La Catedral de Sevilla

Yesterday, Sunday, was our last day of orientation before meeting our host families. They had planned the entire day, from a 10AM walk of the city of Seville to dinner at 8:30PM. I had wanted to wake up early to go to mass at the cathedral at 8:30. This plan was thwarted by the rock-hard pillow at the hotel, which prevented me from sleeping for more than an hour or two at a time (the pillow was so hard, it hurt my ear to lay on it for any length of time). So, when my alarm went off an hour before mass was to begin, I made the decision to try to sleep a bit longer so that I wouldn't be a zombie for the long day ahead.


After falling back asleep, my roommate and I woke up at 9:57. In a rush, I threw on some jeans and a shirt, brushed my teeth and headed downstairs. One thing I've learned is that most of the things we do here start ten to fifteen minutes later than what is scheduled. I had plenty of time, so I grabbed a few rolls and a glass of orange juice from the lobby, where breakfast is served until 10AM. Once everyone was there, we set off with Dr. Inglis, the director of the TTU Center. He's an American who moved to Seville in 1974, married a Sevillana and raised a few kids. He's traveled extensively throughout Europe, and is an expert in Spanish history. I quickly found that the best place to be in our group of 44 during a tour is near him. In addition to knowing a lot of academic-type stuff, he's also got a reputation for knowing all the best restaurants in Spain, a knowledge I'm looking forward to using to my full advantage during our excursions.

Anyway, the first major sight to see was the Catedral de Sevilla. We only passed by it in the morning during our tour of the city, to return that evening for a look around inside. But, for the sake of continuity I'll talk about the stuff we saw in the morning and afternoon together. One of the best views in the city was down a particular street, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme (a fancy way of saying I don't remember, this comes from the first line of the most famous Spanish book of all time, Don Quijote), at the giralda, or bell tower, of the catedral.

Complete with orange trees, as always. La Catedral is massive; it's the largest Gothic structure and the third largest church in the world. When construction began, the Sevillanos wanted to build a church so large that anyone else that saw it would think that the whole city of Seville had gone crazy. At the time, it was the largest cathedral in the world, surpassing the Hagia Sophia, which had held the title for more than a thousand years.

There have been volumes written about this church, so I won't even try to scratch the surface. I'll just talk about a few things that I found particularly interesting. The perimeter of the church is demarcated by heavy chains hung on columns, much like massive velvet ropes. The church used to be an area of immunity; inside of the perimeter one could not be arrested. Once you stepped outside of the church grounds, however, you were fair game for the equivalent of the police. Thus, the area just inside of the chains became a haven for criminals. Because they couldn't leave the grounds without being arrested, they would basically just hang out at the edge of the line, getting family and friends to bring them things to eat and drink. To pass the time, they would make up and share stories. Supposedly, this is where one such criminal, Miguel de Cervantes (who spent some time in debtor's prison) came up with much of the substance of el Quijote. At any rate, Cervantes did mention the steps of the church just inside the chains (where said criminals would congregate) in a novel called Rinconete y Cortadillo, a proud fact even for the Catedral de Sevilla:

 
There are many of these signs in and around Sevilla; it's a great source of pride to have been mentioned by "El principe de los ingenios españoles" (the Prince of the Spanish geniuses) in one of his works.

The inside of the cathedral is almost impossible to put into words. The art. The metalwork. The sheer immensity of the space. Incredible.

The altar mayor is considered to be one of the finest altar pieces in the world, for obvious reasons. It is the life's work of a single craftsman. Made of Old World gold.

This is the Altar de Plata, or Silver Altar. Made of silver from the New World. It's blurry because flash photography isn't allowed in the cathedral. One of the most famous attractions is the tomb of Christopher Columbus, or Cristobal Colon, as he is known in Spanish.

After looking around the main area of the church, we ascended la giralda, which offered wonderful views of the city.

I didn't get as much time as I would've liked at the cathedral, but one of the perks of living in Sevilla is that I can go again anytime I wish. Before I leave, I'd like to spend the better part of a day here, at the very least.


Well, I'm off again. This time for some bar hopping before watching the BCS Championship at the TTU Center. The game starts at 2:30AM in the morning here. I don't think I'll ever complain about the timing of games in the United States ever again after this trip. More tomorrow.