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Roman Seville

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Roman pillars - Alameda de Hercules
Roman pillars – Alameda de Hercules

The Romans first came to this part of Spain in the late 3rd century when they defeated the Carthaginians and occupied the little city of Seville. Under Roman rule Seville grew rapidly in size and importance, so that by the time of Julius Caesar it occupied a large part of what is now the Casco Antiguo. He is regarded as one of the founders of the city because he built the first stone walls around it, and though these are long gone, the later Moorish walls followed the same course for much of their route.

In fact, although Seville (then known as Hispalis) was one of the great cities of Roman Spain, there are relatively few known physical remains from that period of the city’s history.

Doubtless there are plenty of potential archaeological discoveries still lurking beneath the streets and houses of the modern-day city.

Just outside the city centre, in Calle Luis Montoto, are two surviving sections of the aqueduct that supplied water to the city (there is a third beyond the shopping centre at Los Arcos). The original source of the water was near the modern village of Los Cercadillos de la Huerta de Santa Lucía, about 17km outside the city in the direction of Carmona, though only the last 4km of the channel was on an aqueduct. Most surprising is that the aqueduct did not disappear simply as a result of the passage of time, but was demolished in the early 20th century in an act of civic vandalism.

Hidden away in Calle Marmoles (Marbles street) in the Barrio Santa Cuz are three enormous pillars that are all that remains of a Roman temple, probably to the goddess Diana. The footings of the pillars appear to be sunk in a deep pit, but in fact it is the level of the ground around them that has risen over the centuries. Two more pillars were moved to the newly created Alameda de Hercules in the 16th century, and now stand at its western end, topped by statues of the city’s founders, Hercules and Julius Caesar. A sixth pillar is known to have been broken at this time as a result of attempts to move it.

Aljibe Romano - Plaza de la Pescadería
Aljibe Romano – Plaza de la Pescadería

Even more hidden away is the aljibe, or water cistern under the Plaza de la Pescadería. It’s still in a good state of preservation, but isn’t normally open to the public. It’s theoretically possible to look down into the structure through the “skylights” in the square, but in practice it’s either too dark, or there’s too much light reflecting off the glass.

Definitely worth visiting is the Antiquarium, the museum and archaeological site under the Metropol Parasols in Plaza de la Encarnación, featuring Roman and post Roman ruins, including some well-preserved mosaics. The remains were discovered when work began on an underground carpark for the planned new market building in the square.

There are also Roman remains in the lower levels of the archaeological excavations in the Patio de Banderas, and Roman stones with inscriptions that were reused in the foundations of the Giralda tower. There is also known to be a Roman bath house under the foundations of the Archbishop’s Palace.

Roman objects and mosaics, mostly from nearby Italica, can also be found at the Archaeological museum in María Luisa Park, and in the Palacio de Lebrija in Calle Cuna.

Murillo Exhibition at Los Venerables

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Right in the heart of the Barrio Santa Cruz, in a charming little square of the same name, is the Hospital de Los Venerables Sacerdotes (Hospital of the Venerable Priests), founded in 1673 by the dean of Seville Cathedral, Justino de Neve, as a home for sick and retired priests, and used for this purpose until the late 1970s. Apart from being quite big, it’s nothing particularly special from the outside, but like so many buildings in Seville the treasures, both arquitectural and artistic, are on the inside, looking away from the troubles of the world outside.

Today Los Venerables is an important museum of the Barroque period (roughly, the 17th century) in Seville, and brings together some of the works of the most gifted artists and architects of that period. It was designed by Leonardo de Figueroa, who also worked on the San Telmo Palace, the Fine Arts Museum, and the Church of Santa María Magdelena, and features an unusual central patio with elevated arcades and a sunken central fountain. The complex includes a church that is surely one of Seville’s hidden jewels. Although modest in size, with only a single nave, the harmony of the shape of the barrel-vaulted roof and the decorations and other artworks, principally by Juan de Valdés Leal makes this a very special place.

In rooms that were once the home of ageing priests are the museum’s art collections. The permanent collection focuses on the life and times of Diego Velázquez, and includes both works by Velázquez himself, as well as other important artists of the time.

