Our Lovely Adventure: Christmas Break 2023: Seville Day 4

We woke ready to explore more deeply some of the sites we had noticed during mystery exploration on our first full day in Seville, agreeing on Al Alcazar, the Seville Cathedral, and Las Setas. After breakfast, we wandered through the streets of Seville toward Al Alcazar. To make the day extra fun and engage the kids, we decided to have a photography contest with each of us submitting our best photo of the day to the family to judge. Along the way we noticed a man working on something next to the open window of his shop. We wandered over to the window and met Pablo, the owner of El Perro de San Roque. He named his store after the famous tongue twister, un trabalenguas, "El Perro de San Roque" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSvwhJiZx7k). He was making a leather journal and taught us the names of the tools in Spanish and how he was making it. He also made jewelry and carried beautiful artwork from many Spanish artists. A little plug for his store: https://www.instagram.com/elperrodesanroqueuno/ We had a wonderful time in his shop and found a few treasures for friends and family there. Every time we walked by we gave him a greeting and he remembered our names.

Here Pablo is showing L how to make earring hooks for the earrings she bought from him.

A lot of our wandering through cities involves the kids playing some game or teasing each other in some way or another. And Darrell, of course, acting like a robot, ha!

A double G in Plaza Nueva.

Checking out her artsy images for the photo contest.

Another example of the incorporation of Moorish architecture.

When we got to Al Alcazar, we found that it was unfortunately sold out for the day. We sat in the square for a bit, pondering our options and having a snack. While we were there, a photographer with some women dressed in Flamenco style wandered into the square and I snapped a few, fun photos.

With La Giralda, the Moorish minaret turned Catholic bell tower, in the background.

View from Al Alcazar to the spires of the Seville Cathedral.

I love this of them working on their winning photos!

We decided to try waiting in line at the Seville Cathedral even though it said it was sold out online. And we got in.

Waiting in line

I love her boots and all the detail and motion in this sculpture.

We were all awed by the cathedral when we walked in. Seville was the main port for ships returning from the New World with all the pillaged gold, silver, and other treasures. The Moors had built a mosque on the site while they were ruling the Iberian peninsula, and Seville was the Moorish capital for a period during their rule. After the Reconquista (when the Christian Spaniards retook Spain after the 800 years of Moorish rule) the Catholics repurposed the mosque into a church. The towering minaret was made into the church tower, now called La Giralda, named after the weathervane that tops it. The exterior is decorated with spire after spire, gargoyles, statues, domes, arches and other decorative elements. The interior sweeps your eyes around and upward in the vast interior. Little chapels along the sides contain beautiful paintings, achingly intricate altarpieces, and crypts of important figures to the church. Stained glass sprays bits of colored light onto the rock surfaces of the soaring columns. It is truly a rich building full of history. Because we had the photography challenge, the children were engaged in looking for beautiful sights and unique angles. I kept challenging them to find the painting they enjoyed most in each nook, which led to some fun discussions about what they enjoyed. There were several rooms which contained religious artifacts made of silver, gold, and gems that must have been from materials plundered from the Americas and other colonies. While gorgeous, it is hard to ignore the hurtful past that they represent. Additionally, Christopher Colombus has his tomb there, which was much more elaborate and prominent that I expected. He was responsible for discovery of the Spaniards’ route to the Americas and the meteoric rise in riches they subsequently experienced, so I suppose it makes sense he is so revered. We were able to also climb up La Giralda, the church tower that was previously a minaret. It was constructed so that a horse or donkey could walk up it, with a ramp that spirals up instead of stairs. I read somewhere it was so that the sultan could ride his horse up. It now houses the church bells at the top and we got to hear one chime. It was so high up that we could see across the city in all directions.

Soaring vaulted ceilings with gems of light splayed across from the stained glass.

Lots of inspiration!

Christopher Columbus' tomb is in the Cathedral and surprised me with its beauty.

Notice the details on the clothing. There is the scallop shell that is used often to represent pilgrimage, particularly the Camino de Santiago, the Saint James Way Path, in Spain. The pomegranates represent fertility and abundance, are the symbol of Granada, were an important symbol for the Moors, but the Catholic monarchs took it as their own as a symbol of their victory over the Moors after the Reconquista.

Trying to ruin each other's pictures...silly competition.

Another beautiful door

Looking out over the cathedral grounds toward the river.

Going up the Girasol tower.

Bells in the Girasol, they chimed while we were up there and I can attest that they are loud!

I loved all the details on the Cathedral.

Beautiful Cathedral facade and pizza

And while we were at it, we had to try to renounced heladería across from the Cathedral; they even had some vegan options.

Later that evening, we took a walk over to Las Setas. Las Setas, or the mushrooms, are a wooden construction built on top of Roman ruins. The site had been used for a market for many years, but it fell into disrepair. As the city was removing the old building, they found ancient Roman and Moorish ruins underneath, which they began excavating. To preserve the site, the city had a contest for someone to design a structure that would preserve the ruins but make the most of the site. Las Setas were the chosen design. The structure has a basement floor that allows for exploration of the ruins, while there is an elevator that runs to the top of the structure and has a walkway across it. At night each square has a light that can change color, creating a beautiful, ever-changing light show. We went after sunset so we could enjoy the light show. It was really beautiful seeing the continuously changing lights and the views across the city. Such a special feature in this city and so cool the juxtaposition of ancient and modern.