Last week I had the wonderful opportunity of taking a tour of the Cathedral rooftops. Still editing those photos but meanwhile here’s a short video I made while very close up to the Giralda with the bells ringing, which was both exciting and a bit scary.
Undecided…
This past Sunday was the official opening of the Metropol Parasol – aka Las Setas (wild mushrooms). I stayed away from the celebrations but snapped this pic of it yesterday once everything was back to the usual work-a-day crowds. While it was going up, which took years, I hated the damn thing as much as everyone else seemed to and couldn’t imagine how such a monstrosity would “fit” into such a beautiful old city as Sevilla. Though it’s actually sitting in the middle of the Encarnación Plaza, which had its heart and soul cut out of it during a fit of sixties “rebuilding” which destroyed palaces and old houses and left a strip of hideous office buildings and storefronts. But I digress…
The Setas (how can you not call them that?) are on the original site of the Encarnación Market which was levelled and moved to a “temporary” site next door … about 35 years ago. I don’t know the whole story there other than the original site was pretty much a parking lot when I first moved to Sevilla in 1993, then they started digging it up and discovered ruins that held up any building for several years. And then they started constructing The Setas.
The market was shifted over just before Christmas last year and although the building is now officially “open” there’s still some construction going on. When the scaffolding first started coming down, unveiling the first seta (in the foreground of the photo) I was startled to find myself liking how elegant it looked, swooping up towards the sky. But as more of the structure became visible I became less entranced. So I remain undecided. I guess the real test will be how well the site ends up being used. Aside from the market there will be bars and restaurants (coming soon!), and there’s a big shaded area up on the first level which has a small playground for children, benches for adults, and will apparently be used for concerts. There is also a walkway along top of the structure with panoramic views of the city which residents of Sevilla will be able to access free of charge. Anyhow, for better or worse, there it is.
What do you think?
Visitors to Sevilla are usually surprised and even amused to come across “inquisition alley” in Triana for the first time, and will often make the usual Monty Python Spanish Inquisition jokes, but of course the sobering reality is far from anything amusing.
For almost three hundred years (1481 – 1785) the Castillo de San Jorge was the Seat of the Holy Inquisition in Spain where thousands of men and women from all walks of life were imprisoned and tortured. Its sinister image became the iconic symbol for the Inquisition throughout Europe.
In 1990 the city of Sevilla began work on renovating the old Triana Market and unearthed the remains of the castle. Today it stands as a monument to tolerance and calls itself a place for reflection, inviting us to remember the past in order to prevent such totalitarian abuse of power happening again.
The exhibit is distributed over two floors and includes an interactive room containing three spaces (Value Judgements, The Abuse of Power, The Victims), artefacts from the castle, archaeological remains and historical data.
There is also a Gallery of Key Figures that pays homage to some of the most representative figures of the Inquisition.
I finally stopped by for a visit yesterday (it opened this past spring) and found it very well done and even inspirational. The info pamphlet says that “You are the main protagonist of this story. This is your history” and goes on to explain that the essential aim of the exhibit is to transfer the lessons learnt from these historical facts to the motivations and concerns of our present day society. All the written information is displayed in both Spanish and English and admission is free.
[click to enlarge collage]
Monday-Friday 10.00-14.00h / 17.00-19.00h
Saturday, Sunday & holidays 10.00-15.00h
Castillo de San Jorge Blog
After YEARS of restoration work the beautiful Plaza de España reopened this past weekend. I waited until Monday to check it out and tried to recreate the first time I ever saw the plaza, back in September 1993. I’d seen it on my map so I knew it was a semi-circular building and I’d read that it was designed by Anibal Gonzalez and built as the Spanish pavillion for the 1929 Ibero-American Expo, but nothing had prepared me for what I saw when I turned the corner of the North Tower…
Continue reading “Plaza de España”