Royal Palace (Seville ~ Spain)

25 September  2022

When travelling we try and hit only one big site per day (otherwise we find our brains start to ooze our of our ears due to the cultural overload) and today was no exception. Today our biggie visit was the  Royal Alcázar of Seville aka the Royal Palace. 

The palace is a another classic example of Mudéjar architecture. The upper stories of the Alcázar are still occupied by the royal family when they visit Seville and it is possible to visit the Royal bedrooms as part of a visit, however earliest free date for them were a couple of months away so we had to make do with wandering around the lower floors and the gardens.

Wandering around you can't help but get blown away by the detail. The tiling on the walls, floors and ceiling tends to be in the form of geometric patterns favoured in Islamic buildings. In most cases the pattern is enameled onto a square tile and in other cases the pattern is built up from a multitude of small pieces.  

The walls and floors are covered in decorative tiles.

The stone surfaces are all intricately carved.

And let's not forget the ceilings. 

Or the doors

Or the exterior walls

To escape the heat of the summer in Seville various swimming pools were built (most of which are now ornamental fountains) including this subterranean one. Having experienced the heat during the shoulder season we can understand the desire for these pools.

The grounds associated with the Alcazar are filled with paths, seats, pools and fountains and the trees are filled with raucous parrots.

For all its beauty there are a few odd sections, such as concealed passage ways the king could duck into to avoid those whom would do him harm (and apparently he included his mother in this list).

Whilst wandering around learnt one new fun fact. America was originally called New Indes, as Christopher Colombos thought he found the East Coast of India - not quite. Later named America in honour of Amerigo Vespucci.

From there we stuck our nose into the headquarters of the University of Seville as from  1750 up until the 1950s the building was a Tobacco Factory. 

Next to the Tobacco factory is the very poncy Hotel Alfonso XIII (5 star grand luxury) which, being a public/private building, means oiks like us can wander in and use the facilities (which will have been used by the stars of Game of Thrones, Star Wars etc...) - which we did.

Under the giant wooden mushrooms is the Antiquarium and entry is covered by the tickets to the Alcazar, good enough reason as any to check it out.

When the giant mushrooms were to be constructed the ruins that existed on the site were preserved and the mushrooms built in such a ways to not disturb them.  Down there there are about 4,000 square metres of roman, visigoth and Iislamic ruins and mosaics. 

After our obligatory afternoon nap we headed out to have a look at Castillo de San Jorge - a pretty little building on the bank of the river. 

Found out that it was used as headquarters and prison for the Spanish Inquisition - hmmm not so nice after all.

Just round the corner still exists Callejón de la Inquisición the alley where prisoners who were led along down this alley either went either to jail to be judged or to the stake to be sentenced.

On that cheerful note we headed off to dinner few 100m from where we were staying.  Like a lot of restaurants here they will serve the same dish as either tapas, half portion or full portion - which if you like sharing food and tasting a variety of dishes is great.

The downside of Spanish restaurants is that the bill is quite often a surprise as there's no wine menu. Having said that when wine is usually less than  3 euros a glass you tend not complain. 

Dinner was quite entertaining as it was a Saturday evening and when we got there for dinner a vary large family lunch event (which we think was a christening) was slowly winding down.

Plus towards the end of the evening there was some sort of religious parade going on around us. No idea what it was about as people were taking selfies, so probably not a funeral, but there a handful of very sombre RSA type following as well as about 40 or so musicians. V odd. 

Given the importance religion plays in Spain we felt it was only appropriate we picked up a souvenir of a religious nature and this little figure caught my eye. 

Next stop tomorrow is Madrid.