From October 9 until January 20, 2013 there is also a special exhibition of works by Seville’s most famous painter, Bartolomé Murillo, which has been brought together in collaboration with the Prado Museum of Madrid and London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery, and offers a unique opportunity to see them in the city where they were created.

Walls, Gates and Towers

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In exploring Seville, you will often come across the terms “The Old Centre” or “Casco Antiguo”, referring to the area inside the city walls, which generally ran just inside what is now the inner ring road.

The first walls were built by the Carthaginians of wood and mud, but it was the Romans under Julius Caesar who built the first stone walls. These were several times destroyed and rebuilt, until work began in 1023 on those we see today. They were finally completed in the early 13th century, including a major westward extension in the 12th century to include the area around the new Grand Mosque (now the Cathedral). The wall was more than 6km long, with 13 gates, 6 postigos (small gates that were not considered as main entrances to the city) and 166 towers. Most of the walls were destroyed in the middle and late 19th century to allow for the expansion of the city.

The two largest remaining sections of the wall that are still standing are those that separated the Alcázar Palace from the city, which you can see in the Plaza del Triunfo and Calle Agua (Water Street, so named for the pipes inside the wall that brought water from the Roman aqueduct into the Alcázar). The Gold and Silver towers, and the Tower of Abd-al-Aziz can also be seen in this southern part of the city.

In the north of the city is the longest surviving piece, between the Macarena Gate (rebuilt in the 18th century), and the Córdoba Gate. This is the best place to see how the walls might have looked to anyone approaching the city.

Also still surviving are the Postigo del Aceite, and the walls around the Jardines del Valle, near the Puerte del Osario, as well as a number of fragments where the walls were incorporated into various buildings around the city. Some of these were only discovered when the buildings were renovated. The names of many of the gates still survive, however, such as the Puerta Arenal, Puerta Carmona and Puerta de la Carne.

Perhaps the most poignant, however, is the short section of wall that you can still see in Calle Fabiola. It’s all that’s left of the internal wall that separated the old Jewish quarter from the rest of the city.

A Day in Málaga

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Lots of people on their way to Seville or Granada arrive in Spain through Malaga airport. The city has something of a reputation as one of those coastal resorts full of high-rise hotels that grew up during the tourist boom of the sixties and seventies, but although there is an element of truth in this, especially along the coast to the west of the city, the heart of Málaga is quite a different animal, and if you’re passing through it’s well worth taking a day to take a look around.

For a start, this is a city full of history. Apart from the native Iberians, the Phoenicians were the first colonisers in around 770 BC, followed by the Carthaginians, Romans, Vizigoths, Byzantines, Moors, and finally, in 1487, the Christians. All these successive peoples, and the fact that Málaga is a port city, have left their mark on the appearance and culture of the city, and helped to make it the vibrant place it is today.

Secondly, it’s beautiful. Sandwiched between the mountains and the Mediterranean Sea, with an old centre that mixes the elegant and the picturesque, a castle perched on a hill, and a seafront garden promenade, it has something for everyone.

For an overview (literally), start the day with a coffee or beer on the terrace of the Parador Hotel on the hill above the bullring, and enjoy the stunning panorama of the city before the sun gets too high. It’s the stuff of which picture postcards are made. Tip – take the number 35 bus up from Parque Málaga to the Gibralfaro Castle (also worth a visit), but walk back down the steep hillside path to the Alcazaba, the 11th century Moorish palace-fortress, which while much smaller than the Alhambra, achieves the same combination of luxurious dwelling, peaceful garden and working fortress.

After that, get out and about in the old town. It’s small enough that you can’t get really lost, but it still has the labyrinthine charm that you expect. The Aduana Palace (the old Customs House), containing both the Fine Arts Museum and the Archaeological Museum, the Cathedral, and the Roman Theatre are all within five minutes walk of the Alcazaba. A bit further on is the museum of Málaga’s favourite son, Pablo Picasso (Antonio Banderas is a close second), housed in the delightful Buenavista Palace, where you can also find the 7th century BC Phoenician wall that is the oldest known structure in the city. The house where Picasso was born can be found in the Plaza la Merced, at the end of the city’s “main drag”.

