Aníbal González – The Man Who Built Seville

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This week we have another guest post by blogger, teacher, tour guide and history buff,
Peter Tatford, former Londoner and long-term Seville resident, aka Seville Concierge

anibal gonzalez

Unless you’re interested in architecture you may not even have heard of him, but if you’ve been to Seville you’ll certainly have seen quite a lot of his work. If you have heard of him it’s most likely in connection with the iconic Plaza de España, built for the Spanish-American exhibition of 1929, and one of Seville’s top must-sees for any visitor.

But there’s more to González (Aníbal González Álvarez-Ossario, to give him his rather impressive full name) than just the Plaza de España. He was one of the few who accomplished the architect’s dream of not only designing great buildings, but of leaving his mark on an entire city.

He was born in modest circumstances in 1876, the eldest of three children, and developed an early interest in books. It was a struggle for his parents to pay for his schooling, but in 1902 the sacrifices bore fruit, and he qualified as an architect. In 1910 he was appointed director of works for the proposed Spanish American exhibition, a post he held until 1927, when he resigned because of disagreements with the new Royal Commissioner for the exhibition, José Cruz Conde. In 1920 he was the target of an attempted assassination, and from then until his death in May 1929 he was always accompanied by a bodyguard. The exhibition opened just a few days before he died.

Although his early work was in a modernist style, as Director of the exhibition he developed what would become known as Neomudejar, utilising many aspects of the classic Mudejar architecture of the 13th to 15th centuries, particularly the use of brick, tiles and horseshoe arches, but combining these with elements of Gothic and Baroque, as well as his own personal touches.

plaza espana

The Plaza España in Maria Luisa Park, the semicircular centrepiece of the exhibition with its representations of all the Spanish provinces, boating lake, fountains and towers, is undoubtedly his crowning achievement (a statue of him erected two years ago stands outside the entrance to the Plaza), but he was also responsible for the Plaza America, including the buildings that now house the Archaeological Museum and the Museum of Popular arts and Customs, and the Royal Pavilion.

Away from the exhibition some of his best known works include several buildings on the west side of the Avenida de la Constitución, especially the house of the Marques de Villamarta on the corner of Garcia de la Vinuesa (it’s the one with the narrow circular turret), the Bankinter building in the Campana, the Capilla del Carmen at the end of Triana Bridge, and the house with the big glassed-in balcony on the corner of the Plaza de los Refinadores (which I always tell visitors is where I want to live).

He was Seville’s most prolific architect in the first third of the 20th century, and his work also inspired a number of others who followed in his footsteps, and helped create an important part of the appearance of the city today.

Seville Oranges

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One of the first things many visitors to Seville notice is the orange trees. They line many of the streets and squares, more of them than any other type of tree in Seville, enough to make the city one of the most densely wooded parts of Spain. From autumn to around the end of January, when they are harvested, they are laden with fruit of an almost startling orange, but before that the fruit are a greenish colour, and can be mistaken for limes.

The trees are actually a variety of bitter orange, scientific name citrus x aurentium, and despite being everywhere in Seville, they are not, in fact, native to Spain, but to south-east Asia, and were brought here by the Arabs in the 12th century. Although sweet oranges are grown in other places in Spain, for the city streets the Moorish rulers preferred bitter oranges, as people wouldn’t pick them to eat, and the trees would retain their decorative aspect.

The trees blossom in early spring, producing delicate white flowers called azahar, a name derived from the Arabic for “white flower”, and for two or three weeks their distinctive scent fills the air, and is an important part of the “spring experience” in Seville. Extracts of the azahar are used for perfumes and scented water, and have a mild tranquilising effect.

Strangely enough, the Spanish make very little use of the fruit themselves. After harvesting, most of the fruit is shipped off to – where else? – England, where it is used to make that very traditional English breakfast food, Oxford marmalade. Seville oranges are widely considered to be the best in the world for this purpose, because the high natural pectin content helps the marmalade to set correctly. It is also said, though I can’t vouch for it personally, that the oranges from the Patio de Banderas next to the Alcázar Palace, are sent as a gift from the King of Spain to the Queen of England for making her own special marmalade.

