Seville
April 2010
Seville is a tremendous city, and our week there barely allowed us to touch the surface. Here are a few brief observations.
City
of Smells, gardens and Courtyards
Never before has my overriding memory of a city been its smells. From the first day, entering the Patio de las Banderos and being literally hit by the smells of orange blossom, we just seemed to live in a sea of blossom; jasmine, wisteria and a host of other plants we couldn’t recognise filled the City with scents. We are often told that London is a green city with so many parks. You have to be joking. The green squares and parks in Seville are both numerous and beautiful and perfectly maintained. The attitude to public space in the city was a joy. Walking through a city centre square at 11.00 at night, in the warm air, the gorgeous scents and seeing far more elderly couples that us strolling arm in arm showed what we have lost as a nation. But most of all, Spanish urban architecture seems to be built round the courtyard. The first few days we spent with our noses pressed to gates, looking at the sumptuous courtyards within, fountains surrounded by pots of overflowing plants.
Mudejar architecture
Fortuitously,
it proved very useful to have visited Granada before Seville. In Granada the
architectural situation is clearer. Buildings are either Moorish (Islamic) or
re-conquest Christian. The Alhambra
is a Moorish building. The Alcazar,
the great palace at Seville however, is not Moorish, though on the surface it
appears to be so. Although the Moorish site is older than the Alhambra what comes down to us today is 
mostly
the product of the wonderfully named Peter the Cruel of Castille. He was a
Christian conqueror, but recognised the power and authority of buildings such
as the Alhambra and used architects
and craftsmen to build his own version. So while the Alcazar has the distinctive horseshoe arches, elaborate plasterwork
and sumptuous tiles of Moorish palaces, on closer inspection, there is no
Arabic calligraphy and indeed, there are representative figures, most notably
the lion and castles of the combined royal house, something you would never
find in Islamic art. This combination of Islamic and Christian styles is called
Mudejar and is represented all over Seville, the best example after the Alcazar being the Casa de Pilatos, a 16th century palace in the north of
the city. Extraordinarily, the chapel at Casa
de Pilatos has a 3rd century roman/Christian statue. They don’t
seem to value their Roman remains that highly!
City of Virgins
Spanish
Catholicism appears to be something of an oddity. It has very specific beliefs
and rituals, and seems to belong to a darker and more ancient age. Even last
week the churches were either locked and uninviting, or ‘in business’ and
equally uninviting. Churches appear as a places for the initiated, putting up
barriers against the other as opposed to the majority Western model of
welcoming the sceptic and the irreligious regardless. Seville specifically is
the host of the Easter Processions, when the statues of Jesus and Mary are
carried through the City by teams from local ‘confraternities’ to huge crowds.
Most disturbing to atheistic liberals such as myself, the parades feature men
(and, I believe women) wearing what appear to be Ku Klux Klan hoods showing
their status as penitents. I couldn’t bring myself to buy any of the models of
these penitents, but couldn’t resist taking a photograph of this confectionary
version! As in Granada, every few yards along the streets of the old city there
are 
ceramic
portraits of either a manifestation of Mary or of Jesus, each in different
guises.
Cordoba
Although
Cordoba is about 80 miles from Seville, it is linked by the new high speed
railway, so for 57euros (both of us, there and back) we decided to spend a day
at the third of the major Moorish centres in Southern Spain. The highlight of
Cordoba is the Mesquita, the vast
Islamic mosque. Although contemporary chroniclers suggest a population for
Cordoba which beggars belief, the mosque certainly suggests a large population,
both permanent and floating. The building is absolutely enormous, made up of
endless series of red and white round arches, one on top of the other, mostly
re-cycled from Roman and Visigothic remains. Initially the Christian conquerors
just re-consecrated this huge building and used it as a church. However, it was
decided to convert it into a cathedral with the 
result that the elements of a major
Spanish cathedral appear to have been ‘dropped into’ the mosque. So when you
look in one direction you see the simple repetitive arches of the simple prayer
house, but rotate through 90 degrees and you see a huge baroque edifice. A very
strange and unique building.
Also of note in Cordoba was the Alcazar de los Reyes Catolicos. This was, as the name suggests, the palace of the Christian kings, built on the ruins of the former Caliph fortress which itself is on Roman ruins. Currently it appears as a major archaeological site of Roman artefacts, and the quality of the mosaics uncovered looked very good to my amateur eye. They have also preserved some stunning Islamic aromatic gardens.
The Best Hotel
Hotel las Casas de la Juderia is quite simply the best hotel I have ever stayed in. It consists of a series of linked houses and courtyards, strung together between little alleyways, big and small courtyards and staircases. We never remotely found it all! We stayed in two rooms, each stunning – fabulous furniture, sumptuous bathrooms and in one case our own private courtyard. The little alleyways between rooms and houses are filled with flowers, art and architecture, roman remains, fountains, statues.... I really don’t know how to describe it. It was, admittedly, not the cheapest hotel we have ever stayed in but absolutely worth every penny. Do have a look at the website, and if you get the opportunity, even if it is just one night, do stay there.
And pop across the bar Carmelia across in the Plaza Santa Maria la Blanca; we spent a great deal of time over there watching the town go by.
Links:
There are further photographs on my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=667971262&ref=profile