Never have we stayed in a hotel so close to the main attraction in town. And it wasn't expensive, to boot. We could walk right out of our hotel and into the Mezquita, a 2 block square building built as a mosque in 785 AD on the site of a Visigoth church. When the Christians won Spain back from the Arabian Moors, they, in turn, removed a large part of the center of it and plunked down a Catholic Cathedral in the middle during the 16th century.
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| inside of The Mezquita |
The look is unique, not like any other place of worship or visitation. The site is striking with over 850 columns (it used to be 1200 before the center was taken out) with double arches painted red and white and surrounded by niches of Catholic side chapels all around the inside edge of the building. The columns themselves are slender and have the appearance of palm frond stubs at the top. It was built to give the feeling of being in a palm oasis in the desert. The first sight of it is amazing; it seems to go on forever in every direction. We followed it the entire periphery and continued to be amazed mostly at the design but also at the execution of it. We exited into a grove of orange trees brilliantly decked out with bright orange fruit but still within the walls of The Mezquita.
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| one of about 20 glittering bronze doors into The Mezquita |
The Rio Guadalquivir runs the length of the city and rushes past Roman ruins and under a beautiful bridge the Puente Romano. It's mostly muddy brown from the runoff of the extensive agriculture along its banks. All around the city grow hill after hill of olive trees, with some orange trees and cereal grains in areas of fertile looking soil.
The sun warmed our backs as we wove through the narrow streets, trying to find the Alcazar de los Reyes Christianos, a formidable fortress out of which the Inquisition operated from 1492 to 1821. Good thing the day was bright; on a dark or rainy day it would have been almost depressing to view a structure so involved with intrigue and torture.
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| Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos |
A quick walk to the Plaza del Potro to see the spot mentioned in Don Quijote and on to our special treat: the Hammam Banos Arabes (the Arabian Baths) where we got a Turkish "scrub" (not nearly as rough as the one we had in Istanbul--no skin left) but nice just the same. Beautiful indoor pool with candles all around, a warm pool (loved it), a very hot pool (about 5 minutes is all we could take), and a freezing cold pool (we didn't even stick our toes in). And then to bed with preparations to leave the next morning pretty early in order to turn in our car at the Sevilla Airport and take the city bus to town.
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