12/3: Christopher Columbus & World's Largest Pearl in Sevilla's Cathedral!

I guess I spoke too soon in the last post about already having seen enough religious sights in one day after touring both the Basilica of the Macarena and the Church of the Divine Savior because we headed next to Sevilla's Cathedral! We hadn't known it was the third largest church in Europe, after St. Peter's at the Vatican in Rome and St. Paul's in London. On top of that, it was the largest Gothic church anywhere and was also declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987. When the Reconquista Christians tore down the brick mosque on this site in 1401, their intention was to build a cathedral so massive that "anyone who sees it will take us for madmen."

In the patio was a full-size replica of the Bell Tower's weather vane statue.

Before entering the church there was the Art Pavilion, a room full of paintings that once graced the inside of the church including some by Sevilla's 17th century masters. Bartolome Murillo, the son of a barber of Sevilla (!), painted St. Ferdinand which depicted the king who freed the city from the Moors. 

Oh yeah, another severed head to look at! This one, from about 1625, portrayed St. John the Baptist. I sure could have done without also seeing it from the bottom looking up - it was a little too graphic for me.

This one of St. John the Baptist in the Desert was painted by Francisco de Zurbaran.

In front of the pilgrims' entrance was Christopher Columbus' grandiose tomb! Four pallbearers, representing the kings of the regions of Castile, Aragon, Leon and Navarre, held his tomb aloft. 

The pallbearers were recognizable by their cloaks.

Columbus even traveled a lot after he died! He was buried initially in northwestern Spain where he passed away; he was then moved to a monastery in Sevilla, then to the Dominican Republic as he'd requested, and then on to Cuba. When that country became independent from Spain in 1902, Columbus sailed home again to Sevilla for the last time!

The mural by the tomb was of St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. With as much traveling as Steven and I do, I better pray to him more often!

The clock behind the tomb has been keeping time since 1788!

Behind this wrought-iron Renaissance grill was the largest altarpiece ever made! The High Altar was 65 feet tall and was comprised of 44 scenes from the life of Jesus and Mary carved from walnut and chestnut and with a staggering amount of gold leaf. It took three generations to complete this masterpiece, from 1481 to 1564.

Because the images were small, so far away and could only be viewed through the grille, it was challenging to take clear photos. I think the first one was of  baby Jesus in the manger but I wasn't 100% sure. 

The altarpiece was gorgeous, stunning and any other positive adjective you'd like to add, but it was so opulent it left me cold and sad at the monies spent on an 'altar' when so much of the money could have been better spent helping the people in South America from where the gold was taken.

Facing the high altar was the similarly grandiose Choir that was enclosed by another elaborate iron grille. The choir featured an organ of more than 7,000 pipes and a giant spinnable choir book holder in the middle of the room so that all could chant from the giant hymnals.

The Rose Window at the back of the choir was lovely as expected.

The ceiling looked like a lacy spider's web.

Just in case the gold high altar wasn't enough for the cathedral, there was also a gleaming Silver Altar adorned with statues including that of the Virgin. 

The Chapel of St. Anthony with its Renaissance baptismal font was used to welcome babies into the Catholic faith. 

In the accompanying 1656 painting by Murillo, the saints were shown kneeling as Baby Jesus came down surrounded by a choir of angels in the Vision of St. Anthony. The smaller painting above, The Baptism of Christ, was also by Murillo. 

The stained-glass window by the chapel showed some of the many images in the cathedral of two of Sevilla's patron saints, Santa Justa and Santa Rufina, who were killed for their Christian faith in Roman times. Spotting them throughout the cathedral was pretty easy by their palm branches which represented their martyrdom, the pots at their feet and the bell tower which symbolized the town of Sevilla they protect.

Still in the same chapel was a large pennant that had belonged to Ferdinand III that was raised over the minaret of the mosque in 1248 when Christian forces finally expelled the Muslim Moors from Sevilla. It had fared extraordinarily well in the last almost 800 years!

Standing behind the choir at the back of the church gave us a sense of how immense and ornate the church was. 

The Virgen de la Antigua Chapel had the oldest art in the cathedral, older even than the building itself. It was painted onto a prayer niche of the mosque that had stood on this location and had acted as a church for 120 years after the Reconquista. 

The gilded fresco showed the Virgin holding a rose and the Christ Child holding a bird. When the mosque was torn down to make way for the huge cathedral, the fresco was saved as the Catholic builders were apparently captivated by the fresco's beauty and were also aware of the Virgen de la Antigua's status as a protector of sailors which was so critical in the port city.

When we popped into the Sacristy, the area where priests get ready daily for Mass, we spotted another painting of Justa and Rufina with their customary bell tower, pots and palm leaves. This one was the work of Goya in 1817.

