We started off the day going to mass at Cathedral de Sevilla and looked around the church a little, but we were pretty hungry by this point (and the ushers didn’t want people taking pictures until the Church opened up to visitors that afternoon) so we headed to Barrio Santa Cruz; which is the old Jewish quarter with Moorish architecture and very narrow cobblestone streets. We ate breakfast here in the Plaza de los Venerables, in front of the Hospital de Venerables Sacerdotes and La Hosteria Del Laurel – which is where José Zorrilla stayed in 1844 while writing the play Don Juan Tenorio. We walked around Santa Cruz a little more and then got in line to see Reales Alcázares (Royal Palace). The Royal Alcazars of Sevilla was built in the 14th century, but has Moorish/Muslim and Christian details since later inhabitants made their own additions. The Spanish royal family uses this has their home when in Seville, making it the oldest royal palace still in use in Europe! The architecture, colorful tile work, intricate carved ceilings, etc were unlike anything we’d ever seen (here and on the rest of our trip) before. Hence all the pictures you’ll see below.. I’ve had the hardest time narrowing down the almost 2,000 pictures we took!
As a side note, an alcázar is a type of castle in either Spain or Portugal built by kings to live in. It is derived from an Arabic word (القصر), meaning “fort, castle or palace”. Since we saw a few of these, thought that information might help! Another side note, the Cathedral and the Reales Alcázares are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
After seeing the inside of the Reales Alcázares and the gardens we ate lunch and then went back to see the Church and go up in the Giralda Tower. The Catedral de Santa María de la Sede (the full name) is the largest Gothic cathedral and the third largest cathedral in the world (behind St. Paul’s in London and St. Peter’s in Rome). Construction started in 1402 (there was a mosque here previously that had been converted to a church but it was badly damaged in an earthquake) and ended in 1506.. just 5 years later the dome collapsed and they had to rebuild it! The cathedral as 80 chapels and this is where Christopher Columbus is buried. One thing we noticed during mass that morning was that there weren’t many seats – maybe enough pews to seat 200 people (max) and there are huge amounts of open room on either side of the alter running the length of the church.. maybe they bring out folding chairs (or something similar) around Easter/Christmas, etc? Otherwise I guess a lot of people stand! Our one complaint – they charge 8 euros per person to see the church.. this seems a little high to us! Especially since the Church already takes a chunk of Morgan’s pay check each month here in Germany…
Next we walked up to the top of the Giralda tower – which is the bell tower of the Cathedral. Previously it was the minaret (construction finished in 1198) of the mosque that stood on the site during Muslim rule and was converted to a bell tower after the Reconquista. It is actually pretty easy to walk up to the top of it because you walk up gradually rising ramps instead of steps (unlike, for instance, the Cologne Cathedral which almost killed us.. right Kelly and Austin?). It was built with ramps because the Moors used to charge up the ramps on horseback to call people to prayer- which I thought was pretty interesting. Too bad you can’t still ride a horse up to the top! From the top (37 ramps up) there were some really pretty views of the city- totally worth it.
When we finished up here we did some people watching sitting by the fountain in the Plaza Virgen de los Reyes which borders the Cathedral, the Reales Alcázares, and the Archbishop’s Palace. From here we grabbed some sangria and then dinner before going to Aire Baños Árabes. It was totally relaxing – they have thermal baths, hammam (a steam bath, similar to a Turkish bath, but with essential oils infused in the steam .. so it smells awesome!) and jacuzzi’s plus you can have a massage, facial, etc. They also had a relaxation room where the stone benches were heated so you could sit or lay on them and they provided hot tea, cold fruit tea, water, etc. Everything was lit with candle light in these huge Arabic style lanterns… it was really beautiful. I was a little worried before we booked (Europeans are totally fine with being naked around each other in saunas (I’ve saw enough naked 70 year old German women to last me a life time when we went to the pool for my birthday – I got out of the shower room as quick as I could!) so I thought we might run into that here. Thankfully they require swimsuits and give you these water shoes to wear the whole time so you don’t slip on the floors. I would totally recommend doing this if you ever end up in Spain (I think they have these in most large cities)!
