March 7, 2022
“I have come to believe that this is a mighty continent which was hitherto unknown…….These people are very unskilled in arms... with 50 men they could all be subjected and made to do all that one wished.”
- Christopher Columbus.
Looking at the enormous bell tower of Catedral de Sevilla (Sevilla’s Cathedral) is a lot like architectural palm reading. You can easily view the entire history of Sevilla just looking from top to bottom at the masonry.
The base holds the tower with precut Roman stones. Then arising from this foundation you see the intricate geometric designs and graceful columns of Moorish architecture. The classic Islamic style takes the building to 2/3 of its height.
Then, it is cut off abruptly and capped with a renaissance era gothic style cap. It dates from as far back as the 1330’s and had to be rebuilt after an earthquake in the 1550’s,
It is the entire story of Andalucia in one column.
The Cathedral is enormous. It was a deliberate choice. A large Mosque of brick used to be here. In 1401 the Reconquista Christians vowed they would build a Cathedral so huge “Anyone who sees it will take us for madmen!”
This zeal to crush the Islamic worship site accounts for the somewhat irregular shape of the building. Most gothic cathedrals will build their structures in a roughly cross shape. Because the builders wanted to cover over everything than was Muslim here, accounts for the irregular shape of the building. It is also somewhat unfinished outside. Many Cathedrals will cover their exterior with niches and statuary honoring heroes of the faith. There are some here but also vast walls that are plain by gothic cathedral standards.
Still, in the halls of Christendom, this is one of the largest cathedrals in the world. it was the biggest for awhile when it was completed in 1528. In another 100 years, St Peter’s in Rome would take the top prize.
It is hard to imagine in the days before incandescent lighting how gloomy it must have been inside with the enormous vaulted ceilings lit only by candles. Most cathedrals are long and tall. This one is square and compressed and spread out over two acres.
The nave is clogged in the middle by a huge choir where VIP’s would sit during service and, of course, singers or monks would chant and sing hymns from.
This is the high altar. It is an enormous 80 foot fall of carved walnut and chestnut and covered in gold leaf. The individual niches tell biblical stories. I could not get it entirely in frame but the figures at the top are the size of a 6 foot man. It is the largest altar piece in the world.
After viewing the altar you can walk around the cathedral and view the numerous displays in chapels that ring the center area of worship.
This is the Altar de Plata. The glinting enormous silver altar piece is meant to resemble what is called a monstrance. It is a ceremonial vessel meant to highlight the communion wafer. It is made from more than 5,000 pounds of looted sliver from Mexico by the Spanish in the 1600’s.
We witnessed some of the after effects of the razing and looting by the Spanish during our trip to Mexico. You can read about it here.
This is the pennant of King Ferdinand III. This flag was raised over the Mosque here on November 23, 1248! It is 800 years old!
There is the chapel of the Virgen de la Antigua here. It dates to the 1300’s and is the oldest art work here. It was built over a Muslim Mihrab - a chapel of sorts that pointed the way to Mecca. In 1248, when the Christians moved in they used the Mosque for a church and built this chapel here. The later cathedral was built around it.
Oh and one more thing….
This enormous and elaborate tomb is the final resting place for Christoper Columbus. His ghost is everywhere in Andalucia. The four pallbearers represent the four kingdoms of Spain.
There is little doubt that Columbus is controversial and the source of endless debate. There were many explorers that accomplished great things, but, at least in America, we always circle back to him.
As always, the devil lies in the details…
The reason we have Columbus Day in America has more to do with politics than historical significance. In the 1800’s, Italian-Americans wanted the holiday to celebrate their heritage in the United States and help facilitate assimilation into the American landscape. After much lobbying, they were successful.
The trouble is Columbus was not “Italian”. It is true he was a wool weaver who taught himself navigation and hailed from Genoa. But that was a city state back then. He did not speak what we think of as Italian and the country of Italy would not form for several centuries. The same is true to some extent of Spain. Although he sailed under the flag of Queen Isabella, the idea of modern Spain was not yet formed.
His famous 1492 voyage did leave from the coast only 50 miles from here. He did not get lost. he genuinely believed he could find a passage to the Far East by sailing West. He would die believing he had succeeded. it felt the islands were off the coast of what would later be Japan.
It was not known how large the world was back then and although the Vikings may have landed on the coast of Newfoundland some time earlier, no one knew about it back then.
He would make 4 trips across the Atlantic. It would make him rich but he would end up losing everything. He was regarded a a cruel governor of the colonies he created and would enslave local indigenous people. He was arrested for his bad behavior and fell out of favor with the court.
He would die in Northwestern Spain. His son wrote “He fell by gout and grief at seeing himself fallen from his high estate”.
What Columbus’ undeniable accomplishment was in the course of his 4 voyages he alerted Spain, and later other powers in Europe that there was a new land mass over the horizon. It was relatively unguarded and lay waiting for plunder. He would open the door for Spain to become blindingly wealthy. Columbus believed even at his death that he had found the Far East, unaware that what he actually found was the New World.
Columbus’ body continued to travel after death. He was originally buried in Valladolid Spain where he died. Then he was moved to a monastery here in Sevilla. Then taken across the ocean to what is now the Dominican Republic as he requested. Then to Cuba and finally in 1902 when Cuba gained independence from Spain, back here to Sevilla.
So it begs the question, with so many exhumations is it really him in there?
In 2006, a DNA study was authorized and completed. The result?
It's him.
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