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!