We walked into the centre of Seville, past the closed for
renovation (drat!) archaeological museum that was in a lovely park that also
seemed to be closed. We found out later that the council had closed the park
because of the perceived risk of falling trees due to the excessive rainfall
and strong winds. We wandered the streets, including the Jewish quarter but the
most impressive visit was to the Palace of Lebrija. The palace dates to the 16th
century but it was the Countess of Librija, Dona Regla Manjon Merelina, who
made it so memorable after she bought it in 1901. She was a very talented lady,
the first woman to attend the Seville Fine Arts School and became a very well
respected person in the world of fine arts. Her big passion was for archaeology
and she was very concerned about what was happening to the Roman site of Italica.
There was no official protection for the site and farming was destroying much
of the remains. The mosaics were particularly at risk and the countess was
determined to save them. She bought a number of mosaics from the land owners
and had them carefully removed and transferred to the palace. Then she had to
find somewhere to put them, so she remodelled the whole of the ground floor to
fit around the mosaics. Alterations of the palace went on for 13 years. The
result is described by the current owners, descendants of the countess, as ‘The
World’s most important collection of mosaics’. That is quite a claim but the collection
is very impressive.
As we left the palace, it started to rain and we took shelter in a restaurant
and had yet another excellent Menu del Dia. We had hoped that the rain would
stop while we having lunch and it did but it started again as we left. This
time, we had the full works, thunder, lightning and torrential rain. We huddled
under the umbrella and headed for the amazing mushroom building, the Setas de
Sevilla – a series of high mushroom-shaped covers over a market and shops.
Whilst they were excavating the site prior to construction, they discovered
Roman and later remains, so these were incorporated into the building and
access provided to the public. There was a combined ticket that allowed a visit
to the site and also to the roof of the mushrooms where there is a fantastic
view over the city – but not on a day like this! Instead we paid €1.60 each to
visit the Antequarium, as the site is called. It was very good and included a number
of mosaics and a factory where they produced fermented fish paste, known as garum
in Roman times. A raised walkway allowed easy viewing of all of the buildings.
Given the weather, we didn’t want to risk walking, so we used the bus that took
us back close to the aire.
Photos: The largest mosaic in the courtyard of the Palace of Lebrija; A
hexagonal mosaic from Italica also in the Palace; One of the Countess’s rather
good sculptures; Antequarium - the tanks where the garum fish paste was
fermented; We stopped at the Convent of the Mother of God and bought some of
their lovely cakes – these are almond and orange and were delicious.
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