Andalucia 5

Tags

Andalucia, Andalusia, Archivo de Indias, Bar Europa Seville, Christopher Columbus, La Giralda, Pierre Dancart, Sevilla, Seville, Seville Cathedral, St Paul's Cathedral

Seville Cathedral. Having indeed added to my stock of nougat, I made my way mid Sunday afternoon to the Cathedral, to be confronted with a long queue.  As I sat on the steps of the Archivo de Indias wondering what to do, feet sorely in need of a rest, I firmly resisted the temptation to take a pony trap ride – I felt so sorry for all those many creatures, trotting around the hot streets of Seville all day. When I eventually looked up from my guidebook, I saw that the queue had reduced in length quite considerably, so I joined it.

I had already taken these exterior pictures of parts of cathedral the previous day. This is of a replica, placed near the entrance to the cathedral, of the bronze weathervane depicting Faith on the top of La Giralda.   With almost no commentary, here is a selection of the photos I took inside. (Audioguides are wonderful, but you have no record of what they tell you.  I do recall however that listeners, English-speaking ones anyway, are informed that this cathedral is the third largest Christian church in the world, after the Vatican and St Paul’s Cathedral, London.  However, size depends on how you measure it – St Paul’s comes well down according to this list!) 

I loved the variety of marbles at the entrance to the retro choir

Tomb of Christopher Columbus

Above it, noticed by scarcely anyone, this magnificent clock

The Main Sacristy

Impossible to do justice to the oval Chapter House (above) in a photo, so here’s a video.

 

 

This grill was forged 1518-32, and protects…

The great altarpiece, the work of just one man, Pierre Dancart, who worked on it between 1482 and 1526

La Giralda, was the Moorish minaret, finished in 1198. In the 14th century, original Muslim spheres were replaced by Christian symbols, and in 1568 the renaissance belfry was added.  At the end of a tiring day, I had decided not to go up it unless there was a lift, which was unlikely.  However, when I found that in fact to go up meant walking up 34 slopes, not hundreds of steps, I decided to embark on them and see how I did.   At each quarter turn there is a little notice telling you how many slopes you have done, so, distracting myself with mental arithmetic to tell me what proportion I had done, I did find myself at the top of the 34 – only to find there were another 17 steps.  (I suppose that was the renaissance bit.)  There were slopes, not steps, originally, so that horses could be ridden up.  Splendid views of central and greater Seville from the top.  Somewhere near the middle of this one is my hotel. For the evening, after a long rest, I went out seeking another tapas restaurant, one which had a reasonable number of patrons, but which was not too noisy.  In fact being Sunday evening there were many fewer people around, and less choice of eating places. But I found the modest Bar Europa met all the criteria, and I had a really excellent meal.  Sadly the (Italian) ice-cream bar I had identified previously was shut, so I had to forgo a dessert!