Today Sara and I went on a guided tour with CIEE to the Catedral en Sevilla and the Giralda. The cathedral was originally a Mosque, hence all the domes and fountains and stuff. However, apparently in 1248 San Fernando II marched into Sevilla and was like, "nope, sorry everyone but this is now a Catholic/Christian church so get out. That's just how us Catholics roll. So since it was a mosque first they tore all that down and and rebuilt, Romans style, what is today the 3rd largest as well as the oldest cathedral in the world.
The only part that was conserved from the original Muslim tower was the Giralda. Although a new architect added onto it to make it mostly Roman, the tower contains 34 flights of ramps..not stairs. There are ramps instead of stairs due to the fact that Muslim prayer is called to session 5 times a day. Meaning that the poor guy who was in charge of calling people to prayer time had to haul ass up that tower 10 times every single day.
Mass is still held at the cathedral in a newer (but still pretty ancient) part of the church, a smaller chapel. The only people who are allowed to get married or have mass at the main altar are princes or king (Reyes). Regular weddings are also still held there, in fact there was one today, but it may only take place a designated chapel. Also, theres no way common people could afford to get married in there anyways..so it's mostly just really rich people. One last fun fact in that the main entrance/doors are never ever opened unless like the pope or a king wants to come in through them. The Catedral is now mostly a museum. I hope you enjoy the pictures!
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| Outside of the Catedral |
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| Museum Entrance to Catedral |
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| San Antonio; Sala de Bautismo; The frame of this painting was actually made in New York |
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| Ceiling view of main hallway of Catedral |
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| Tomb of Fernando Columbus, Son of Christopher Columbus |
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| Capillo de Virgen de la Antigua |
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| Another Ceiling/stained glass window view...the stained glass was hard to get a good picture of |
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| Yet another altar in another chapel (capillo) in the Catedral |
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| Tomb of Christopher Columbus; Cristóbal Colòn |
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| The main altar. I had to stick my whole arm though a giant gait to get a picture of it |
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| Room full of treasures; This monstrance is used to carry around the Eucharist during Santa Semana |
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| Meeting room for priests aka The Virgin's Oval Office |
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| Ceiling of the Virgin's "Oval Office" |
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| Ceiling of Catedral |
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| This is a picture I took through the window as we were all climbing the Giralda |
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| Climbing the Giralda |
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| ...Still climbing the Giralda |
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| The Giralda!! All 34 floors |
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