Superb Sevilla

The first assault on our senses and what we will always remember about Sevilla is the scent of orange blossom. The centre of the city is full of open spaces, wide avenues, parks and gardens and the trees are everywhere. We left our sensomatic camera in the UK and so you will have to make do with colour photos but if you spray the room with orange blossom scent before reading on then you will get the idea.

We chose to be here at this time, Semana Santa, so that we could catch some of the festivities and parades that start on Palm Sunday and continue each afternoon/evening through Holy Week until Easter Sunday – we were not to be disappointed.

On Palm Sunday the clocks changed and so we missed the bus we planned to take and did not get into the city until midday had to change our plans accordingly but all worked out for the best. The bus brought us in from the South and we came along a wide avenue with gardens on both sides and Andalusian style villas along the way.

This would be the first of three days in the city and so we decided explore the city on foot to get our bearings and then hoped to see a procession or two. Sunday is always a popular day for the Spanish to get together with family and so it was not surprising to see family groups walking around but this was Holy Week and attracts massive crowds. The centre was buzzing with the locals dressed in their Sunday best (literally) enjoying the sun and waiting for their friends and family to appear in a procession. We passed the cathedral where rows of seating had been arranged for the crowds to watch the final stages of each procession and passed through a number of squares with café tables and the inevitable orange trees before arriving at the Museo de Bellas Artes where we were able to see works by local artists mainly from the 17th century and a special exhibition of Murillo’s paintings on religious themes – of he more later! The plaza outside of the museum is taken over by local artists on a Sunday selling their works of art – as many styles as artists.

During this week a number of brotherhoods will proceed to the cathedral from their local church starting in the afternoon and evening. The route is carefully planned and the timing arranged so that they do not interfere with each other and arrive in sequence at the cathedral from early evening until late night. They pass through the cathedral and then return to their churches. Each procession has the same format, a band leads two lines of costumed supporters, clothed in the traditional pointed headdresses and long capes (only God knows their identity) - the most contrite go barefoot and carry crosses. Then comes the first “paso” a large sculptural representation of events from Christ’s passion which can weigh up to 2 tons and is carried by teams of 40 bearers. Its weight means that the procession halts regularly so that the bearers can change over. The paso is followed by a second band, more penitents and then a second paso showing the Virgin Mary, a third band and supporters and members of the church. These are large processions which meander along the narrow streets of the city, they can include up to 2500 costumed followers and so can take up to an hour to pass. We found it very interesting to observe the veneration of the paso by some of the crowd but found it difficult to reconcile this with the casual attitude adopted by other of the supporters.

On Monday we had set aside the day for a visit to the Cathedral but we stopped on the way to look at the tobacco factory which is now part of the university. The previous day we had seen paintings of the gloomy interior dating from the early 20th century and it was here that Carmen worked in Bizet’s opera. John has some experience of tobacco factories having work at WD&HO Wills at Bedminster during summer vacation from university. The women depicted in the paintings were making cigarettes at tables in dingy rooms and enjoying the banter. It reminded him of the fear and trepidation with which he would enter these rooms at Wills where a young student was always fair game as a butt for their jokes!!

The factory today does not allow smoking and the grand entrance which hid the working conditions in the other parts of the factory was again reminiscent of the situation at Wills where grand marble entrance halls gave way to the dark dungeons of the tobacco stores.

We arrived at the cathedral and took audio guides as we have decided that these are good value and enhance the value of this type of visit significantly. The building, which took over 70 years to complete, was finished in 1507 and was intended to get the reaction from all who saw it that the planners were mad (“let us create such a building that future generations will take us for lunatics”). One must admire the work that has gone into creating this magnificent building that is now one of the largest cathedrals in the world. It has many highly decorated chapels which surround the choir and main alter and our old friend Murrillo must have spent many years providing much of the artwork. We still think the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona would be our favourite cathedral. Although not finished, the lack of opulence sits more easily with us.

The cathedral was built on the site of a mosque and the original minaret, La Giralda, still survives and allowed us great views across the city from the bell tower at the top. As we looked out heavy rain was lashing down but by the time we had descended and walked out into the patio of oranges, where Muslims would prepare before entering the mosque, the rain had stopped.

Dodging the puddles, we made a circuit of the centre and finished by walked along the river and came back into the Plaza San Sebastián with its fountain and benches where we could picnic, people watch and enjoy an ice cream before setting off to find the afternoon procession. Following groups of people, some already dressed as penitents, and the sound of a band we eventually found what we were looking for and stood for an hour to watch it pass before heading home.

The bus we took was followed a slightly different route and wound through the industrial estates on its way to the campsite – this added time to the journey which was further extended when we were stopped for …….. not sure what really could be speeding, could be defective lights. In any case a familiar scene was played out with the Guardia Civil (traffic division) officer in full uniform, dark glasses and scowl requesting the pleasure of the company of the driver to answer a few questions!! Half an hour later and with a good ticking off he was allowed back onboard to drive us on our way.

Tuesday, our last day in Seville, had been set aside for the Alcázar, the residence of many caliphs and kings over 11 centuries. Built around a muslim fort dating from 913 the buildings have been much added to and modified by successive rulers and this is still used as the residence of the King and Queen of Spain when they are in Seville. The different styles of architecture and decoration are melded to provide a fascinating set of buildings. The many rooms were decorated with the familiar tiles and intricate plasterwork relief of the Muslim period, Mudéjar ceilings and later gothic influences. Running water and fountains were present in the cool courtyards built to alleviate the hot Seville summers. The palace also houses some superb 18th century tapestries depicting various battle scenes and one fascinating piece showing a map of Spain from the North to the African coast.

The large formal gardens with their orange trees and fountains are quite delightful and provide an opportunity to break the exploration of the building and picnic or sit and absorb what you have seen. One would never believe one was in the centre of a busy city and I think we will put this down as our favourite building we have seen so far.

A slow lunch and then off to find Casa de Pilatos, a fine example of a noble’s mansion or so the guide book says – we will never know as our way was blocked by a procession which completely filled the narrow Calle Acquillas. Never-the-less it provided us with our best experience so far of a procession with great views of the event and a real feeling of involvement as we stood with locals who were pleased to see us there and encouraged us to get a better look as the pasos came by. It is clear that the local neighbourhood gets right behind the event and the friendly and relaxed family atmosphere was there to be enjoyed by all.

An uneventful journey home brought an end to our time in Seville and I think we both agree that it has been our favourite city so far and that we will visit again at this time or later in April during the fiesta. Everyone we speak to seems to agree that Seville is a very special city made extra-special at this time of year. We do not feel we are able to do justice to the city in this blog and if you have visited then you will know what we mean – if you have not visited – GO!