If you want to try your hand at making your own marmalade while the oranges are in season, this is an easy Orange Marmalade Recipe from the BBC’s good food guide.

Seville | April Fair

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Feria Portada 2013 – a representaion of the Plaza de España

The April Fair (Feria de Abril) is the second of Seville’s spring festivals. Normally held two weeks after the first one, Semana Santa, the Feria changes the religious theme to a celebration of spring and having a good time. This year the official dates are from Tuesday, April 16 to Sunday, April 21, with the alumbrado, the switching on of the lights, at midnight on Monday.

Unlike Semana Santa, which is concentrated in the city centre, the April Fair is held on a purpose-built site on the southern edge of the suburb of Los Remedios, on land reclaimed from the old course of the river, so although it’s only about a 15 minute walk from the Puerta de Jerez, it doesn’t disrupt daily life in the same way, though some shops and bars may be closed at the weekend.

feria flamenco dresses The first April Fair was held in 1847 on the Prado (field) de San Sebastian, just outside the old city walls, which at that time were still standing, and it was initially a cattle and horse fair intended as a modern version of the old mediaeval fairs. Strangely for what has become such a Sevillano event, it was the brainchild of a Catalan, Narciso Bonaplata, and the Basque José María Ybarra. As the years passed the Fair gradually began to acquire the character it has today. The horses and carriages have remained a staple of the fair, at least during the day, as have the traditional traje corto (short jacket and tight trousers) of the men and colourful flamenco dresses of the women, but the cattle are long gone. The first electric lights appeared in 1874, followed shortly by the paper globes that are so typical today, and the first commercial casetas. In 1973 the Feria moved to its present home.

The main entrance to the fair is through a gateway, the portada, which has a different theme each year. This year it’s a stylised representation of the Plaza España. Inside, the streets of the fairground are lined with casetas, small marquee style tents where food and drinks are sold. Although some of the casetas are public, the majority are owned by companies, associations, rich individuals and groups of friends.

feria horse carriages During the day it’s the horses and carriages that take the attention, along with their riders, everything and everyone done up to the nines to parade around the fairground, and for anyone with a love of horses this alone is enough to make Feria worth a visit. At night, however, Feria is quite a different experience. The lights are all switched on, and the party begins. In the casetas there is much drinking of rebujitos (sherry with 7-up) and dancing of Sevillanas (a folk dance with flamenco-style music), that often carries on until dawn. Next to the main fairground, in the Calle del Infierno (Hell Street) is a funfair, with all the traditional rides and typical fast-food stalls.

To get to the fairground you can take a taxi, one of the regular bus services 6 or C1/C2, or the special Feria bus service that runs from the Prado San Sebastian. It’s also possible to walk, especially if you’re in the southern part of the city.

Seville | Semana Santa 101

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If you find yourself in Seville in the week before Easter, and nobody has told you what goes on here during Semana Santa (literally Holy Week), you may be in for a surprise. Why are there so many people in town? Why are the main street by the cathedral and the square beyond lined with chairs? Just who are those strange people with towels round their heads? And the even stranger people with the pointy hoods and cloaks, for all the world like some surreal multi-coloured gathering of the Klan (they’re not, just so you know)? Fear not, all will be revealed in our handy beginner’s guide to Semana Santa in Seville.

Religious processions are hardly unusual in Spain, but the Easter Week processions in Seville take them to another level. During the course of the week around 60 processions will wend their way from their home churches to the Cathedral and back again, which for those furthest away can mean a journey of up to 14 hours. The religious purpose of the processions is to take the sacred statues, usually one of the Christ depicted in one of the stages of the Passion, and one of the grieving virgin, from where they “live” in their various churches and chapels to be blessed in the Cathedral. Each procession is organised by its own Hermandad (brotherhood), and the week’s celebrations are co-ordinated collectively. The oldest brotherhood dates back to the 14th century, and in late mediaeval times they played a role similar to the guilds. After a period of decline in the 19th century, the 20th saw a progressive revival and the fixing of many of the forms and traditions we see today.

costaleros at practice prior to Semana Santa

The statues are carried on floats known as pasos, by groups of men hidden underneath (these are the costaleros, the ones with the towels on their heads to protect them from the weight), whose movements are controlled by an overseer (capataz), usually by a system of coded knocks. Both the pasos and the statues, some of which are important artworks in their own right, are often ornate and gilded, the virgins decked with flowers beneath a canopy, and the sight of them as they sway down the streets is surprisingly moving, even for the non-religious.