This starts with Calle Granada, which still follows its original serpentine mediaeval course. Near the northern end is the church of Santiago, dating back to just after the Christian conquest, which is a fine example of the Mudejar style of the time, and the southern end is in the Plaza de la Constitución, which has been the city’s main public space and political centre since the 15th century. For art lovers the Thyssen Museum can be found a little way along Calle de la Compañia, one of the streets leading out of the west side of the square. Beyond the square is Calle Larios, which is quite different in character to Calle Granada. It’s Málaga’s main shopping street (now fully pedestrianized), and was built in the late 19th century by cutting a wide swathe through the existing street layout from La Constitución down to the harbour. I think its one of the most elegant streets I know of anywhere.

From the bottom of Larios it’s well worth making a diversion to the recently renovated Atarazanas Market, and taking a stroll among the stalls laden with fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and meat. Take a moment, too, to admire the big stained-glass window at the end of the market hall, with its montage of scenes of the city. The name Atarazanas means shipyard, and in Moorish times the sea came right up to the walls of the building.

No visit to Málaga would be complete without taking a stroll along the promenade of Parque Málaga alongside the harbour, as Malaguenos have been doing for over a hundred years, enjoying the cool shade of the trees and the profusion of subtropical and exotic plants, fountains and statues, that always feels like a haven of tranquility despite the nearby main roads. This part of the harbour has recently been redeveloped with a marina, shops, bars and a small maritime museum.

Other things to do if you have time or are staying longer:

About a half-hour walk eastwards along the beach from the Alcazaba, past the delapidated splendour of the Balnearios del Carmen, is the former fishing district of Pedregalejo. As well as a picturesque boardwalk between the beach and the fishermen’s cottages there are some fabulous fish restaurants that barbecue fish on open fires. My personal favourite is Andrés Maricuchi.

A similar distance out of the centre, but in the opposite direction, is the Automotive Museum, and you don’t need to be a vintage car enthusiast to enjoy this collection of immaculately preserved vehicles that spans the whole of the twentieth century.

On Idling

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You may think that being lazy and idling amount to pretty much the same thing, but nothing could be further from the truth. Laziness consists solely and simply of “not doing anything”, including, and indeed especially including, those things that you have an obligation or necessity to do. Idling, on the other hand, is a positive condition of “doing nothing”, a freely chosen leisure time activity once essential business has been taken care of. The trick here is to know what’s really essential, and not to worry about anything else you haven’t done. There’s always mañana. Rich idlers will of course have other people to do these things for them, leaving them more time to devote to being the idle rich.

So what does idling involve? Since you’re on holiday, a little light strolling is permitted, even encouraged, but nothing too strenuous. Advantage should be taken of any benches in quiet shady plazas and gardens for sitting and reflecting, or for advanced idlers, simply sitting. This may, of course, be extended to bars and cafes, but a word of warning for inexperienced idlers. While the enjoyment of a drink is part of the art of idling, the drink is also a prop or symbol. Excessive drinking and inebriation are frowned upon, especially if they lead to behaviour that interferes with the idling of others.

If you’re idling in unfamiliar surroundings it can be useful to have someone along to show you the best places and explain the local etiquette. I happen to have a lifetime’s experience in every aspect of the art of idling, and so if you’re in Seville I would be delighted to share my expertise and local knowledge with you.

Vikings

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It’s early morning, and behind the city walls the population is stirring, but today will not be like every other day. As the dawn mist burns off the river the long, sleek, high-prowed ships can be seen rapidly approaching…

One of the things that I love about Seville is that no matter how much I learn there always seems to be something new to discover about the people and places that make the city what it is. A few years ago I passed an art exhibition in the Plaza Nueva, which included a slightly abstract model of a longboat. At the time I didn’t realise its significance, which is why the boat itself isn’t in this photo, but it turns out that in the 9th century the Vikings twice raided Seville, in 844 when they sacked the city, and again in 859. One legacy of these raids was a Viking longship that was found in the Plaza Nueva during the digging of a test shaft in connection with the new metro. The 844 raid involved some fierce fighting, and it may have been left behind for lack of sufficient crew.

