Cuentos de Andalucía

Sevilla: una ciudad en la que, a partir del siglo octavo, tres grupos distintos vivían juntos.... and continued to do so throughout the next nearly eight centuries, with a sometimes harmonious and sometimes tumultuous history, until 1492, when the Reyes Catolicos came to the height of their power. Then the Christians took over definitively, forcing the Jews out of the country and forming an accord with the Muslims that, although overtly pacific, led to forced conversions and massive burnings of Arab books. Perhaps not surprisingly, most Arabs decided not to stick around. The story has been Catholic ever since. But those years between 711 and the turn of the 16th century have marked southern Spain--Andalucía--profoundly. Sevilla draws a bold yellow marker over the mix. Standing in the central plaza you can turn around in one spot and see (a) the world's biggest gothic cathedral, built in a display of excess in the 15th century on the site where the city's main mosque previously stood, (b) the Alcázar, a complex palace made up of a fascinating maze of buildings, courtyards and gardens, originally constructed by 11th and 12th century Muslim rulers and updated by rulers of both religions throughout the ensuing centuries, and (c) the entrance to Barrio de Santa Cruz, a tangle of winding streets that served as the medieval Jewish quarter, before the tragedies of later centuries. The first three of these pictures are portions of the Alcázar. In the second you can see how this palace complex folds together layers of history... the bottom levels are Muslim, the top Christian, built to mirror the style below. The third shows the Muslim women's room--note the screens in the second level. I was struck by a few miniature faces in the detailed plasterwork on the lower level. A guide explained that these were probably made as a joke or provocation by Christian slaves employed by Muslim rulers, as it is (was?) against the Islamic faith to create human images. The fourth is a tiny little sliver of the confoundingly huge cathedral (the third largest in the world after St. Peter's in Rome and St. Paul's in London). You can get a sense of its size by looking at the miniature people at the bottom of the picture. The fifth is a shot of the gardens.  Some 17th or 18th century king (I forget which) built the long second-story corridor so that his queen could take some fresh air without being exposed to the sun--an important consideration for anyone wishing to preserve their status as a blue-blood.   (Is it common knowledge that the word blue-blood originated by people distinguishing between the aristocracy and common folk by color of skin?  Brown signified fieldwork while naked blue veins under white sunless skin carried status.)  
And enough history. The last two are this post's gratuitious shots. This past weekend's ride.  Sheer unparalleled being alive.