Since I don't really remember the order in which we saw things, I'm going to talk about them in the order that I listed in the previous post.
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| Looking up at the bell tower from the patio of orange trees |
I think I've described other cathedrals as huge, but this one tops them all. Inside, in a glass case you can see the proof for yourself--this is the largest cathedral in the world by area, Guinness World Record Certified. Which to me begs the question: Which is the largest by volume? Mass? (tee-hee) But apparently it is not the biggest church in the world. It could have been, but someone thought better of upstaging the Vatican and decided against it.
Besides being impressively big, the cathedral is also famous for originally being a mosque, but the conquerors decided, hey, this is a nice, big building, why tear it down? So instead they added it and consecrated the land. Did you know that to make a place Holy Land, all you need to do is bury a relic and have a priest bless the land?
A couple more neat things: the bell tower was originally a minaret, from where the Imam would call the worshipers to prayer. Now, the imam position was usually filled by an older man and that is a very tall tower. So what their solution was was to, instead of putting stairs in, put a ramp so that the elderly Imam could ride his donkey up and down five times a day rather than walk up god knows how many flights of stairs. There are 34 ramps that go up in a square spiral to the top, and then a small flight of stairs to the observation deck where you can see the city and the 20-something bells. Heather and I were sure to start heading back down before the bells struck the hour.
The last thing that deserves mentioning is the Patio de las naranjas. A relic from Muslim times, the lines you see on the ground are not just decorations, but an intricate watering system for the trees. There are five fountains, one at each corner and one in the middle, and if you lift a little gate on the fountains, you can let water run through the system of miniature canals that run through the patio.
2. The General Archive of the Indies
The archive is home to all (I'm not sure if this is all-all or just Spanish) documents pertaining to the new world between the 16th and 19th centuries. Journals, maps, trade agreements and a million other forgotten things. Today it's a research library and a really fricking huge one with (according to wikipedia) 9km of shelves, 43,000 volumes of works, and 80,000,000 pages. Only a tiny, tiny fraction of it is on display, but at least entrance is free. Heather and I ran into a bit of trouble with the security guards however, when the metal detector detected the silverware we had borrowed from the hostel for our picnic lunch. The security guard thought it was hilarious though, and we got our knives and forks back at the end. (no photos were allowed inside)
3. Maria Luisa Park
Just a big, beautiful European-style park, right close to the Plaza de España. We happened to stop by a modern art museum in the park as well, where we got to play with a one-way mirror and take ice into a large wooden tube. (modern art. Don't ask.)
4. Plaza de España
This plaza, along with a lot of other things in Sevilla, was built for the 1929 World's Fair, which never actually happened due to a minor economic crisis. It has since been used in such films as Lawrence of Arabia and Star Wars: Episodes I & II and I could totally see why a someone would want to use it as a setting for some grand and foreign land.
This picture doesn't show it well, but along the foot of the building there are a series of alcoves where each province capital of Spain has a little fresco and map painted on tiles. Below is the one for Lugo where you can see the Moor surrendering to the Christians just outside the muralla with the cathedral (in blue) on the right and the plaza del campo (I think??) on the left.
5. Photo Exhibit
The photo exhibit was just a block away from the plaza, in one of the pavilions built for the World's Fair. It was a big domed affair, with all the curves and gaudiness of the time. I could totally imagine classy art deco folks dancing to modern jazzy music between the columns.
The exhibit was a little odd and not really what I was expecting. The premise was photos of housing developments in crowded/extreme places and conditions, but the artist took some liberty and photoshoped in some ultramodern/futuristic/unrealistic/fantastic houses/boats/giant shell things.
But at least the building was pretty.
6. Bull Ring
We were in Sevilla, so I felt almost obligated to check out the bull ring. And while I disagree with the idea of bullfights, the museum and tour guide were very interesting. In the museum you can see a few paintings, some taxidermied bull heads, matador costumes and some very scary looking implements of destruction. The tour shows more than just the museum though and we also got to see the chapel where the bullfighters pray before the fights, where they keep the mules (or were they donkeys?) and the ring itself, which is the second biggest in Spain, after the one in Madrid. Some fun facts: there is a special door through which the matador can exit if he gets a perfect score, and that the prizes for getting points are the ears and tail of the dead bull.
7. Scenic Path
The path was not really a destination in and of itself, but one of the routes we could take to get from point A in the north of the city to point B in the south. It was quite scenic, except where a construction project blocked off part of the path and we had to walk around it. Pictured below is one of the bridges that cross the Guadalquivir.
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| This bridge was built by the same architect who did the Eiffel Tower |
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