They are accompanied on their journey by the Nazarenos and Penitentes (the ones in the cloaks and hoods, worn to preserve anonymity) carrying candles or crosses, various functionaries, and the brass bands who are responsible for the distinctive music that seems to be everywhere during this week. The largest processions can take up to an hour and a half to pass.

Although the final procession is on Easter Sunday, the climax of the week for most people is in the early hours of Good Friday morning, when six of the most popular processions take place, including both of the Virgenes de Esperanza (Triana and Macarena), El Silencio and Jesus de Gran Poder. If you’re here for Holy Week it’s worth staying up all night to see some of these.

0379_giralda-terrace-seville-apartment

If you are here for Semana Santa bear in mind that you’ll pay a premium price for apartments and hotel rooms (anything up to double), and that most of the bars (in the centre at least) won’t be serving tapas but rather larger plates (raciones), and will be very crowded. In fact, the whole city will be crowded, and in the afternoon and evenings the area around the cathedral, and through Plaza San Francisco to La Campana, is often impassable and may interfere with any sightseeing strolls you have planned.

On the other hand, it’s an unusual and interesting experience, whatever your religious affiliations or non-affiliations, and maybe one that everyone should catch a glimpse of just once in their lives.

Veoapartment still has some apartments available on or close to the Cathedral and main procession routes in Laraña, Constitución, and best of all, right by the cathedral in Calle Alemanes.

Seville | Things to do When it Rains

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Although Seville enjoys around 300 days of sunshine a year, from time to time, particularly in winter – for example, like this week – you can get relatively long spells of wet weather. But it would be a shame to let that spoil your holiday, so we’ve come up with a list of suggestions for things to do for those rare occasions when the sun isn’t shining.

rainy plaza Plaza de la Alfalfa

Go to the cinema
The Avenida 5 Cines complex in Calle Marques de Paradas shows current movies in original versions. Curl up with your favourite stars and never mind the weather. Check the programme here (it changes every Friday).

The Museum of Fine Arts
One of Spain’s most important art museums with works by all the Spanish old masters including local boys made good Velazquez and Murillo. It’s in a lovely old building that was once the convent of the Order of Merced Calzada de la Asunción. Well worth taking a couple of hours.

The Cathedral
The Cathedral is on your list anyway, and you don’t want to waste good sunshine time indoors, so visit it now. It’s the biggest Gothic cathedral, and third largest church, in the world, but it isn’t just big, it’s actually rather interesting, with the tomb of Christopher Columbus, lots of gold, and a stuffed crocodile.

Go Shopping
Another of those activities that normally keeps you indoors when you’d rather be outdoors. Take advantage of the fact that everyone else is still at home to shop in peace. You don’t even have to buy anything unless you really want to.

Tapas Bars
Find a nice cosy tapas bars and order up a round (or two) of food and drinks. Sit where you can watch the poor unfortunates outside hurrying past with their umbrellas, and feel suitably smug because you’re on holiday. Or put your own umbrella to good use like this fellow and defy the elements.

The Antiquarium and Encarnación Market
Going topside may not be so great in the rain (though there are some nice bars up there), but going down under the “mushrooms” in the Plaza de la Encarnación takes you to the Roman ruins and museum. Marvel at the mosaics, columns, walls and wells while listening to the rain on the roof. If you’re there in the morning you can also take a stroll through the Encarnación market on the main level. This will work up your appetite ready for lunch.

Stay at Home
It may be the last resort, but you’re staying in a warm, comfy veoapartment, and there’s something primevally satisfying about being indoors and listening to the rain outside. So grab a book and a glass of wine, turn on the telly and settle down for an hour or two. The sun will be out soon enough.