Córdoba, Spain

After spending the morning in Seville, we traveled to Córdoba to spend the night. Like Seville, Córdoba began as a Roman town and gradually expanded, reaching its pinnacle under Moorish rule. In the 10th century, it was perhaps the largest city in the world with over half a million inhabitants. The Mezquita, an Islamic mosque, is the main sight in Córdoba and is regarded by many historians as the finest example of Middle Eastern architecture left in the Western world. Work first began in 600 A.D. when the Visigoths began building a church, but a century later, the Moors (Muslims from North Africa) conquered the area and began constructing a mosque on the sight. In 987, the last of the additions was made, and the mosque was completed. In 1236, Córdoba was re-conquered by a Christian king and the mosque was remade into a church. A major addition took place again in the mid-1500’s when a Renaissance-style nave was built in the middle of the cathedral. The last of the additions was made in the 19^th century and the church now functions as the official cathedral of Córdoba.

Many of the marble columns were made from the ruins of Roman temples in the area.

The central nave.

I believe this is an ancient Roman bridge that has been recently remodeled. Anyway, even if it isn't a Roman bridge, it still looks cool!

Seville, Spain

Seville, located in southwestern Spain, was the first stop on a three day trip to Spain that I recently took. The previous day I began traveling with five other students on our first "free travel." We spent the first night in the Milan airport and caught a 6:00am flight from Milan to Seville. When these pictures were taken, realize that I had gotten about an hour of sleep that night before. (Apparently my body somehow rejected the idea of falling asleep on the concrete inside a busy, loud terminal! I think I'm too skinny and bony, so I have no soft cushion from the concrete!) Anyway, enjoy these pictures - it took my about two hours to post these!

The Alcazar Palace was built in 1364 by Pedro of Castile over Moorish ruins. He used Moorish workman to build the palace, so even though he was a Christian king, the palace is built with a distinctive Middle Eastern architecture known as mudéjar. Later additions were made to the palace in the 1500’s. Today, the upper chambers of the palace are still used by the Spanish royal family as their official Seville residence.

Some pictures of the gardens attached to the palace.

Seville’s Cathedral, the Catedral de Santa de María de la Sede, is the fourth largest church in the world, and the largest Gothic church in the world. It boasts a 138 foot central knave and the largest altarpiece in Christendom. Originally the site of a mosque, the area was turned into a church after Seville was conquered by the Christians in 1248. Construction began in 1402 and lasted for another 173 years.

The bell tower, formally one of the minarets of the mosque.

The grave of Christopher Columbus.

This is the largest altarpiece in Christendom. And yes, that yellow stuff is gold!

San Gimignano

The "skyline" of San Gimignano. No, these aren't offices but military towers. San Gimignano was an important trade city in the Middle Ages and once boasted 70 towers throughout the city. These were used not only to protect against outside invasion, but also against internal turmoil. The city's elite families were constantly at war with one another (like they were in Romeo & Juliet) so the towers were attached to each wealthy family's home as a place of retreat. Because each tower was personally built and financed by a private family, it also became a status contest to see who could build the highest tower. San Gimignano was decimated by the Black Plague in 1347, losing 70% of its population, never to regain her former power she possessed back in her glory days. She was later conquered by Florence, who ordered that most of the town's towers be torn down. It really is a town that has not built a significant building since 1347! However, San Gimignano has one "newer" tourist attraction - a gelato shop that has won the World Gelato Competition '06/'07 and this year '08/'09! I had strawberry and peach which was very, very good!

A great view of the San Gimignano countryside.

The Piazzo del Duomo. Inside is one of the most heavily detailed frescoes in Europe.

A few towers viewed from the town square.

Reminds me of the Twin Towers. Ironic that I took this picture the day before September 11.

Siena

Hello everyone, sorry for the long wait for a new post, but our internet has been out for a while and it just came up. I'll post later on my trip to Florence, but today we went to Siena. It is a town of 60,000 that in its prime (the mid-14th century) was one of the most important Italian cities, even larger than Florence. However, the town lost half of its population during the Black Plague which hit the city in 1347. It never recovered and eventually was conquered by its rival city, Florence.

