was, in the 7th century the cathderal of St. Vincent...Visigothic...then, from the 8th century, a great mosque...and from the 12th century or so onward, a cathedral again. There are probably Roman and Celtic remains on the site too. But the Moorish building, into which the Christians inserted a cathedral, is colossal and fascinating.

An exterior view of the great building and its enclosure

One of the many entrances

In the ablution courtyard, now an orangerie

Looking up at the tower

The tower

Tower closer-up; behind the bells you can see the 9th or 10th century red brick 
minaret

Cordoba

Another World Heritage site; I think we have seen about

half of the 900 by now

So how hot does it get in Cordoba? Even the public

parking lots are covered

Walls of the Alcazar

More alleys, patios, plazas

A particularly nice one

Statue of Averroes, the great Muslim

philosopher, commentator on Aristotle

And, by the site of the synagogue,

Maimonides, the great Jewish philosopher;

you're supposed to rub his shoes for good

luck, which I did...

We drove the 80 or so miles east to Cordoba, across rolling, sandy hills, to see the Mezquita, which will be a separate post.

Italica, 2010

En route to Cordoba, we thought we'd swing by Italica, a

few miles northwest of Seville, and see the largest and

finest Roman ruins in all of Spain (which is saying

something), the city of Italica; Italica started out as a camp

for wounded soldiers in the 2nd Punic War, 2nd century

BC, and then grew and grew; the coliseum, above

(someone else's photo), seated 30,000; Carthago delenda

est!

We began to think something was amiss when, nearing the
town, we noted a super-abundance of busses, parked cars,
officials, closed roads, barricades, police, and hundreds of
very skinny and skimpily-clad persons, numbered, running 

around; it was the 28th annual Italico Cross Country, apparently 

a very big race of this type; the nice person at the Officina
de Tourisme helpfully suggested this was not perhaps the
best day to try and see the ruins, even if we could find a
place to park in the same county; so, thinking of my sister
Carole, the runner, we drove on, stopping to buy a few
more snacks for the road at the pasteleria (someone else's
photo) [Editorial afterthought: should "Italica" always be
italicized?]

 

Seville Out-takes

Murillo's very famous St. Aragorn with

Andrusil and Palantir

Relics (anatomical parts unspecified) in the Cathedral

Treasury

"Put your snout under the spout where the

Gospel comes out"

Panel from St. Mary of the Winds: San

Sebastian sans Arrows (seriously)

Too many tapas, too few paseos

Specimen orange tree; it must be allergy-

central when all these trees are in bloom

Monument in Alcazar garden to Al-Mutamid,

9th century poet, mayor of Seville; everybody

knows about philosopher-kings, but a poet-

king? Definitely worth a try...

Real bicycle lanes, as in other Spanish cities

Lope de Vega was Spain's great playwright in the
Renaissance, a contemporary of both Shakespeare
and Cervantes, who wrote hundreds of formulaic
plays and was a commercial success; Cervantes
fancied himself a dramatist but couldn't even begin
to compete; but the most excellent novelist Miguel
Cervantes de Saavedra has stood the test of time,
even if he doesn't have a theater...

 

Seville's Alcazar

The Alcazar in Seville is a royal palace, first built by the Moors in 10th-12th centuries, then updated when the Christians moved in. The Christians left much of it intact, happily, and it is a visual feast, only a few morsels of which can be conveyed in photography.

Tile ceiling dome in one of the rooms

Columns, arch, tiles...

Courtyard and water feature

St. Mary of the Benevolent Winds; in the

Admiralty Rooms, from which the Spanish

planned to rule the New World; St. Mary's

cloak protects all, you see; Rickie Stevie

says it's called St. Mary of the Good Farts

The painting is significant in that it contains

the oldest representation of Columbus, 1535,

just 30 years after his death, and thus is

thought be at least possibly accurate...yes,

he was said to be a blond, at least in his earlier

(fun) years

Gardens

Another water feature, this one the baths of the female royalty 

(and friends)

Seville Cathedral, 2010

Seville's cathedral is 14th-15th century built over the mosque, which was built over the Visigothic church, which was probably built over a Roman temple, which was probably built over a Celtic temple, etc.  Recycling is not such a new idea. Anyhow, the cathedral is said to be the 3rd largest religious building in Christendom, after St. Peter's and St. Paul's. (Check this out in the Guinness Book). It did not strike us as so large...neither particularly high nor long. I don't know how they calculate these things...maybe it's all the side chapels and other buildings that add up. (Are they really integral, structurally, to the main building? my inner architect asks...). There was plenty of other stuff of interest, however.

Seville Cathedral

Ceiling at the crossing

Largest altar in Christendom; I wonder if the

people of Peru or Mexico would like to have

some of their gold back

Silver (spare) altar piece; 3,500 lbs.

Moorish depiction of the Giralda, as it was

before the reconquista

The huge choir blocks any possible view

from one end to the other; can't let the

common people see what's going on on the

other side....

The poorly-lit Big Attraction...the tomb of Cristobal Colon,

who sailed the ocean blue, in 1492; now what do you think

of that?

Ceiling of one of the side chapels

Column in side chapel depicting agonies of hell...

something we always look for

The cloisters, now sort of an orangerie, but was originally

the ablution court for the mosque; Moorish irrigation bricks

still in place