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Dibujo de la fachada principal de la iglesia de Omnium Sanctorum en Sevilla

OMNIUM SANCTORUM CHURCH IN SEVILLE

Omnium Sanctorum (All Sants) is one of the oldest churches in Seville, since it was founded shortly after the Christian conquest of the city in 1248. However, it was greatly affected by the great earthquake of 1356, so it had to be raised in new to a large extent, remaining from the original work only the main façade towards Calle Feria. This has made it classified within the so-called “group of churches of 1356”, along with San Andrés and San Esteban, all of them with deep reconstructions paid for by Pedro I.

It is built in the Mudejar Gothic style, has a rectangular floor plan with a very marked polygonal apse and has three naves, separated by pointed arches that rest on cruciform pilasters. The apse is covered by Gothic rib vaults, while the rest of the church has wooden roofs, which follow the Mudejar style, although they were built in the 20th century, within the deep reconstruction that was undertaken after the fire of the church in 1936.

It has a magnificent tower at the foot whose dating has generated various interpretations. There are authors who point out that it would be part of the original work of the thirteenth century, although the most likely option is that it was built already in the fifteenth century, with a last body added in the seventeenth. What seems totally ruled out is that it was an old minaret reused as a bell tower, since, despite the popular belief that the Mudejar churches of Seville are based on old mosques, the truth is that the different archaeological excavations have shown that it is of temples built already in Christian times.

What is certain is that it makes use of resources present in Almohad art, such as the characteristic decoration with sebka cloth on each side, following the Giralda model, also repeated in other nearby towers, such as those of San Marcos or Santa Marina.

To the left of the main portal there is a wrought iron cross known as “Cruz del Garfio” or “de los Carboneros”. It comes from the nearby Peris Mencheta street and apparently it had a hook on which a roman or scale was placed where the charcoal sellers weighed their merchandise.

On the right we find a ceramic altarpiece by Antonio Kierman made in 1929 that represents the Virgin of All Saints, the work of Roque Balduque from the 16th century who is the owner of the temple, whose main altar presides under a neo-baroque temple located in the center of the Gothic apse.

Capilla del Carmen en Triana, Sevilla, Aníbal González

THE CHAPEL OF CARMEN IN TRIANA

The Carmen de Triana chapel stands like a small lighthouse next to the bridge, constituting one of the most recognizable and appreciated architectural elements in the neighborhood.

It is one of the last works of Aníbal González, who completed it in 1928, just a year before his death. This architect is probably the one who has most influenced the appearance of Seville that has come down to us. After some initial works with a certain modernist character, from 1909 it turned to historicism and became the main example of regionalist architecture, which would mark the prevailing aesthetics in the city during the first decades of the 20th century.

His most recognizable and famous works are those made for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929, such as the current headquarters of the Archaeological and Popular Customs museums, the Royal Pavilion and, above all, the Pavilion and the Plaza de España. This last set, in a spectacular neo-baroque style that combines the use of elements such as brick, ceramic or wrought iron, has become one of the undisputed architectural icons of the city, despite the fact that it is less than a century old. of existence.

The City Council commissioned the architect for this chapel to replace a previous one with the same dedication that existed in the vicinity, where today are the access stairs to the Triana Market. It was a building, also small in size, built in the 19th century to house a small anonymous canvas representing the Virgen del Carmen. When the widening of the bridge platform was undertaken, the road was also widened by the Altozano and for this it was decided to demolish the old chapel in 1918. To preserve the neighborhood's devotion to this image of the Virgen del Carmen, the small temple that has survived to this day. In it, that canvas of the Virgin is worshiped, which was already the object of devotion in the disappeared chapel.

The current temple has two main elements. In the first place, the chapel itself, covered by a hemispherical dome, which in turn is finished off by a small temple that houses the images of Santas Justa and Rufina holding the Giralda between them. On the other hand, there is a small octagonal bell tower. Between them, a rectangular space serves as a connection which, like the main cylindrical space, has its own access.

The entire set is made of exposed brick, some parts of which are arranged forming geometric decorative motifs reminiscent of the sebka panels of the cathedral tower. Both the dome and the temple and tower finishes are tiled with Triana ceramics, with a rich decoration that includes the coat of arms of the Carmelite order, among vegetal motifs and scrolls. The ceramicist from Triana, Emilio García García, collaborated in this work, as he would do with the work of Aníbal González in the Plaza de España.

In the work by Víctor Pérez Escolano dedicated to Aníbal González in 2017, the author describes our chapel like this: This third religious work by the architect is a very interesting work. Of tiny dimensions, it is almost an ideogram, dome and tower, idea of ​​sacred space and idea of ​​call and elevation; we are before some spatial symbols but extracted from their true power, from their real space in short. The Capilla del Altozano, more than a chapel, is a cross of term, a humilladero, a religious memory to the passage of the passer-by who crosses from Triana to Seville.

As we mentioned, the chapel regularly houses the canvas of the Virgen del Carmen, an anonymous work from the 18th century, which had previously been worshiped in the church of Santa Ana and in the disappeared chapel of Altozano. The main body of the Aníbal González temple has a wide entrance that always allows the painting to be seen from the outside. Even today the custom of many Sevillians to cross themselves before it every time they pass through the Triana bridge persists.

Edificio de la Adriática

THE ADRIATICA BUILDING IN SEVILLE

The La Adriatica building stands on a privileged corner of Seville, between Avenida de la Constitución and Calle Fernández y González. It was built between 1914 and 1922, following a project by the architect José Espiau y Muñoz and is known by this name as it served as the headquarters for the insurance company La Adriatica.

Its design was chosen within the framework of a competition promoted by the city council to build “Sevillian style” buildings in the large axis that was being opened to link the surroundings of the City Hall and the Puerta Jerez area. Those were the years prior to the great Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 and it was intended to beautify and monumentalize the connection between the area of ​​the María Luisa Park in which it would be held and the city center.

Thus, what is probably the most beautiful avenue in the city was created, full of jewels of regionalist architecture from the beginning of the 20th century, among which this magnificent property stands out.

To adapt to the plot, it shows a triangular shape in its plan, with a strong cylindrical body at the vertex as a tower, topped by a dome, probably its most characteristic element.

It masterfully gathers the main features of regionalist architecture. In this way, it looks towards the Sevillian past and combines elements of Muslim influence, such as the galleries of banked arches on the first floor, with typical Gothic characteristics, such as the pointed arches. To this he adds other artistic traditions such as Plateresque, as can be seen in the plant decoration of the moldings or in the arrangement of medallions with busts of characters on the ground floor.

As another typical characteristic of regionalism, the architect makes use of a multitude of materials and techniques typical of local industries and crafts, such as forging, glazed ceramics, woodworking or stone reliefs. All this harmoniously brought together in a set that stands out for the dual chromaticity of the smooth cream-colored surfaces combined with the exposed brick.

In short, a magnificent work by this architect, which together with others, such as the Hotel Alfonso XIII or the City of London on Cuna Street, justify the consideration of him as one of the most prominent figures of regionalism in Seville.