At first sight the Plaza Nueva may seem an odd place for a longship to end up, but we know that at this time there was a side branch of the Guadalquivir River that ran from what is now the Alameda, past Campana, along Sierpes, across the end of Plaza Nueva, and into the main river between the Torre del Oro and the Triana Bridge (none of these existed then, of course), and that this was outside the city walls as they were then, and it’s quite logical that the boats would have been beached there. I’ve often wondered what happened to the boat they found.

The Judería of Seville

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Seville’s most picturesque and first-destination-for-tourists neighbourhood, the Barrio Santa Cruz, is equally well known as the old Jewish quarter, but the history and importance of the Jews in Spain (the Sephardim) are underestimated or even unknown to a majority of Western Europeans. It’s not known when Jews first came to Spain (it may have been as long as 3,000 years ago), but it was under the Romans in the early centuries AD that their numbers became substantial, and remained so until the late 15th century, when they were finally expelled by the Catholic Kings.

Although they were always second-class citizens, and their relations with the majority populations had many ups and downs, the Spanish Jews generally enjoyed more freedom than Jews elsewhere, and while most were ordinary workers and artisans, a few became wealthy and influential and others were prominent in the intellectual life of society. The interplay of diverse cultures in southern Spain during this time made it the centre of civilisation in Europe, and gave the Sephardic Jews a distinct identity of their own, and for these reasons it is regarded as a “golden age” in their history, and their expulsion is still felt as a great loss and sadness.

After the reconquest of Seville by Ferdinand III in 1248, the Jews here (the second largest Jewish community in Spain after Toledo) had their own quarter in the Santa Cruz, surrounded by a wall with several gates, and for about a hundred years they co-existed peacefully with the Christian population. Then, in the general turmoil and paranoia after the Black Death (1348-1350), persecution of the Jews increased, culminating in the pogrom of 1391. After that many Jews fled, or were forced to convert to Christianity. With the establishment of the Inquisition in 1478, and the formal expulsion of the Jews in 1483, the history of the Jews in Seville came to its tragic end.

The new Centro de Interpretación de la Judería de Sevilla is Seville’s first museum of the history and achievements of Seville’s Jews, telling their story in words (Spanish with English translations) and pictures and other exhibits.

Ximénez de Enciso, 22
Tel: 954 047 089
Daily 10.30-14.00 and 17.30–20.00
Entrance €6.50
Website

The Cervantes Plaques

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If you are walking around Seville, and keeping your eyes open for the unexpected, you may see a plaque like this one.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is the Spanish equivalent of Shakespeare (and by one of those strange quirks of history, they both died on the same day, April 22, 1616), and everybody is at least aware of the tale of Don Quixote, and the images of the gallant knight tilting at windmills, his squire Sancho Panza and his bony horse. His other works are less well known, but many of the short stories in his Novelas Ejemplares were written while he was living in Seville, including a short stay as a guest of his majesty in the Royal Prison, and the plaques commemorate places around the city that were mentioned by him in the stories. There are seventeen altogether, mostly in the centre, but including one in Triana, and another in the gardens of the Buhaira.

How many can you find?

A full list (in Spanish) can be found here.

Plaza Nueva and Plaza San Francisco

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One of the recurring themes of my interest in Seville is the visual imagination of how the city has changed over the centuries. Because Seville has such a well-preserved centre, with many buildings of great antiquity, it is easy to forget that it didn’t always look the way it does now. Even a bit.

Stand, if you will, at the end of the Avenida de la Constitución, with the Plaza San Francisco on your right, and the Plaza Nueva in front of you, and imagine the scene a thousand years ago. The first thing you notice is that the city walls are behind you, and that there is a small lake in front of you, fed by a branch of the main river running down what is now Calle Sierpes and on into the Arenal. Down to the river is just fields and trees, subject to surprisingly frequent floods. Not for another 150 years will the walls be extended to where we think of them today, much nearer the river. In the space inside the walls behind us, the new Grand Mosque and its minaret, which will later become the Giralda Tower, appear. After the reconquest of 1248, it will be replaced in turn by the Christian cathedral.

