Day 11, June 7 - Seville

I was incorrect about being in Seville for 2 ½ days; we’re here for only 1 ½ days. I think the boat was asked to leave because the port was becoming very busy, but not for sure. All we really know is that we left earlier than expected so we didn't get an additional day to explore.

If you look at a map, you’ll see that Seville, is located inland on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir. Our boat, the Azamara Quest, is small enough that it cruised up the river to the city – and it was interesting. The captain said there was only 5 feet of clearance for the boat, but the more amazing thing was that he had to make a 3-point turn in the river and back it up to the city’s pier – but only after passing under an aerial lift bridge. What we saw on the river was farmland – lots and lots of rice paddies. The province of Seville is the largest rice-producing region in Spain, accounting for about 40% the country’s total output, and it is centered in the marshlands (marismas) of the lower Guadalquivir River. The area produces over 300,000 tons of rice annually across 87,500 to 90,000 acres in the region. The vast majority of the water used to grow the rice is pumped directly from the river estuary or diverted from upstream river regulation systems.

There is water under Seville as well; it rests on a shallow water table and sits directly above massive underground aquifers in the surrounding region, which have supplied the area with water since Roman times. Because Seville sits in the river valley and averages only about 23 feet above sea level, it sits on an alluvial aquifer where groundwater levels are very high. Which is a good thing, considering Seville is very dry – its average annual rainfall is about 20 to 22 inches. Most of the rain falls between October and April with November and December typically being the wettest months. Summers are extremely dry – and hot.

It’s only the first week of June but the locals are saying it feels like the middle of summer. The average temperature in June is 91 degrees. Yesterday’s temperature when we arrived was 92; today’s is 98. And the humidity (dew point is 57) makes it feel really hot and uncomfortable.

We couldn’t disembark until after noon, so we lazed around and ate lunch before leaving the boat. We were going to go with Sandy and Debbie into the Old Town, but my head cold/sinus issue came back, AND I thought it was just too damn hot to go walking around for 3 hours before our 4-6 pm tour of Alcazar, so I took a nap, and we took a cab to the plaza on which Alcazar and the Cathedral of Seville are located.

The Cathedral is absolutely stunning; it’s globally famous for being the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and the third-largest church overall. However, it’s actually a fusion of five different styles: Almohad, Mudéjar, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque. We did not tour it or anything – just admired it from outside. Additionally, the architectural marvel contains the elaborate tomb of Christopher Columbus and incorporates a former Islamic minaret. It was completed in the early 16th century, and it surpassed the Hagia Sophia to become the largest cathedral in the world.

It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, along with the neighboring royal Alcazar of Seville that we toured.

The Royal Alcazar is one of the oldest functioning royal palaces in Europe. Yes, Spain has a royal family, and it’s a constitutional monarchy headed by King Felipe VI whose royal family includes Queen Letizia, their eldest daughter and heir to the throne, Leonor, Princess of Asturias, their younger daughter, Infanta Sofia, and the King’s parents, former King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia. The upper chambers of the palace complex are officially maintained as a residence for the Kings and Queens of Spain when they visit Seville. While the main living quarters are reserved for royalty, it serves mostly as an official and ceremonial base today. We were told the King was not at the palace during our visit. 

 The Alcázar is globally celebrated for its Mudéjar architecture—a style built under Christian rule that beautifully blends intricate Islamic geometric patterns, tilework, and courtyards with Gothic and Renaissance styles. 

In the 16th century, the complex served as a headquarters for managing expeditions to the Americas, and it is where Queen Isabella I signed the financial backing for Christopher Columbus’s voyage. Our guide said we should give Columbus some credit for being an explorer, even though she knew he was controversial in America. She did mention the Tainos, the first native people encountered by Columbus in the Caribbean. I don’t recall if she also mentioned that the Taino was once the most numerous indigenous people of the Caribbean, having numbered possibly one or two million at the time of the Spanish conquest in the late 15th century. They were easily conquered by the Spaniards beginning in 1493. Enslavement, starvation, and disease reduced them to a few thousand by 1520 and to near extinction by 1550. I could go on….. but I won’t.

