Palacio de Lebrija & Castillos Medievales

   Now that midterms are over (I think they went well, but grades are sometimes a little subjective here) and the rain has stopped (a solid week and a half of rain had us all down), I can start exploring Sevilla again.  Spring is definitely on it’s way!  …my biggest clue = allergies, haha  The past couple days have been beautiful and the orange trees that span the city are starting to blossom!  If I haven’t talked about the orange trees before, they are everywhere in Sevilla, I love it.  As you can probably guess, the oranges on these trees aren’t edible…technically they are, but just taste veryyyy bitter.  Apparently this is perfect for making a certain type of marmalade that is manufactured in England.  The Queen of England loves it and the Sevillan Orange Marmalade is sold across Europe.  I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m excited to in the future.

mosaic floor: remember it's made entirely of small squares

    On Thursday I visited the Palacio de Lebrija.  Our program offers various guided tours of important places in the city – they’re free and I always learn a ton.  It was fitting that I visited the palacio after going to Morocco this past weekend.  This Sevillan palacio in was similar to the Moroccan riads and palaces.  No judging a book by its cover – if you never entered through the plain wooden front door, you would have no idea how large and beautiful this house is.  It is a typical Musulman characteristic that everything important happens from the door to the inside….they did not want to seem ostentatious and there aren’t even windows to the outside (windows are typical of Christian architecture).  The primary source of light is the central patio.  The Palacio de Lebrija is said to have the some of the best floors in the world (our guide’s opinion).  This is because the woman who once owned it, the Countess of Lebrija, was an enthusiast of archeology and had multiple mosaic floors from the ruins of Itálica transported to be the floors of her home in 1914.  All of the mosaics have incredible detail, tell a story (usually a mythological one), and are constructed of tiny squares (probably 1 inch by inch).  The palace was like a museum and a majority of the artifacts were donated by the countess because she used them as her art/decoration.  The staircase leading from the summer home, or first floor made of marble (thus cooler in temperature), to the winter home, the second floor, was wrapped in tiles from an old convent.  These ceramic tiles (azulejos) are typical of Sevilla – especially Triana – because of their hand-painted geometric or scenic designs, and the color choices.  The ceramic tiles are covered in a crystal powder layer for protection, a technique that has been used since the 16^th century.

   CIEE also offers half-day trips to areas surrounding Sevilla.  Each barrio (Spanish combo of a neighborhood/suburb) on the outskirts of the city in considered Sevilla, but has it’s own name.  This morning I went to 2 of the larger barrios about a half-hour away to see their medieval castles.  First barrio = Alcalá.  For the 1992 World Expo in Sevilla, they built a mosaic dragon into one of their bridges.  The theme of this is based on a legend that Hércules brought a dragon egg to Alcalá and when it hatched, this dragon protected the city and the castle.  Just up the hill from this bridge sits the castle built during Muslim rule.  In the 700 years that Spain was under Muslim reign, the capital city was moved from Córdoba to Sevilla, and finally Granada (remember La Alhambra).  Therefore, the castle importantly located to guard the capital city from invasions from the south.  It’s construction was permitted by the same individual who ordered the Giralda (part of the Cátedral de Sevilla), and it’s towers have the same form as the Torre de Oro (the same architectural forms that are today found in Northern Africa, since many Muslims fled to Morocco after the Christian Reconquista).  Alvero is a material found in the hills here and was used to construct the castle.  It is only found in 2 places in the world, Sevilla and oddly China, but gives the castle a unique yellow color (a color that many houses nearby imitate).  Before we moved on to the next barrio, we had to try some of Alcalá’s notorious bread.  It is known simply for the designs/braids on each loaf, and everyday the breadmakers bring their products to the city and sell them in the Plaza de Pan (apparently close to my classes so I will have to check it out someday).

     Second barrio = Utrera.  Like most Spanish cities, Utrera has a patron saint, the Virgen de Consolación (virgin of consolation).  Our first stop was the sanctuary dedicated to her.  This is where many come to pray for someone to recover from illness.  A room around the corner from the main alter is dedicated to depicting stories of miraculous recoveries that have occurred after someone has prayed to the Virgen de Consolación for their loved one.  Next we got to enjoy the center of town.  We had coffee and some of the sweet pastries that Utrera is known for.  The guides all stocked up on mostachones because this type of traditional sweet pastry is representative of Utrera and isn’t sold in the city of Sevilla.  It had a good cinnamon sugar taste and is kind of like biscotti.  Another thing this town is known for is their talented flamenco singers (cantaores).  Finally, we finished off the visit by seeing the castle of Utrera – near the center and much smaller.  My favorite part was climbing up the tower and looking out over the city.

   After getting back to Sevilla, I met up with Alison and Courtney to hang out by the river (a popular activity for both Americans and Spaniards).  On our way we discovered a food fair that we were pretty excited about.  It's a temporary fair that has stands featuring food from all over the world - our choice was to get some guacamole from the Mexico stand. 
    One final thing that I want to write about in this blog is a brief preview to Semana Santa (Holy Week).  Semana Santa is the week before Easter Sunday and it is one of the most important times in Sevilla.  It is also world renowned, so there are tons of tourists traveling here to catch a glimpse of the pasos that are carried through the streets.  A paso is like a float, except carried by men instead of a vehicle.  Each represents a biblical scene and is incredibly heavy...the average paso weighs more than 4,000 pounds!  As you can imagine, it takes a lot of man-power to carry the pasos through the streets to the final destination of the Catédral.  The point of this preview to Semana Santa is that the preparations have begun in Sevilla.  On Friday night I saw a practice run of the procession near my street.  Usually there are between 30-40 men holding up the paso (in a very small space) and they practice carrying the foundation of the float with big rocks or cement blocks on top to resemble the actual weight.