Many of my friends have traveled to Europe to see where their roots come from. This is the way I felt when I arrived at Seville. Not that I have Spanish blood but Seville was the center for discovering the New World.
Seville’s government hired Christopher Columbus. He was buried in the large cathedral in town.
Magellan set sail from here with a crew of 234 men. Only 18 men survived the journey but they had circumnavigated the globe. The first world maps to include the USA were created. To this day, Seville still holds all the documents regarding the discovery of America in it’s Native America National Archives building. I was so excited to go until I found out that none of them are on display. They are too fragile.
Funny to think of Seville as a trading port since it is 50 miles from the ocean. But the river is quite wide making it a desirable city for all the sea voyages. The Queen liked Seville because it was safe from pirate attacks.
The Romans were here first, then the Muslims, then the Christians and Spain. The Spanish government fled to Seville when Napoleon took Madrid.
Seville was the first processor of tobacco. They processed all the tobacco coming from the new world. 30% of the people in Seville worked with tobacco. No wonder the Spanish are heavy smokers.
On our first day, we went to Real Alcazar, a palace built in the 8th century which shows all the architecture of the inhabitants of Seville.
There were so many architectural styles on these grounds. It was a bit overwhelming. I got a stiff neck from staring at the coffered ceilings. Every room was different.
I love the architectural style of combining brick and ceramic tiles called Borec.
The Plaza de Espana was a great example of the Borec style.
The plaza was built about 100 years ago as an expedition of the unity in Spain. The building is built in a half moon facing Latin America representing open arms. There is a river built inside the half moon representing the Atlantic Ocean. It was a beautifully architected structure.
There are benches built in the Borec style around the inside of the half moon. There is one for each province. They are all different and include a picture of significance to the province.
Seville is home to the third largest cathedral in Europe.
The vastness definitely took your breath away. We had to sit down and try and take it all in.
This church also housed the highest tower in Seville. No steps in this tower. You reached the top on 34 ramps. Very civilized.
From the top, you truly got a feel for just how flat Seville is.
We did tour another church our guide recommended so we could see a true Spanish style. Our guide called the style “over done”. We could not agree more.
Since the weather was a steady 100 degrees during our stay….
But it didn’t get hot until 7pm. Welcome to the desert. The mornings are actually quite nice at about 75 degrees. We decided to rent bikes one day. But where to go?
Derek found the Roman town of Italica was only 12 miles up the road. We put the address into Google and off we went. Google had its first hiccup of our trip when it brought us to this lovely road…
We quickly back tracked to the main road and arrived Italica before the heat of the day started to set in.
Italica was home to an amphitheater which held 2,500 people. It was built in 100BC. Italica had about 10,000 residents.
Derek really offers scale to how really big this place is.
The tunnels under the arena were in great shape.
The bricks on the tunnel walls definitely showed their age.
The town around the amphitheater was just foundations and floors. Some of the mosaic floors were in surprisingly good shape for being over 2000 years old.
For our final night in Seville, we went out to the recent day structure the locals call “the mushroom”. It is the same height as the cathedral. The only thing higher is the one skyscraper in Seville.
Special Note: If ever in Seville order the Churros with chocolate. The chocolate is served hot as well as the churros. Delicious combination.
