Submitted by Anna Hemelt on the 2018 fall semester study abroad program in Granada, Spain…
This weekend, I went to Seville, Spain. It is another city in Andalucia and has many similar aspects to Granada, but at the same time, it is so different. Seville is absolutely stunning; it is one of my favorite cities that I have seen in Spain.
We went to Parque María Luisa and Plaza de España, where scenes from Game of Thrones and Star Wars were filmed. We also went to Alcázar de Reyes Cátolicos and the Santa Cruz neighborhood. Alcázar de Reyes Cátolicos is a fort and a castle, very similar to the Alhambra in Granada. Even the tile designs were pretty much the same! It was interesting to learn about the history of this fort and compare it to everything I learned about the Alhambra. The main difference was that in Seville, the colors of the walls and designs were preserved whereas in the Alhambra, they have been worn away.
We also went to the cathedral in Seville. It is a huge church, a World Heritage site, and has a huge history. We climbed up the tower to see over the city. We walked up on ramps because when the tower was built, Muslim men would ride horses up to the top of the tower to call the city to prayer five times a day, as walking up and down five times a day would be exhausting. I learned so much while I was in Seville, and it was very interesting for me to learn about another Andalucian city’s history and how similar and also how different it is from Granada’s history.
