Category Archives: Guide of Seville

The most complete guide of Seville. All the monuments and points of interest in the city over a beautiful map. Don’t miss anything about the city

WALLS IN JARDINES DEL VALLE

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This 'L'-shaped fragment, about 250 meters long, is the largest piece of medieval wall preserved in the city, after the Macarena walls. Its construction dates back to the Almoravid period, within the reform works of the walled enclosure that took place around 1133.

They are built in mud, are crenellated and have a width of the walls of about two meters. In this case, the barbican has not been preserved and the height is less than the original, since the ground level has risen with respect to the 12th century.

The preserved towers have a rectangular floor plan and are separated by about 45 meters. Like those preserved in the Macarena, they are solid up to the height of the parapet, while they present a vaulted space on the top floor from which the roof is accessed.

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GATE OF CORDOBA

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In almost all of the works that have described Seville since the 16th century, they speak of its “Roman” walls. Official historiography did not hesitate to trace its origin back to the times of Julius Caesar, as reflected in the founding legend of the city that appeared inscribed on a plaque at the Puerta de Jerez: "Hercules founded me, Julius Caesar surrounded me with walls and high towers. In fact, until just a few decades ago, the guides continued to allude to the Roman origin of the Seville fence.

Thus, they were endowed with much more antiquity, within the tendency to extol the Roman past as the main cultural substratum over the Islamic contribution.

It is true that Seville had some Roman walls that have been verified archaeologically, but they enclosed a much smaller space that was limited to an area that extended approximately between Martín Villa, Laraña and Imagen streets, to the north, and the area from the cathedral and the fortress, to the south. The wall that reached contemporary times is the one built by the Almohads in the 12th century, although there are authors who trace its origins back a few decades and attribute them to the Almoravids.

They built an enormous wall marked out by towers of more than 7 kilometers in length, which closed off a space of 273 hectares. The dimensions were so enormous that the intramural area was not filled by the city until centuries later. The few canvases that have come down to us belonged to these walls: the one that develops between the Macarena arch and the Puerta de Córdoba, the one in the Valle gardens and the one that runs along Calle del Agua to the Alcázar in the neighborhood of Santa Cruz. In addition, there are many other fragments masked among the current buildings in various parts of the city.

We know the location of many of the entrances that the Almohad walled enclosure had. In the Puerta de la Macarena there was the bab Maqarana, in the one in Córdoba the bab Qurtuba, at the end of Sol street the bab al-Sams, in Puerta Jerez the bab Saris and possibly in the postigo del Aceite the bab Zayt. In addition, we know that there were other entrances whose names are not clear, such as those of Puerta Osario, Puerta de la Carne or Puerta de Triana, which is said to be the most beautiful of all the Muslim fences.

Of all of them, only the Aceite shutter and the Macarena and Córdoba gates have survived to us, although in a very partial way. Most of the walls and their gates were demolished in the second half of the 19th century, especially during the Democratic Six-year period, between 1868 and 1874. The reasons given were mainly urban. It was believed that the walls restricted Seville in some way and made its expansion impossible following modern and rational criteria.

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There was a prevailing current of thought that identified the permanence of walled enclosures in Spanish cities with the decadence and lack of progress that they wanted to overcome. In a very beautiful way, Bécquer shares this feeling in some verses dedicated to Ávila in 1864:

Almost lost in the twilight mist and enclosed within its jagged walls, the ancient city, homeland of Santa Teresa, Ávila, the one with the dark, narrow and crooked streets, the one with the dust-covered balconies, the corners with altarpieces and the eaves. outgoing There is the population, today as in the 16th century, silent and stagnant.

The fact that the walls were almost complete until such recent times makes it possible for there to be numerous engravings, paintings, drawings and even photographs of its main entrances. However, it must be said that the doors that appear in these images do not correspond to the original ones of the Almohad fence, but rather belong to the reconstructions carried out from the 16th century, therefore they present a stylistic variety that ranges between Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassicism according to their chronology.

This is the case of the Macarena arch, which only shares its location with the Almoha door, since as we see it today it is the result of an 18th century work, when it was completely redone.

