After a very brief walk through the Jewish Quarter, an area I would like to have explored in more depth but not in the rain (!) we made for the Cathedral, which is dominated by the magnificent Giralda Tower. A former minaret it was converted to a bell tower for the Cathedral of Seville and is 343 feet (105 m) in height. The tower's first two-thirds was built to resemble the minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech Morocco (Been there and seen that!!) but the upper third is Spanish Renaissance architecture.
The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See is the largest Gothic cathedral and the third-largest church in the world and was built to demonstrate the city's wealth, when it had become a major trading centre in the years after Seville was taken from the Muslims by the Christians in 1248. In July 1401 it was decided to build a new cathedral since the structure of the current building was so badly damaged by an earthquake in1356.
We only had a briefest of tours inside – less than 15-minutes - so not really time to do justice to this gigantic building. Among its most notable artefacts is the tomb of Christopher Columbus (See photo).
The brief visit to the cathedral was followed by one of the finest tapas lunches I have had in my life – some 10 courses. It lasted for over 2 hours and one wonders if this wasn’t the real purpose of the day rather than visiting the sights – but it was very good!
No comments:
Post a Comment