On day 5 it was time for us to start the Andalucía portion of our trip. Our first destination was Seville; the fourth largest city in Spain and the capital and soul of Andalucía. We got oriented at Atocha train station the prior day when we took a train to Toledo, so we were familiar with the layout and procedure of scanning our luggage. Atocha is a large station split in two between local trains and the long distance trains, and it’s this latter section that has the tropical garden in the main hall. It’s a cool feature! Our train ride was around 2.5 hours, arriving in Seville at 11:38 am and we had a rooftop tour booked at the Seville Cathedral at 12:30 pm. Normally I don’t like to cut things so close, but this was the only time we could book the English tour, so we crossed our fingers there would be no delays.

In Seville we grabbed a taxi to take us to Hotel Alcántara and we got our first taste of the narrow maze of lanes and charming ambiance of the old Jewish Quarter, Barrio Santa Cruz. Our driver got us as close as he could and we walked the rest of the short distance to the hotel. We were able to check in quickly and drop our luggage before heading back out to walk to the cathedral (only a five minute walk from our hotel, which was in a super convenient location). Luckily everything went on without a hitch and we had time to spare before our tour time. We walked around the outside of the cathedral to check out the exterior and found Puerta de San Miguel where the tour was meeting. By this point we had only been in Seville less than an hour and we were already charmed!

The Seville Cathedral is the third largest church in Europe (St. Peter’s at the Vatican in Rome and St. Paul’s in London are larger) and the largest Gothic church in the world. A common story in Spain, a mosque was originally on this site and was repurposed as a cathedral after the Reconquista. In 1401 the city leaders decided they wanted to build a new cathedral and according to local oral tradition, members of the cathedral chapter said “Let us build a church so beautiful and so grand that those who see it finished will take us for mad”. Well, I would say mission accomplished as the cathedral is certainly impressive.

Construction began in the 1430s and it would take nearly a century for the cathedral to be complete in 1528. The cathedral was built on the footprint of the mosque, which was square, so the transepts don’t show from the outside as they would on a normal cathedral (transepts are the part of a cathedral that lie crosswise to the nave, the main axis of the church, to give it a cross appearance). Some elements from the mosque were preserved. The most well known is the minaret, which was converted into a bell tower (Giralda). Also preserved was the mosque’s sahn, the courtyard for ablutions which today is known as the Patio de los Naranjos.

We would have a chance to see these features and more of the interior of the cathedral, but first we were ready for our rooftop tour. This tour was a 1.5 guided tour of the roof and we could explore the cathedral on our own afterwards. I’m really glad we did the tour, not only did we get a lot of information about the cathedral, we got to access parts of the cathedral that you can only go with a guide. We went on different parts of the rooftop, which gave us a different view of the cathedral, as well as views of Seville. We also had a chance to be up high inside the cathedral for some bird’s eye views of the interior and an up close look at some of the stained glass windows.

One thing I particularly liked on the rooftops was the views we had of the bell tower Giralda, which captures the long history of Seville in one structure. It was built as a minaret for the mosque, showcasing Almohad architecture and details, and was repurposed as a bell tower after the Reconquista. The Christians added a tower that fell during the 1356 earthquake and eventually it was replaced with a new tower and Renaissance-style belfry. So the foundation of the tower is precut blocks from ancient Rome, the middle section of bricks was built by the Moors, and then a Christian tower on top. It definitely has an interesting pedigree! At the end of our visit we would get a chance to go up the bell tower. When it was originally built for the mosque it was built with a series of 35 ramps so the muezzin could ride a donkey up the top for the call to prayer (the tower is 330 feet tall). The windows on the tower were built to match the ramps and maximize natural light inside. It’s the same today and it was nice having the ramps instead of a series of stairs to get to the top.

After our rooftop tour we spent some time in the cathedral following the Rick Steves self-guided tour. These were a few points of interest we saw in the cathedral:

- Right at the end of our tour we were up high at the back of the nave with good views of the choir and the high altar before we descended down to the ground floor. Here we saw the gravestone of Ferdinand Columbus (Christopher Columbus’s second son). He was awarded this prime burial spot for donating his 6,000 books to the cathedral. Later, when there were questions if any of Christopher Columbus was actually in his tomb, his son’s tomb was used for DNA comparison (conclusive).

- The Pennant of Ferdinand III is an 800 year old battle flag that was raised over the minaret of the mosque in 1248 when the Christians reconquered Seville and expelled the Moors.

- The Virgen de la Antigua is some of the oldest art in the cathedral (from the 1300s) and is even older than the cathedral itself. This painting was used to cover the mosque’s mihrab in 1248 when Christians started using the mosque as a church. This painting survived the tearing down of the mosque-turned-church to build the new cathedral.

- The joke about Columbus is that his remains traveled more after his death than he did during life. His remains moved around Spain and the Caribbean until they settled in Seville, just 50 miles away from where his 1492 voyage departed. They rest in a coffin that is carried by four royal pallbearers representing the traditional kingdoms of Spain (Granada is represented by the pomegranate stabbed by one of the pallbearer’s pikes). Columbus is obviously a famous Spainiard and is prominent in their history, but he was not a good man. It almost pained me to even take a picture of his tomb. I didn’t mind though the clock above the tomb that has been ticking since 1788.

- The star of the treasury is Spain’s most valuable crown: the Corona de la Virgen de los Reyes. It was made in 1904 using 12,000 precious stones and the world’s largest pearl (the torso of the angel).

