Submitted by Amanda Bowman on the 2019 summer session program in Granada, Spain sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures…
Seville is the capital of Andalucía, the autonomous southern region of Spain, and it holds some of Spain’s most famous cites. While it was only required to visit the Cathedral and El Real Alcázar, some friends and I spent two days exploring the city and learning about its history and culture. I have been to Seville before, so I had already seen some of the locations that we visited.
We were lucky enough to get into the Cathedral for free because we went during Catholic mass. It is such a massive, spectacular building littered with beautiful paintings and Catholic relics. While everything inside was gorgeous, my favorite part of the visit to the Cathedral was listening to the gigantic organ. I have been to the Cathedral before, so the sights were not new to me, but during a walking tour, I learned more about the Cathedral than I previously knew. Apparently, this massive building is the third largest cathedral in the world, and the majority of its construction took place in only 73 years because the Spanish rulers wanted to one-up the Muslims after the Ottoman Empire captured the Hagia Sophia. For a building of this caliber to have been built in such a short amount of time represents the conviction of religious leaders in Seville to assert their dominance over Islam.
The Real Alcázar was, and is still, a palace for Spanish Royals. This was my first time there, and one of the most exciting aspects of the visit for me was that scenes from Game of Thrones were filmed there. Overall, it was a strange building because there was such a mix of culture and styles since sections continued to be added on over the years. The palace is somewhat like a puzzle; pieces fit together from different eras and rulers to form one beautiful location that is representative of Seville’s diverse history.
We walked through Parque de Maria Luisa to get to the Plaza de Espana. It is an interesting location that commemorates the regions of Spain, and it is worth a visit by anyone who goes to Seville.
After casually walking to La Casa del Flamenco to see if there were any shows that night, we discovered at 7:55 pm that there was a show at eight that had available seats. All eight of us in the group rushed to buy tickets and we sat down to witness our first flamenco show. We were not allowed to record, but it was beautiful. It was an authentic flamenco show in the sense that it was a small, intimate setting with a guitarist and singer, and only two flamenco dancers. I am still in awe of how well some people can master such a difficult dance.