The reason why the Almohad entrances were replaced by others made after the arrival of the Christians has to do above all with issues of transit. The Muslim entrances were layered to allow their defense in a more effective way. That is to say, they were made up of several doors arranged at an angle forming turns that made them more difficult to attack. When the Christian conquest of the Peninsula was consolidated, this reinforced security became unnecessary and also caused bottleneck problems in the entry and exit of people and merchandise, especially as the use of horse-drawn carriages spread. Thus, the authorities successively undertook to replace the original entrances with others that were simpler in structure, with a large central opening open on both sides through which it was much easier to navigate.

The only entrance from which we can still see something of its original Almohad traces is the Puerta de Córdoba. As it has come down to us, it is a robust rectangular tower with two horseshoe-arched doors open on two sides, forming a 90º angle. This body would originally be inscribed in a larger fortified space, which had a third door open to the outside and now disappeared. If attacking theorists managed to get past this third gate, they still had two more to break down, while the city's defenders could harass them from the top of the walls.

The fact that it is the only preserved door is not the result of chance. Since the Middle Ages, the legend had spread that this was the place where the Visigothic prince Hermenegildo was imprisoned, after having revolted against his father Leovigildo, proclaiming himself king. Hermenegildo had justified his disloyalty in his conversion to Catholicism, which in theory prevented him from maintaining his fidelity to an Arian king. This circumstance would cause Hermenegildo over time to be identified by official and Catholic historiography as a precursor martyr of the catholicity of Spain. In this vein, he was canonized in 1585 and has since been considered one of the patron saints of the Hispanic Monarchy. The places related to his history or his legend became almost sacred. This explains why in the 17th century the church of San Hermenegildo, which we can see today, was built next to the door.

Although incomplete, this meant that the gate was saved from the great destruction of the wall in the 19th century and has come down to us, at least partially. Seville's taste for legends, which inhabit each of the corners of this city, served in this case so that today we can contemplate a beautiful testimony of the monumental walls of Isbiliya from the 12th century.

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WHITE TOWER

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It is a tower inserted in the northern section of the city walls, very close to the Puerta de la Macarena. It is made of mud and brick, with an irregular octagonal plan. It is two stories high, both vaulted. when losing

It is dated between the 12th and 13th centuries. Originally it was an Almoravid tower with a rectangular floor plan, surrounded by the new, larger tower with an octagonal floor plan in the Almohad period.

Losing its defensive use, it was frequently used as a place of refuge for the homeless. It has also housed numerous legends and fantastic stories, such as those of the goblins Rascarrabia and Narilargo, or that of Tía Tomasa. It is said of the latter that she was an old woman who lived in the tower at the end of the 19th century. It was said of her that she kidnapped children and locked them in the tower. In fact, the tower came to be known as 'aunt Tomasa's tower'.

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WALLS OF THE MACARENA

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The Macarena walls are the fragment of walls that has been preserved in the northern end of the historic center of Seville, between the Puerta de Córdoba and Puerta de la Macarena. They are about half a kilometer long, making up the largest and best-preserved fragment of the wall that we can see in Seville.

This section of walls was built between the 12th and 13th centuries. It is probably an initial Almoravid construction, reformed and enlarged during the Almohad period.

It is a crenellated wall. Even today we can see the barbican in most of its layout, running parallel to the wall about three meters away.

A series of seven towers have also been preserved, separated from each other by sections of about 40 m of wall. They are solid for the most part, up to the coastal path, which passes through them. At the highest level they have a vaulted space from which the roof was accessed by a staircase.

Next to the towers, a large polygonal tower known as the White Tower has been preserved.

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RENAISSANCE TONDOS OF JARDÍN DE LAS DELICIAS

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Next to one of the fountains of the Jardines de las Delicias, a series of four joined brick walls was arranged in the 2007 reform, forming a series of three benches. On them were placed four Renaissance tondos, originally made for the Plateresque façade of the Seville City Hall. They were removed from their original location in a restoration undertaken in the 19th century and replaced by others that imitate the Plateresque style.

One of the originals that we see today in the park represents Julius Caesar or Achilles, it is not known for sure. Another represents Hercules and the other two Carlos V and Isabella of Portugal, who celebrated their wedding in Seville at the time of the construction of the City Hall façade.

