D120 - Religious strife

We hustled to squeeze in a visit to the cathedral before we had to take off for Córdoba and Granada. The Sevilla Cathedral is the largest church in the world. That's right, even larger than St. Peter's (at least when measured in cubic feet). It was completed in 1506, built on the base of a mosque that was demolished for the purpose. There was a lot of that here in Spain – mosques were built on the sites of old Visigothic churches, and then churches were built on top of mosques and synagogues when the Catholic monarchs ran the Jews and Muslims out of Spain.

The inside of the cathedral was cavernous and ornate. And the altar! I don't think I've ever seen so much gold. A bit over the top if you ask me. That, combined with the hoards of noisy tourists, made for a very un-church-like environment.

One of the most interesting parts of the cathedral was the tomb of Christopher Columbus. There was a large group of Spanish sailors in uniform trying to take pictures of one another in front of the tomb. I suppose he is a big hero here. Actually, I suppose he is a hero to many in the US, Canada, and Latin America, as well. I personally have a hard time forgetting that when he stumbled upon the Americas he set in motion events that would lead to the murder (and death by disease) of millions of Aztecs and other Native Americans. But for better or worse, I wouldn't be who I am today without him. For one, I'd either be a lot darker, or a lot lighter.

Just about the only part of the mosque left is the Giralda, a bell tower that used to serve as the minaret when the building below was still a mosque. It offered great views of the church and town below.

From Sevilla we drove to Córdoba. When we arrived we went to the main tourist attraction there, the Mezquita. It's a former mosque that was completed in 796( !!!) on land purchased from Christians. In fact, many of the pillars in the original part of the mosque were actually taken from the cathedral that used to occupy the site. The mosque was enlarged several times over the following two centuries (often with materials plundered from Christian churches). Eventually it became the third holiest place of worship for Muslims after Mecca and Jerusalem! Sadly, this didn't mean much to the Christians, who turned it into a cathedral in the 1500s. The coro and capilla mayor are beautiful, but they really ruin the effect of the symmetrical pillars spreading in all directions.

After we left the Mezquita we walked through the old Jewish quarter. It was a very charming neighborhood with narrow streets.

We wanted to visit the synagogue there – one of three that survived the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. Unfortunately it seemed closed, and worse, there was some anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed onto the outer wall. Horrible!

We left the reminders of religious intolerance in Córdoba and dove to Granada, where we'd be staying for the next few days. By the time we got there it was dark and we had such a tough time navigating the streets there. Once we finally found our hotel we started to cheer up. The hotel, El Ladron de Agua, is in an old 16^th century home and it's beautiful. All the room names are literary references to the poems of Fernando Garcia Lorca and other Spanish writers. We stayed in La Gitana Prendida por el Sol, and the ceiling – original to the house – was really cool.

-Elva