There are other changes going on too. Houses have been built to your left, and the lake has been drained. In its place monks have started work on what will become the “Casa Grande” of the Franciscans, which will soon give its name to the open space in front of it – the Plaza San Francisco. The monastery itself will come to occupy the whole of what is now Plaza Nueva and the streets beyond and to either side.

1492, and Columbus has discovered America. With a monopoly on trade with the new world, Seville is rapidly becoming rich. As symbols of its wealth the city acquires a new civic centre around the Plaza San Francisco. A new town hall (ayuntamiento) is built in front of the Casa Grande (the archway on the end of the town hall is the original main entrance to the monastery), followed a few decades later by the Antigua Audiencia (the justice house, now the Cajasol bank building). If you’re unlucky you may see the autos de fé of the inquisition during this and the following century.

The Casa Grande, badly damaged by a fire and general neglect in the Napoleonic era, is finally demolished in the 1840s, the resulting space becomes the Plaza Nueva, and the town hall is given a new facade. But even now there are big changes to come. What is now the Avenida de la Constitución, is still a typical narrow Seville street, but in the early years of the twentieth century it is widened into the modern wide, straight street we see today, familiar buildings like the circular “wedding cake buiding”, the Adriatico, and the Banco de España are built and the first cars and trams appear.

Finally, just a few years ago the whole area was pedestrianised and repaved, and the new tramway installed, resulting in the cityscape we see today.

Eating times in Seville

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As the observant visitor to Seville will quickly notice, the day here has a different rhythm from what’s typical in either North America or the countries of Northern Europe. Most of the shops close for the afternoon, and then open again late into the evening, and the streets start to fill with people just when the guiris (foreigners) are heading home to bed. A lot of this has to do with the weather, of course. In summer (basically from April to October) it makes good sense to be out and about in the cool of the morning and the cool of the evening, and the consequent short nights and the afternoon heat means you really need that afternoon siesta.

This Mediterranean timetable also affects the times that people normally eat meals. Naturally this varies a bit from person to person according to circumstance, as it does anywhere, but there are some regularities. Meals are generally eaten later here than in northern Europe.

Breakfast (desayuno) is often not much more than coffee and a quick bite, eaten at home, and equally often is repeated in a bar or café around 10.00 – 10.30 am (so not the best time to go to the post office or bank). For children a typical breakfast would be cola-cao (a chocolate milk drink) and a sweet roll or magdalena, a typical Spanish cake. The famous churros and chocolate will usually be reserved for weekends (it’s a great hangover cure).

The main meal of the day is lunch (almuerzo), usually eaten between 2.00 and 4.00 pm. For working people who have to eat lunch out on a regular basis most tapas bars have a menu del día (a daily special), a two or three course meal with several options and usually including bread and a drink, costing between 6.50 and 12 euros. Don’t confuse the menu and the carta (main menu).

It’s common to fill in the gap between lunch and dinner with a merienda, the Spanish equivalent of the now sadly almost defunct English high tea. This takes place between 5.00 – 7.00 pm and is typically a light snack, or more often, a cake with coffee.

Dinner (cena) tends to be a lighter meal and starts around 8.00 in the evening, or even later if you’re eating out. At home this will be something like an omelette, or maybe some soup or salad. If you’re out with family or friends, tapas is the name of the game. For most people full restaurant meals will be for special occasions only.

Opening Hours:
Tapas bars and restaurants are usually open from 1.00 to about 4.00, and again from 8.00 to about 11.30. Some will stay open all day but few have all-day kitchens, other than very touristy places. If you stick to earlier mealtimes than what’s normal locally the bars won’t be busy when you arrive, and if they get busy later you’ll already have the best seats.

For more about tapas and tips on how to order them, take a look at Tapas 101.