Unfortunately, Christine had a terrible night. That asthma attack from yesterday triggered some kind of respiratory issue that made it impossible for her to sleep due to continuous coughing. So, the early morning was not a happy one. We did go down to breakfast, but she just wasn’t feeling well. When I saw Lucia at breakfast, I asked if we could stop in a pharmacy on our way to our tour to get something in the way of a cough suppressant and some throat lozenges. She was more than accommodating. However, Lucia kind of parked Christine and me in a shady spot across the street from the rest of the group, who were all standing in the sun, and she went off to the pharmacy on her own. About 15 minutes later, she returned with a bottle of cough syrup. Christine took a couple of gulps of the syrup and we joined back up with the group, and off we went to the Alcazar. Thank goodness the cough syrup seemed to help Christine.
The Alcazar is an historic royal palace. It was formerly the site of the Islamic-era citadel of the city, begun in the 10th century,, and then developed into a larger palace complex by succeeding Islamic dynasties. After the conquest of Sevilla by the Castilian king Ferdinand III in 1248, the site was progressively rebuilt and replaced by new palaces and gardens. The mosque that existed as part of the Alcazar in the beginning of Muslim rule was the site and location for the eventual building of the Cathedral. During the 1360s, King Pedro did some of the most extensive rebuilding and expanding. Among the most important of these expansions is the richly-decorated Mudejar-style palace built by Pedro. Pedro played a leading role in introducing Islamic derived decorative elements into the Iberian Christian kingdoms. The Mudéjars were the Muslims who remained in the former areas of Al-Andalus after the Christian conquest in the Middle Ages and were allowed to practice their religion to a limited degree. Mudéjar art is valuable in that it represents peaceful co-existence between Muslims, Jews and Christians during the medieval era, although all Muslims and Jews in Spain eventually were forced to convert to Christianity or were exiled or killed between the late 1400s and early 1500s. The Mudejar style is very ornamental and uses a lot of decorative tile.


Alicia was back as our tour guide. She is so incredibly knowledgeable and was a pleasure to follow through the Alcazar. You enter the palace through the Lion’s Gate and walk through a little garden into the Patio de la Montería courtyard. In the courtyard, you see three different connected buildings from different time periods. The one on the right was the Navigational Headquarters so anyone sailing into and out of Sevilla had to go through this office. So, navigators like Columbus and Magellan started in that building. The center building is the entrance to the palace built by Pedro. The Alcazar remains a royal palace, so whenever the king and queen of Spain are visiting Sevilla today, they stay in the second floor of that center building.
Above the entrance there is Arabic calligraphy (just above the blue and white tile) that reads, “There is no victor above Allah,” that Pedro, a Catholic king, had inscribed. He is known as Pedro the Just for his position on equality of religion for Muslims and Jews. Unfortunately, he is also known as Pedro the Cruel for horrible atrocities committed.


This is called the Maiden’s courtyard. The decorative lobed arches are plasterwork. What this courtyard is supposed to convey is paradise as water and nature are symbols of paradise.



This is the Hall of the Ambassadors where the king and queen would greet their guests and visitors. All the decoration was spectacular with all kinds of Islamic and Christian symbolism. The ceiling was especially decorative. Most everything was tile or carved in wood.



The decorative tile was everywhere in the palace, on floors, walls and ceilings.


In many of the tiles along the walls, and especially on the doors or windows shutters, the Jewish Star of David and the Muslim khatim appear, often together.


We saw so many rooms and Alicia pointed out so many details that it’s difficult to remember them. So, I’ll just add a bunch of photos and you can see various things. It was all very beautiful.






We then toured some of the royal gardens. The gardens were originally places for crops to be grown for the royal household. As time went on, the royals wanted places of peace and serenity so scenic gardens were created. The gardens are very expansive and quite beautiful.





The Alcazar is a very interesting place and I thoroughly enjoyed touring through it. As I said, Alicia is such a good guide and she really helped me in understanding much of the history of the place and why it is such an important part of Sevilla’s history.

After the Alcazar, we went through some remains of the Jewish ghetto that existed just on the other side of the Alcazar walls. It had the narrowest streets and this was created by the Jews as a form of protection. There are very few Jews remaining in Sevilla, but at one time they were an important part of the community, even during Muslim rule. And the Christian monarchs relied upon the Jews for support in administrative and economic functions.
After our walk through the Jewish ghetto, we headed to the river for a boat tour. On the way, we all went into a sandwich shop to get something to eat. We sat on a wall in the shade munching our sandwiches awaiting our riverboat.
The Guadalquivir River runs nearly around Sevilla. Sevilla is about 85 kilometers upriver from the Atlantic Ocean. It’s still hard for me to believe that Sevilla was such an important starting point for some of the great world explorers. Our riverboat did just an hour trip, 30 minutes down river and a return trip upriver. It was very pleasant on the boat as there was a nice breeze and we were covered. The boat had a roof of solar panels and was entirely electric, which made it nice because there were no fumes and it was quiet.
One of the popular sites along the river is the Torre del Oro, the Tower of Gold. It was built in 1220 by the Muslims and was a military watchtower for protecting Sevilla. It is dodecagonal, meaning 12-sided.

Another site on the river is a replica of the Nao Victoria, one of the 5 ships in which Magellan’s crew circumnavigated the world. I learned something about this during our visit to the cathedral as there is a plaque commemorating this accomplishment. This ship left Sevilla in 1519 and returned to the city in 1522. It was manned by 245 men, but only 18 returned to Sevilla. Apparently, upon their return, the 18 men immediately went to the cathedral to pray in the chapel that is known as the navigator’s chapel. The names of the 18 men are inscribed on a plaque at the entrance of this chapel. This small ship made it around the world, which just boggles my mind.


Here are 4 of our group members who were on the riverboat.

Here are some other sites along the river.




It was a 90+ degree day in Sevilla, so none of us were in the mood to walk a mile back to the hotel so we piled into a couple of cabs. Christine and I rested in the afternoon and then skipped the group activity in the evening. Lucia was taking those interested in going to some bar associated with a scenic view. We chose to have a quiet dinner across the street at the little bar/restaurant. We are enjoying our tapas and Christine even had a sangria.
Tomorrow is an all-day excursion to Cordoba. The golden age of Al-Andalus we learned about was centered in Cordoba. We’ll be seeing a lot of Moorish architecture and leaving more about the Caliphate of Cordoba. I’m looking forward to it.