Back to Alcazar: it is much more compact, intensely lush and more highly detailed than the Alhambra. And it served as "Water Gardens of Dorne" in Games of Throne (seasons 5 and 6).

We were very happy that we bought the tour early (it was a skip-the-line tour offered through a local tourism business) because the lines of people wanting to gain entry was at least a block or more earlier in the day, and we heard stories from other folks on our cruise that they couldn’t get tickets until Wednesday. 

The main entrance is a gate flanked by two towers and connected to a wall that belonged to the old Al-Mubarak Palace of Al-Mutamid in the 11th century. The lion is represented in the Gothic style holding a crucifix with a phylactery or band where it can be read in Latin “Ad utrumque,” meaning “Ready for everything.”

This was the Hall of Justice, built in the Mudejar style between 1340 and 1350 by King Alfonxo XI. It is shaped like a qubba, an Arabic term that identifies a building with a square floor normally closed by a dome – a perfect cube.

We saw the Patio del Yeso that dates from the end of the 12th century and is one of the few Almohad constructions that are preserved in the Alcazar. It is a private part of the old Palacio del Yeso (Plaster Palace). We saw the Transept Courtyard, also from the 12th century. 

We saw the Palace of Pedro I built between 1356 and 1366. The palace owes its name (Mudejar Palace) to the Mudejar style predominating, both in structure and decoration, in all its rooms. However, it is a new Christian construction over existing Almohad remains, and not an Arab building fitted out for the use of a Christian monarchy. The palace was structured around the Courtyards of the Dolls and the Maidens, courtyards with the intention of differentiating the private life from the public one of the monarch, around which the rest of the palatial rooms were arranged.

We also saw the Baths of Doña María de Padilla) that were originally designed as massive underground cisterns to supply water to the palace and its gardens.

Remember that subterranean water is prominent in Seville's architecture. Lying just 15 miles outside the city is the Los Alcores Aquifer, one of the most important aquifers in southern Spain. The Romans built an extensive 62-mile network of underground galleries, known as “water mines,” to draw water from the aquifer and transport it to the city.

    An example of the farmland we passed as our boat went up the River Guadalquivir to dock in Seville

The Seville Cathedral, officially Catedral de Santa María de la Sede, is the largest Gothic church and the third-largest church in the world. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring stunning architecture, priceless artwork, and the Tomb of Christopher Columbus. This is the Giralda Tower, the cathedral's iconic bell tower was originally the minaret of a 12th-century Almohad mosque.

The main entrance to the Alcazar (La Puerta del Leon), and the line of people waiting to get in. We had a Skip-The-Line tour, thank goodness. The gate is flanked by two towers (you can only see one) and connected to a wall that belonged to the old Al-Mubarak Palace of Al-Mutamid in the eleventh-century.

This is the remaining wall from the original structure built in 913 AD when it was a fortress.

An example of some of the exquisite tile work in the palace.

Chapel of the Palace or La Capilla del Palacio is an eighteenth-century room where the altarpiece of the Virgen de la Antigua stands out, in baroque style, made in the same century. The painting that presides over the altarpiece is a copy of the original one found in the Cathedral of Seville. 

The Salón de los Embajadores is located on the site of the Pleiades Hall of the Al-Mubarak palace in Al-Mutamid. King Pedro I ordered the construction, to the master Diego Ruiz in 1427, of a qubba-shaped building with a square floor and a wonderful hemispherical, also called half orange dome. The half orange dome is to the Mudejar what the Sistine Chapel is to the Renaissance. It is a beautiful dome made with a ten lefe loop, considered in carpentry the most perfect lacework layout, of which there are only three others in the world.

 A portion of the six-hectare gardens that contain about 170 plant species from all over the world. The gardens are a synthesis of gardening and emotional architecture, where different artistic styles have circulated, little by little, creating this work of art.