Despite their enormous deterioration, they are pieces of great historical value for the city. Unfortunately, their current location makes them easy targets for vandalism.

The tondos are located today in front of a marble fountain with a mixtilinear plan surrounded by a mosaic of enchinado.

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ALLEGORIES OF IBERIA, THE GUADALQUIVIR RIVER AND THE MAGDALENA RIVER

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In a small meadow inside the Garden of Earthly Delights we find these three allegorical sculptures made around 1928. They were originally made as part of a large monumental fountain that was located in what was called Plaza de los Conquistadores, in the southern sector of the city. Ibero-American Exhibition of 1929. This space was redeveloped after the Exhibition, the square and the fountain disappearing, and it is currently occupied by part of the Reina Mercedes university campus.

The allegory of Iberia occupied the central space of the fountain. It was made by the Valencian Francisco Marco Díaz-Pintado, who conceived Iberia as a female figure carved in stone about 3.5 m high. With an attitude between hieratic and solemn, she appears dressed in a wide tunic and a headdress and some jewels of clear Iberian inspiration. She seems to be directly inspired by Iberian sculptures, especially the Ladies of Elche and Baza. With her left arm she holds a large garland of flowers and fruit, symbolizing the agrarian wealth of the Peninsula.

On both sides of Iberia were the allegories of the Guadalquivir and Magdalena rivers, which today are also found in this area of the Garden of Earthly Delights. Both rivers are represented as two men, who appear naked and reclining, each showing some element that allows them to be identified.

The Allegory of the Guadalquivir River was made by Agustín Sánchez Cid and next to him we see a bull's head and a cornucopia. For its part, the Allegory of the Magdalena River is the work of José Lafita Díaz. She rests on a small alligator, a very abundant animal in this Colombian river, and we can also see various American fruits, such as pineapples.

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HAITI ROUNDABOUT

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This gazebo has kept its original appearance since it was placed in the Garden of Earthly Delights around 1864. It was made up of a series of 18th-century sculptures and pedestals from the Archiepiscopal Palace of Umbrete. It has an elliptical shape and delimiting its contour there was a continuous marble bench with a metal back. The pedestals are in the Rococo style and were made by the eighteenth-century sculptor of Portuguese origin, Cayetano de Acosta. The busts are replicas of the Italian originals that were here for more than a century and that were returned to Umbrete in 2006. They represent a series of Roman characters depicted in a beautiful baroque style. In the center of the gazebo there is a marble fountain with an octagonal vase. The fountain is a replica of the original from the 18th century that is now in the Fuente del Estanque, in this same garden.

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SCULPTURE TO THE GOD PAN

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Pan was the Greek god of shepherds and flocks, especially revered in the Arcadian region. He was identified with Faun in Roman mythology. He was depicted mixing human and animal features, with legs, tail, and ram's horns. Here we see him resting on a trunk, with striking hooves for feet, in an Italian sculpture from the 18th century from the Archbishop's Palace in Umbrete. It is made of marble and measures approximately 1.60 m. It sits on a pedestal also made in the 18th century by Cayetano de Acosta, about 2 m high and in a Rococo style.

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SCULPTURES OF AVENIDA DEL LÍBANO

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The path inside Jardín de las Delicias that leads to Plaza de América is known as Avenida del Líbano. It is framed by a series of rococo pedestals made in the 18th century by Cayetano de Acosta for the Archbishop's palace in Umbrete. On them rise a series of sculptures of Roman characters, replicas of the Italian originals from the 18th century that were in the Umbrete Palace itself. The replicas were made in 2006 when the originals were returned to Umbrete for better conservation.

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MONUMENT TO THE PAINTER JOAQUIN SOROLLA

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Monument erected in 1929 to the Valencian impressionist painter Joaquín Sorolla. The bust of the painter was made by the also Valencian José Capuz Mamano and on its base you can read 'SOROLLA MCMXIX' (1929). The pedestal comes from the Archiepiscopal Palace of Umbrete and was made in the Rococo style by Cayetano de Acosta in the 18th century. When used as the base of the monument to Sorolla, it was inscribed 'LA SECCIÓN DE BELLAS ARTES DEL ATENEO'.

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