Sevilla

                           Sevilla

Two of the most elegant structures in Sevilla are the Torre del Oro, on the bank of the river Guadalquivir, and of course La Giralda, now serving as the bell tower of the Cathedral.

What they have in common historically is that they belong to the time of Moorish supremacy in Spain, and to one of the many eras in which Sevilla prospered as an important city undiminished by changing political fortunes.

The Christian reconquest of Sevilla in 1248 brought kings, nobles and churchmen; the discovery of the Americas some 250 later boosted Sevilla even further, ushering in a golden age during which the city had the monopoly of trade with the New World. It is unsurprising that the city grew full of lavish churches without number, grand palaces and administrative buildings, effectively obliterating most traces of the Moors, with significant exception of the two mentioned.

Today, Sevilla combines wide avenues, spacious squares and parks with a large old town of narrow meandering streets- an extensive and bewildering network that reminds me of Venice alleys, except here it is a Venice with vehicles. Much traffic of cars and vans is routed through these streets, squeezing pedestrians against the walls of houses and shops.

Most of the great buildings are of Renaissance or Baroque style (or later). Some have simple but noble proportions, like the Archive of the Indies, once the place of assembly and business of Sevilla’s merchants, but now housing in copious and meticulous detail the official paperwork of voyages of conquest and profit.

The extinction of Moorish influence has one other pleasing exception. This is the Alcázar Real, the palace built  in the 1360s for the Spanish monarchs in Mudejar style (Moorish adopted by Christians). So it displays coolly elaborate stonework and intricate abstract decoration - and acres of wonderful gardens.

One cannot ignore the Cathedral, the de facto centre of Sevilla and its most massive building. Indeed, it is the largest gothic cathedral anywhere, built over a century in the 1400s. It is said that the Cathedral chapter (before the present structure the former mosque had been converted to Christian use, as in Cordoba) had the express ambition of building something so large that they would be considered “loco”. They succeeded.

The Cathedral is giddyingly, oppressively huge, with vast disorientating spaces - nave after nave, chapel after chapel. It is not a church for quiet contemplation either of god or architecture. The experience is one of being in a dream of a vast train station where there is no way to the platforms, and the crowds of passengers are condemned to wander with diminishing hope. That’s the inside..

There are many hotels near the Cathedral that have roof terrace bars overlooking it.

From these one can observe its fantastic roofscape of turrets, balconies and battlements. All for ornament rather than occupation. A disneyfied castle has floated on to the top of a church. Laurie Lee described the whole as an “encrusted turtle”. This is unfair to turtles. Perhaps we are meant to think of the battlements and mansions of Heaven..

Like a finger of rebuke, tower of the Giralda stands in one corner. Intricate and satisfying Moorish details cover most of its height as a former minaret. However, it was decapitated by an earthquake and its final stories are a renaissance christian structure for the Cathedral’s bells.

There’s one other feature retained from Moorish times: the ablution courtyard, similar to Cordoba’s, now a peaceful  garden of orange trees (Patio de Naranjos). Somewhere to tumble out into, with relief, from the Cathedral’s interior.

Across the the wide Guadalquivir river is a barrio technically part of Sevilla but with the feel of a separate town. This is Triana, a place of historical  manufacturing (especially of decorative tiles) but noted mostly for its gypsy population that brought Flamenco music and dance to Spain. 

In early modern times the Spanish authorities had a habit of expelling the “wrong” ethnic/religious groups (Jews, Moors) and gypsies were sometimes forced out of Triana. But their special musical skills were eventually recognised as benefiting Sevilla, or at least its mystique, and gypsies were allowed to return. 

Upstream from Triana is a forlorn but dominant skyscraper (Torre de Sevilla). A modern answer to La Giralda? Containing offices and a hotel it looks shiftily out of place. Perhaps that doesn’t matter to Sevilla proper: like Triana the new tower is on the other side of the river.

Dec 2025