To Seville

We intended to leave Santillana early on Saturday 22^nd Feb, so hauled ourselves out of our muddy pitch on Friday night and parked on the campsite internal road.

A good hour saved, so we arrived in good time at our intended night halt half-way to Seville. The site was mainly residential- these campsites seem to have a common theme of small pitches and occupants covering every square inch of their plot with awnings, sheds and lean-to’s, as well as accommodating the caravan or motorhome dwelling itself. Overall impression: refugee camp.

The Seville site, however, was good, in quiet suburbs with a frequent bus connection to the centre. So we bussed in and went walkabout. The bus dropped us at the edge of the old centre, and first impressions were of elegant buildings, wide avenues and spacious parks. This huge edifice we came to is what? The plaque on the wall told us.

It’s the old tobacco factory and the second largest building in Spain after the Escorial palace. It’s now part of the university. It also figures in the story of Bizet’s opera Carmen: Carmen was a cigar maker here. No Carmen brand cigars on sale for the tourists though, not even Carmen cough drops. Missed opportunities.

All of the short walk to the centre was interesting. Now we passed a busker, and stopped to listen: a flamenco guitarist who could really play.

The old centre is dominated by the cathedral and contained a mixed range of buildings from many eras. Two examples:

Design often shows influence of the city’s Moorish past, the Arab occupation from year 712 to expulsion in 1248: the interior of this public building, for example. It reminded us of Morocco, from where many of the Arabs came.

The Santa Cruz quarter that backs on to the cathedral is a maze of small streets containing bars, a few flamenco clubs, and dwellings, some with entrance doorways and courtyards also in the Moorish style.  See following photos. Arab design was meant to create cool calm refuges in the scorching Spanish summer heat. 

The bars in this area are all from yesteryear, like this one with the dried hams hanging up, and dark décor.

There was also a guitar museum within a small flamenco theatre. Some were over 200 years old and looked quite different to modern style guitars.

Out of Santa Cruz, we wandered towards the river and past the bullring. Bullfighting still occurs in Spain, and its stronghold is here in Andalucia, but it’s more low key these days as many Spanish now find it unacceptable as do most of the tourists. The Plaza de Toros took a nice photo though even if we wouldn’t want to see a live performance. Live, that is, apart from the bull at the end!

At the wide Guadalquivir river we looked across to the Barrio Triana, the gypsy district. Also here the ancient shipyards and the gunpowder factory thrived when Seville was the main port of entry for commerce with the New World. In the 1680s the river silted up and Seville went into a decline. Shockwave damage from the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 completed the downturn.

There are wide and pleasant promenades along the river bank. We walked along the embankment and stopped at the Torre del Oro, the Golden Tower, constructed in 1221 and much amended later. Pleasant enough and remarkable for the complete absence of any gold colouring.

We haven’t yet finished in Seville: the next blog will focus on the cathedral, the largest gothic cathedral in the world but also the largest cathedral from any period by volume (Guiness Book of Records). Did they have to fill it with liquid to measure the volume- holy water of course, as it’s a cathedral!