By the time we finished touring the Seville Cathedral we were definitely ready to eat. We found a highly rated restaurant nearby called Pelayo and had some tasty tapas. I tried a traditional Analusian cold tomato soup called salmorejo. I liked it so much I had it several times on our trip. It always came with something on top, in this case it was egg, tuna, and jamón. We also had flamenquín, another Andalusian dish from Córdoba, made with jamón wrapped around pork loin, breaded, and fried. We rounded out our tapas with garlic prawns and baked goat cheese with pepper jam. Everything hit the spot!

We were ready to see more of Seville and set out on the Rick Steves tour of Barrio Santa Cruz. This is the oldest quarter of Seville and was established as the Jewish Quarter (Judería) when Ferdinand III of Castille concentrated the Jewish population here after conquering the city from Muslim rule in 1248. The neighborhood went downhill when the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 until urban renewal in the 18th century restored the neighborhood. Today it boasts attractions like the Royal Alcázar and the Seville Cathedral, but just as fun is wandering the labyrinth of narrow lanes and soaking up the ambiance of the small plazas and old world architecture. These were a few of the places we saw along our walk:

- Patio de Banderas. This courtyard was part of the Royal Alcázar and used as a military parade ground. The courtyard is full of orange trees, which are popular in Seville. They don’t lose their leaves so can provide shade year round. Oranges are associated with Seville like how pomegranates are associated with Granada. I think normally the orange trees blossom in April, but we caught some blooming early and they smelled wonderful. The oranges aren’t edible, but their essence is used in all sorts of products. Later we found a shop by our hotel that sold all things orange (soaps, lotions, candies, marzipan, etc).

- Multiple quaint lanes with interesting stone work and other features. Calle Reinoso is a popular one called a “kissing lane” since it’s so narrow and the buildings are so close together. Along Calle Agua we saw a plaque commemorating Washington Irving and where he stayed in Seville. At the end of Calle Agua we saw two old pipes in the wall dating from the 12th century that carried spring water to the Alcázar. The ancient Romans built a 10 mile long aqueduct system and this was expanded by the Moors and the system served parts of Seville until the 1600s. The plaque says: “City wall from the Islamic Period (11th-12th C.), which contains the pipelines that supplied water to the Royal Alcázar and the city in the Christian Period. Restored by the urbanism management of the city council of Seville thanks to the collaboration of TEXSA in 1993."

- Plaza de Santa Cruz is another place that encapsulates the history of Seville. When this neighborhood was the Judería a synagogue stood on this site. It was eventually demolished and replaced with the Church of Santa Cruz where painter Bartolomé Murillo worshiped and was buried. When the French invaded under Napoleon the church was destroyed and eventually a 17th century iron cross was installed that marks the former site of the church. The former church and cross give the neighborhood its current name (Santa Cruz means “holy cross” in English).

- El Torno Pasteleria in Plaza del Cabildo and Convento de la Encarnación in Plaza de Triunfo. Nuns selling goods is definitely a thing in Spain. Although we missed the “secret nun cookies” in Madrid, we had a chance to check out a small pastry store and buy a rosary in Seville. For the rosary we approached the torno (like a lazy Susan), requested a rosary, placed the money on the torno, and turned it around. When the torno came back around there was our rosary.

We planned to watch sunset from Las Setas (“the mushrooms”) and started making our way to Plaza de la Encarnación (about a 15 minute walk from the cathedral). This was originally the site of a food market that was established in 1832 and demolished in 1973. The land was undeveloped until 1990 when the city planned to construct another market with underground parking. During construction Roman ruins were discovered and construction was halted. In 2004 the Seville City Council announced an international competition for ideas to redevelop the area and rebuild the market. The winner was The Metropol Parasol project designed by German architect Jürgen Mayer, inspired by the ficus trees in a nearby plaza and the vaults of the Seville Cathedral. The design didn’t just include space for the market, but also a large structure with walkways and views of Seville. This ended up being the largest wooden structure in the world, constructed of 3,500 pieces joined together by 3,000 knots and 16 million screws and nuts. The structure has a height of 28.5 meters (just under a 100 feet), 250 meters of walkways (820 feet), and used 3,500 raw cubic meters of Finnish pine wood (the project was awarded for its sustainability - for every pine tree used, three more were planted in the forest from which they came). While initially the project was named Metropol Parasol, it was dubbed Las Setas by Sevillians and when the walkways officially opened in 2011 it was officially called Setas de Sevilla (also because the designer trademarked the name “Metropol Parasol” and would charge for its use).

We arrived early enough that we could see the light transition from the late afternoon to sunset and stayed long enough to see the colorful lights come on. We also watched the free film, which was...interesting. There were some nice aerial shots of Seville and some more random moments like a horse running through an old building. And Norah and I both looked at each other in puzzlement/horror as figures appeared wearing KKK costumes. Which it turns out are what penitents wear during Holy Week and the pointed hoods are called capirotes. No connection to the KKK, but it was certainly jarring to see them whenever we came across them in Seville (like at the chocolate shop). Overall Las Setas were fun to visit and a neat contrast to the older historical sites in Seville.

We weren’t sure if/when we would see Plaza de España the next day, so decided to make a quick visit this evening just in case we didn’t make it the next day. Plaza de España is located in Parque de María Luisa and was built for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. One of the prominent features of the plaza is the beautiful tile work, which was not readily visible at night. We did like seeing the buildings lit up at night and it was very peaceful. The flip side of few people was that it felt a little eerie in the dark and we did not stay too long. We did end up visiting the next day, which was a better time to visit to see all the tile work and details. We started walking back to Barrio Santa Cruz and found a restaurant, Casa de la Moneda, for tapas. It was another great meal and we finished off the night with some nighttime views of the Royal Alcázar and the cathedral before calling it a night. Our first day in Seville was a terrific one and we couldn’t wait to explore more the next day.