City of Torro and Flaminco 12 August 2011

In the morning we took the walking tour of Sevilla that is organized through our backpackers. The tour is free and is advertised to be 2 hours. I highly recommend doing these tours in Sevilla because the walks are interesting and you can have a more up close and personal encounter of the city.
Our tour guide was Medi, a humorous Moroccan man who was a very experienced guide.

The first stop was the cathedral. He explained that the original site was a Mosque but due to an earthquake, all that remains was the tower. The cathedral was later added on in parts after Christian rulers. That is why there are different architectural design all over the building.

He also explained that the tower was used for the Muslim prayers, therefore the inside is a circular ramp instead of stairs so that the priest can ride a pony up instead of walk up for the five times a day prayer.
The bells and the angel on top was added later. The angel is holding a shield which signifies that Sevilla is protected by God and is a Christian city, it also doubles as a weather vein which was very important when there were many sailors in Sevilla that sails to the Americas for gold.

This is the Plaza de Toros. 

It is the highest honor for a bull fighter to fight here. The ultimate glory is to be able to walk out of the front door. There are bull fights every Thursday. In Sevilla bull fighting is still considered an art, however much of Spain is no longer allowing fights as much of the people feel strongly that it is a cruelty to animals.

Opposite to the bull fighting arena across the river is Triana. This is where our backpacker is. In fact Triana was almost like a little state of it's own in the past. Mostly poor people used to live there like the Gypsies, moors and Jews. This is where Flamenco was created. A dances mixed with Spanish guitars, moorish songs and a very beautiful and soulful art form of dance.

Medi tells us there is no other art form that can express inner feelings as passionately as Flamenco.

Medi also let's us know that at the end of one of the oldest bridges still stands the castle of St George which was used during the inquisitions. This was where many Jewish people were arrested, interrogated then killed. It is located next to the bridge so that non Christians cannot cross over to the main city and also so that the bodies of those who are killed can be disposed of into the river. I find it scary to think that many must have died this way, it would not have been what Jesus would have wanted.

Next we came to this very important tower in the past. An identical one stands on the opposite side of the river bank.

A chain runs across the towers underwater to protect the city. If an enemy ship approaches the chain is brought up higher so that even before the ships get to the city the ships will be ripped apart and the enemy wouldn't even know what hit them.

This is Plaza de Espana. A monument built for an Exposition prepared by Spain and Portugal that was intended to apologize to America for the crime of pillaging of their Gold in the past. It didn't go through in the end due to a collapse in the American market, but it is a beautiful place.

If you like Star Wars, you might recognize this as the location of a Palace on one of the planets in one of the newer films.

After the walk we had a quick picnic lunch of supermarket brought food.

Walked around a bit then headed back to the backpacker for some rest before the evening walking tour which is about the Jewish Quarters, now known as Santa Cruz. We were lucky enough to have Medi as our tour guide again.

I will not bore you with a lot of history, the summery is that the people in Sevilla were persecuting the Jews during the inquisition. In one incident there were around 4000 Jewish people slaughtered. If you are interested have a google and read the history about the Inquisition, it is a very dark but interesting time in history.

There was a story of a rich Jewish businessman who decided to organize a revolt. But his daughter Susona was deeply in love with a Christian soldier. She told the soldier everything, and he betrayed her.
There were 2500 more Jews were captured and killed before the revolt even started. The only one of Susona's family that escaped the slaughter and remained alive was herself.
In the end she converted to Christianity and became a nun, but this did not remove her guilt and remorse. In the end she hung herself from a window of her family home. In her will she asked that her head be cut off and hung from the window of her home, in order that she can remind the world of what folly she had committed and so tell people not to follow in her footsteps.

Her skull hung from the window for more than 100 years before it was finally removed. The window is is still marked here. A very gruesome bit of history!

This is here is known as the kissing street. You get to guess why!

This monument is built for Christopher Columbus who navigated the route to America which brought Sevilla so much wealth in gold.

This is a statue of Don Juan. The Spanish Casanova. Although in fact if he really was real he would have been before Casanovas' time. I rate him only as a three, not really that overwhelmingly attractive.

More photos of the Santa Cruz and the old district.

Medi told us a romantic story about why there are so many orange trees in Sevilla, I have decided not to post it here as I think this story is best suited to be told in person. If you ever wanna hear to story, ask me next time you bump into me, maybe I will tell you this beautiful story!

In the evening we went to see a Flamenco show a colleague of mine recommended. It was a terrific and intimate performance. I counted the seats and the room fitted only around 90 people. 
I would describe the Flamenco music and dance as breathtaking and passionate. I believe Medi was true to his description of the art!

Us at BK with our new friend for a late night snack and chat. It was a day packed full with activity and fun. It was sad to know I was leaving such a beautiful place the next day and not even having seen half of it.

Sevilla is definitely a place I would revisit again!

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Location:Calle Pagés del Corro,Seville,Spain