Sevilla!

Here’s a long overdue entry on my first stop in Spain: Sevilla!

Seville is a site of a Roman acropolis, capital of the Moorish empire, focal point of the Spanish Renaissance, and guardian of traditional Andalusian culture. It is indeed a melting point of varied influences.

First stop: Alcázar!

The Ambassadors’ Room in Alcázar is allegedly the site where Fernando and Isabel welcomed Christopher Columbus back from the New World.

The oldest European palace still used as a private residence for royals, Alcázar is a mishmash of Moorish, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture. Never before had I seen so many architectural style all rolled into one, so the tour was quite interesting. By the way, it is incredibly common to find orange trees in Seville, as evident in the picture above.

A pair of street artists in Santa Cruz

Next stop: the Cathedral of Sevilla, the third largest cathedral in the world (after St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City and St Paul’s Cathedral in London) and the biggest Gothic edifice ever constructed.

In 1401, a 12th-century Almohad mosque was destroyed to clear space for the massive cathedral. All that remains of it is the Patio de Los Naranjos, where the faithful would wash before prayer.

The massive church organ

The tomb of Christopher Columbus

We then went up La Giralda, a minaret with 35 ramps leading to the top of the cathedral, for a good view of the city.

Seville from the top

La Giralda on the left

Walked past the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza afterwards, the home to one of the two great bullfighting schools. We didn’t see any bull around though, only some horses. Heh. 

Next destination: Plaza de España, a beautiful square at the heart of Seville

Ok, it’s so pretty I couldn’t stop posing :p

Parque de Maria Luisa

Torre del Oro

Rio Guadalquivir, flowing north to south through the city

Some random matador statue in front of the bullring

Casa de Pilatos, inhabited continuously by Spanish aristocrats since the 15th century

A wedding carriage we came across in front of the cathedral

A monument in Jardines de Murillo -written on one side of it is Fernando, and on the other Isabel

The following are some random shots of Seville in late afternoon through evening:

Plaza de Toros at night

We also managed to catch an impressive flamenco performance in Casa de la Memoria Al Andalus, a cultural centre in Santa Cruz.

View my Vodpod on the sidebar or click here for a snippet of the flamenco performance. You can also view more photos of Seville here.

In the meantime, I’m off to conquer Copenhagen, Odense, Oslo, Bergen, Rhine Valley and Frankfurt for the next 10 days. Bis bald!