That sacristy was simply a prelude to the Main Sacristy and its ornate 16th century golden dome, a souvenir of the city's Golden Age. According to Rick Steves, "The intricate masonry, called Plateresque, resembled lacy silver work (plata means 'silver')."

When I craned my neck, I could see the image of God was way up in the cupola, surrounded by three layers of figures.

The room was overshadowed, though, by a nearly 1,000 pound, silver-plated monstrance, the vessel holding the communion wafer.

This magnificent monstrance is still used to carry the host throughout the city during Corpus Christi festivities.

The Tesoro was next with its glorious ceiling and several rooms containing the church's treasures.

One of the most unusual rooms I've seen in a church was this 16th century Chapter Room located in the treasury. This was the first elliptical area built in the Spanish Renaissance and possibly the first in Europe. This room is where the bishop conducts monthly meetings. He, of course, uses the throne while other participants use the benches.

The paintings in the room's oval dome were by Murillo and included the Immaculate Conception above the throne and other saints that were important to Sevillians.

The flooring was inspired by the design that Michelangelo did for a piazza in Rome. The entire room was one of the prettiest and most glorious I've seen in any church.

The treasury's Room of Ornaments included gold and silver reliquaries that held hundreds of body parts, and priceless objects including Spain's most valuable crown that sparkled with thousands of precious stones and the world's largest pearl to adorn the crown of the Virgen de los Reyes.

If ever the acronym OMG is valid, it seemed most justified here seeing the largest pearl and the certificate from the Guinness Book of Records attesting to that!

The exquisite wood-coffered ceiling matched the wood-paneled walls and set off the room perfectly.

I was on overload by then so decided to get some much needed exercise and 'do' the Giralda Bell Tower climb while Steven waited for me. It involved walking up a graded ramp that was 330 feet long - 35 ramps plus 17 feet but who was counting?! It was designed so a donkey-riding Muslim cleric could ride to the top five times a day to give the Muslim call to prayer when a mosque was here.

Knowing I was about halfway was good and bad: I had come a long way but still had a long way to keep climbing!

I stopped briefly in the Clock Chamber between levels 24-25 to admire a clock in an alcove that was built within the walls of the church between 1757 and 1764. The tower's first clock was inaugurated in the presence of the king in 1400.

After I finally made it to the top, I basked in the lovely views of the city for several minutes.

One of the prettiest views was just below: the Court of the Orange Trees but more on that in a bit from the ground level as that was where Steven was waiting for me.

Once back on the ground level and going out to meet Steven, I was nonplussed to see a wooden crocodile hanging from the ceiling! It was a replica of a taxidermied version given to King Alfonso X from Egypt's sultan in 1260. The croc has been hanging there ever since it died and was stuffed.

The church's cloister or Court of the Oranges was where 12th century Muslims used to stop at the fountain in the middle to perform their ablutions as required by their faith before praying. 

The lanes between the bricks were once irrigation streams and a visible reminder that the Moors introduced irrigation to what is now most of Spain.

The Giranda Bell Tower I just climbed was this very tall building on the left! At its top was a 4,500 pound bronze statue that symbolized the Triumph of Faith, i.e. Christianity over the Muslim religion, and acted as a weather vane. After the original top of the tower fell in 1356, a Christian-built top was put up in the 16th century with a ribbon of letters asserting, "The strongest tower is the name of God." By law, no building in the center of Sevilla can be taller than the statue atop the tower.

Looking at the cathedral from the courtyard, it was hard not to be similarly agog over its striking exterior.

The cathedral was a spectacular building of colossal dimensions with priceless paintings, gold and jewels but it wasn't where I would want to go and ponder and pray. We exited through the Moorish-style doorway that I could go on about but will let these pictures speak for themselves.

The relief above the door showed the Bible story of Jesus getting rid of the merchants in the temple, just as there wasn't supposed to be any retail activity in the church.

Directly across from the cathedral was a passageway that led us to El Torno Pasteleria de Conventos, a shop that I'd read sold handicrafts and baked goodies made by various orders of cloistered nuns but staffed by lay people. 

There were lots of yummy treats available but no handicrafts for sale that day. 

In the square in front of the cathedral was the Plaza de la Virgen del los Reyes that was dedicated to the Virgin of the Kings. 

As we’d already noticed, she was one of several different versions of Mary in Sevilla as each appealed to a different type of worshipper in the city. This image was important to many because legend has it that the Castilian king carried her image with him when he retook Sevilla from the Muslim Moors during the Reconquista in 1248.

Near the tiled plaque of Mary was a statue of Pope John Paul II who celebrated Mass in front of 500,000 faithful Sevillians when he visited in 1982.

The square's central fountain dated from 1929, the year of the international Sevilla Exposition or World’s Fair.

Next post: Sevilla street scenes and a neighborhood walk.

Posted on March 7th, 2019, from Twizel on New Zealand's South Island while touring with a friend for a few weeks.