The Torre del Mangia, one of the tallest, secular bell towers in Europe. Standing at 334ft, it was built between 1325-1348. And yes, I walked all the way to the top! Great views!

Siena's cathedral, the Duomo, as viewed from the Torre del Mangia. The church was planned to be expanded into one of the largest churches in Europe, but the Black Death hit the city the year of construction, forever ending any hope of expansion. The plan was to create a long addition perpendicular to the current church, making a new cathedral in the shape of a cross. You can see a portion of a white wall expanding from the church where construction had just begun before the plague hit.

The Piazza del Campo as viewed from the top of the Torre del Mangia. The plaza became the center of the town in Medieval times and in 1650 hosted the first modern Palio di Siena, a horse race three times around the town square. The race is the most famous horse race in all of Italy, where the seventeen neighborhoods of Siena send one horse to compete in the race.

The Palazzo Publico, or "public palace". Siena was a republic in her last days and this was the city hall where even the common peasants had some degree of representation.

I have to catch up on homework, but many more pictures will be posted soon!

Sites around Citerna - Day 2

This is the courtyard inside the original fortress. Now its a small park.

The castle wall.

Some weird Italian guy that wanted me to take his picture. *Cough, Cough*

The main street running through town.

A street paved with a very ancient material called asphalt derived from a substance known as petroleum. Actually, I just thought the trees looked cool!

This is a panoramic looking out over to the Tuscan side of the mountain.

Here is the only portion of the old fortress this is still completely standing.

Day 1 -Citerna

Hello everyone, I’m glad to announce that I’m here in Citerna, Italy and am somewhat recovered from two full days without sleep! The trip over was a little interesting. Our Memphis to Amsterdam flight was delayed an hour because they couldn’t start the 2^nd engine on the plane and had to partially take it apart to start it manually. This caused a few people inside to panic and demand that the plane taxi back to the terminal so they could get off! The pilot had to come back and personally tell them that everything was safe and the plane was fine. In the early morning we flew over beautiful Great Britain. Even though we were 38,000 feet up, the sky was perfectly cloudless and you could see all the pastureland. Absolutely stunning! I and three others were picked up at the airport by Melissa, a girl in the church from southern Italy who is taking an English class in college. She was very nice, but she had never been to Rome or Citerna, so we spent three hours trying to get out of Rome, and then find our hotel once we reached Citerna. What should have been a three hour bus ride from Rome to Citerna took over six hours! But we had fun and I got to see a “preview” of Rome before all the others did!

Today we had our first classes and got to meet each other. I toured all of Citerna (which might be all of 10-15 acres!) and took plenty of pictures. Tonight we all went to the town square and had a crazy good gelato (ice cream boosted with a gigantic helping of butter) and talked with some of the locals. Citerna is a town of about 400 and it seemed that nearly all of them were in the square talking with each other, eating at the town’s one restaurant, and just having great fun. It reminded me of some little English village where everyone is merry and gets along. I talked for about an hour with a man named Daniel who knew all about American history (he’s a Revolutionary War buff) but he also told a group of us the history of Citerna. It was built in the 12^th century by friars and shortly thereafter became a fortress for the Florentine kingdom. The Vatican and Florentine kingdom spent years and years fighting over the border, and Citerna was a key fortress the marked the Florentine boundary and prevented a Papal invasion for many years. Eventually, however, the pope’s forces succeeded in conquering the town and put many people to death. The friars kept a written history of the outrages committed against the citizens, detailing every citizen who was put to death or harmed in any other way. Even though it is 800 years later, the town still keeps a written log of any offenses that are committed against citizens in the town. If someone steals money from their fellow townsman, they record it. If anyone abuses or kills or does anything wrong in the town, it is written down as a permanent testament against the perpetrator. Daniel explained this as one main reason why crime is non-existent in Citerna. In the city’s town hall, you can go and view the criminal records, even the ones originally written by the friars! Talk about your naming living in infamy. In Citerna, we can literally know the name and crime that a person committed nearly eight centuries ago!I took a few pictures of the town walls and other places inside. The walls are the original walls that for so many years protected against Papal invasion!