The Church That Was a Mosque

It’s the Holy Week this week (the week of Good Friday and Easter). So, here’s a church for a change! From the series of mosques in the last few posts. (Incidentally, it was also Songkran, the Thai New Year, (and a horde of other new years) a few days back – How contrastingly different these festivals are, huh? That's the beauty of diversity!)


Anyway, back to the post, this church happens to actually be a former mosque! No, it isn't the only mosque to be converted into a church, but it’s one of the more renowned ones. Welcome to Andalucia, Spain!


This is the cathedral of Seville. The bell tower on the right of the photo (aka the Giralda) used to be the minaret of the Grand Mosque of Seville (or Ishbiliya in Arabic). This is how it is with humans. To the victors, go the spoils. This is a church that used to be a mosque. We've visited a mosque, which used to be a church, the Hagia Sofia. When we visited, it was a museum! Now, it's a functioning mosque, once again

Andalucia got its name from Al-Andalus, the Arabic name for the region in current Spain & Portugal that used to be under the control of Islamic rulers. Al-Andalus was under Islamic rule for 7+ centuries until the Reconquista, when the Christian kingdoms in Europe reconquered the area and made them into Spain and Portugal as what they are today. The new rulers either forced converted the remaining Muslims and Jews, or drove them out altogether. I suspect Israel and Trump have the same ideas for Palestine… Sigh… (I would’ve thought that modern people were less ‘barbaric’ than our ruthless ancestors, but it looks like we remain the same, barbarians by nature) …


I diverge. Back to my post. Here’re more photos of the Catedral de Santa María de la Sede (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See), or more commonly, the Seville Cathedral.


A view of Seville city, from the Giralda


In this view from the Giralda, you can see the Court of Oranges (the courtyard with orange trees, in the lower part of the photo, or in Spanish, Patio de los Naranjos). The lone skyscraper in the background, is the Torre Sevilla (Seville Tower), which housed the Eurostars Hotel, which was one of the hotels yours truly stayed in, during his 3-day business visit to Seville! More specifically, I was there for a function, the IPMA (International Project Management Association) Global Awards actually, thanks to my Malaysian passport (because of that dang Schengen Visa, my bosses and colleagues, who’re mostly Chinese, Indians, Egyptians, etc, couldn’t attend, and I, being Malaysian, do not need a visa for Europe! 3 cheers for Malaysia!!!)

Being an ardent traveller, how could I be in Seville, and not experience a little something of the city? I’ve missed out on a whole lot of opportunities travelling with other, less travel enthusiastic people, on business trips. Not this time. And that’s how I planned a trip to the cathedral! (Tip: BOOK ONLINE BEFORE YOU VISIT, AT LEAST BEFORE THE SLOTS FILL UP. It’ll save you a whole lot of time! I did it on the morning of the day of my visit). (And if my company, would’ve stuck to the earlier, ungodly flight schedule they said they’d book me into at first, for the return leg of my journey to Dubai that is, I would’ve spent a half-day in Lisboa as well! And seen a whole new city, and a new country! But luck would have it, that they finally booked me into a more sensible flight, departing mid-morning, with a stopover in Barcelona. I’ve seen Barcelona before (in 1994). It’s a huge city, too big to get around, so I just stuck around in the airport, eating Iberian Ham sandwiches and drinking sangria, Salud! The Lisboa flight was like 6am, on the morning after the award function, which ended past midnight, meaning that if I’d taken that, I’d have to make do with only a couple of hours of sleep, before I head off to the airport… Urgghhh, that’d be too tiring. Luckily, they found a ‘better’ flight!)


Back to the cathedral, this is one of the largest cathedrals in the world. Yeah, believe me not! It’s in fact, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. Yeah, sez Wikipedia… But it doesn’t feel as big as the Milan Duomo. Is it because the Milan cathedral was surrounded by a huge, spacious square, whereas the Seville cathedral is sorta hemmed in by the surrounding buildings??


Look at that humongous pipe organ!! And it’s not the only one. It has a twin on the other side


The Choir! Now, if only they were people singing… Those rib vaults (on the golden ceiling) are one of the defining features of Gothic architecture by the way


Not every part is Gothic though, here’s a Renaissance dome in the cathedral. I think this is the Chapter House, whatever that is…


That’s the screen that shields the Retablo Mayor, the largest altarpiece in the world, from visitors. Aww shucks, but why?


There, the Retablo Mayor (High Altarpiece)! No iron grill is gonna stop my phone from squeezing in, and getting a shot, haha. I didn’t even know what it was, until I started writing this blogpost! And there it was, on Google. Apparently, it’s a masterpiece designed by Pierre Dancart, and it took 80+ years (in the 15th to 16th century) to finish (No, Pierre Dancart did not live to see the completed works)


The cathedral isn’t only famous for the things I’ve said above. Some famous people are also buried there. The most prominent one, Christopher Columbus, discoverer of the new world! That’s his tomb / catafalque above, carried by four figures


The tomb of Columbus, Seville Cathedral


Holy Santa Maria, what’s it with the heads? If anyone knows why Mother Mary is standing on some heads, pray do tell, OK? An exhibit in the Main Vestry of the Cathedral


There you are. Signing out, Catedral de Sevilla, Sep 2023. Happy Easter everyone!