Seville, Spain: Cathedral, Archive of the Indies and Alcazar
Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences,
Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay
Rio Guadalquivir
Torre del Oro
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The Torre del Oro has a less well known little sister, the Torre
del Plata (Silver Tower) |
The Cathedral
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The cathedral was built on the former site of the Great Mosque,
is the third largest in the world, the largest Gothic cathedral in the
world, and is just plain butt-ugly. |
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The only thing that even remotely argues for not tearing this monstrosity
down and replacing it with a Wal-Mart is the bell tower, the former
minaret of the mosque. Looking at this and the Alcazar, one can only
guess what was lost when the mosque was razed. Although we can't
totally blame this on La Leyenda Negra: the mosque was badly
damaged by an earthquake in the 14th Century. |
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The cathedral was built simply to enclose the largest possible area.
Unlike other Gothic cathedrals which have soaring height, this one has
all the external visual appeal of a FedEx warehouse. |
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Interior Views
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As hideous inside as outside, you can just look down the naves and
hear "The Great Oz knows why you have come..." |
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The Courtyard
Archive of the Indies
Not a whole lot to look at outside, but the wealth of historical
information stored here is beyond reckoning. |
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The Alcazar
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Not quite as overwhelming as the Alhambra, but still good
for a serious case of sensory overload. |
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Plaza de Espana
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It's garish, gaudy, and glorious in its visual excess. Best known
to movie goers, perhaps, as the Palace of Naboo from Attack of the
Clones, but also the locale for scenes from Lawrence of Arabia
(British Army Headquarters), and more recently, The Dictator.
If you visit Seville, do not turn up your nose at this place
because some snooty guidebook disses the place, or it's 20th century.
It is very much worth a visit. |
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Left: Tile map of Seville |
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Not very old, it was built in 1928 for an exposition intended to
revive ties between Spain and Latin America. |
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All the railings are richly decorated porcelain. A few, alas,
need repair. |
Scenes in Seville
Below: surviving fragment of a Roman aqueduct. |
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It gets hot in Seville, over 110 the day these pictures
were taken, and street awnings like this provide welcome shade. |
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Portions of the city walls survive. |
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The Olympics are just too big for any one city, so some of the 1992
events (officially hosted by Barcelona) were held in Seville. |
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Plaza de Toros (bull ring) |
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Name dropper. The plaque commemorates the location being mentioned
in a short story by Cervantes, Rinconete y Cortadillo, published
in Novelas Ejemplares (1613) |
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Return to Historic Sites Index
Return to Professor Dutch's Home Page
Created 21 December 2011, Last Update
24 December 2020