“On the 4th of November, leaving Mairena in the morning, traveling 4 leagues, we arrived at the most prestigious city of the realm of Andalusia, now called Seville and in Latin Híspalis. This city rests on a very excellent and beautiful plain, better than any other I've seen in Spain, very fertile in oil, incomparable wine, and all varieties of produce. Ascending to the top of the highest tower of the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that was formerly the principal mosque, I gazed at the city, and estimated that it was twice as big as Nüremberg. It is completely circular, and located on the flattest ground. The river Bétis, very famous, powerful and navigable, bathes it on its western side, at the foot of its walls, that in times of high water, rises during the whole day to the height of three or four codos, and then it carries somewhat salty water, but when the tide goes out and it recedes, and then the water becomes very good and sweet…It also has many outstanding monasteries of Franciscans, Augustinians, Dominicans, nun's convents and others.
[The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary]: The city of Hispalis was seized from the hands of the Saracens and made Christian a hundred and seventy years ago. There are still many Saracen monuments and antiquities.…
It had, among other things, a grandiose mosque, whose gardens and three dependencies still exist. The length of the whole mosque was of two hundred and fifty paces and its width a hundred and ninety. The length of the garden today measures one hundred and forty paces more. There is a beautiful fountain in the center, in which the Mohammadans washed. When the old fountain was destroyed, another larger one was built in its place. Over the water pipes these verses are written:
"His royal majesty, after defeating the Moors, graced me with this water, even when it was already destroyed"
With this water, the entire garden is presently watered, for it has many citron trees, cypresses, palms, lemon and orange trees.
The half—which formerly was the mosque—has been torn down now, and in its place they are building a magnificent church in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is such a stupendous work in that there are not many temples in Spain to surpass it. The church is finished, but not yet its choir. The whole structure is two hundred paces in length and a hundred and seventeen in width, seven aisles in width, of which two comprise magnificent chapels, forty-five free-standing columns and very rich seats in the choir stalls. It also has forty canons and other beneficiaries, and twenty more dignitaries and ministers. There are substantial benefices, of two and three hundred ducats and a very pious clergy. There are very high octagonal columns, which are twenty-five paces in circumference, and very high and wide vaults. I think that in six years it will be completely finished. It is all of very hard dressed stone, brought from the hills of the coast of the kingdom of Granada by the Bétis River. …
We saw many other things…. We went up to an elevated chapel in the Cathedral. There, after mass, we visited the sumptuous tombs of the Kings of Castile.
King Fernando I of Castile was very devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and was firmly convinced that with her aid would conquer Seville. For this reason, he had a wooden image made, with moveable limbs, and as well, Christ in a cradle, also moveable. From ancient times, there had been in the Moorish mosque an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which had been captured from the Christians. There was no one who dared to destroy it, because they would become deaf, crippled or blind. Finally, the King had a dream that he should make a special cult of this image, and shortly afterwards, he would conquer Seville. He did this, and a few days later, Seville surrendered. From that moment, he professed an extreme devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and there is nothing else to say….He always took it with him into battle, and he held it in great veneration, and adorned its head with a crown of the purest gold, emeralds, pearls and other precious stones. We held it in our hands, and felt its weight. The majority of times he [the King] defeated the Moors by virtue of the Blessed Virgin. We saw there many other things that should be described, but I am omitting them for the sake of brevity.”
[The Alcazar of Seville]: The fortress [alcazar] of Seville was built from its foundations by King Alfonso, the author of the "Astronomical Tables," and whose father, Fernando, liberated Seville from the hands of the Moors. This fortress is enormous, and no smaller than the Alhambra of Granada. It is constructed in the same style, with its palaces, rooms, chambers and water pipes, decorated with gold, ivory and marble, although the stones are not as big. Its outside configuration is different from Granada, since it is built on flat land; but it has six or ten gardens, both large and small, with lemon trees, citron trees, orange trees, myrtles and running water. In this fortress, the King's son was born, the future sovereign, and we saw the chamber where his birth took place.
The people of Seville were waiting the arrival of their King, and for this purpose, they tidied up their causeways with stone, and were making many additions. The King is presently having many new rooms built, and is restoring the old ruined ones and having prepared three bedrooms for himself, for his son and for the queen, so exquisitely and properly allocated, that no one will object to them."
What Münzer Saw:
If Barcelona was in decline, Valencia booming and Granada in flux, Seville in 1494 was on the brink of its great moment-but not there yet. Once it was realized that Columbus and his companions had found a previous unknown (to the Europeans) continent the city would become the hub of New World trade (until its river, the Guadalquivir--Münzer’s Betis)--silted up in the late 17th century). Münzer was seeing some of its potential, but at the time of his visit there, Columbus was in the middle of his second voyage, and as far as anybody knew in Spain, he had found the Asian Indies.
Münzer erred, as was so often the case about history: Seville was reconquered in 1248, seventy years earlier than his calculations. The Cathedral, indeed built on the site of the major Mosque, was begun in 1401, and was indeed nearly finished when the Germans got there. The old minaret became the bell tower “La Giralda” (with a later top section and a quantity of bells) and a person can still go up and contemplate the view (though as usual, all but a fragment of the city walls are gone, and the city has expanded).
The original mosque courtyard is still there, though much changed—only orange trees still grow there; there’s still a fountain in the middle, with four small ones among the water channels, and a few of the horseshoe arches still remain as well, including the principal entrance. The King’s verse about the fountain is missing.
Seville Cathedral is vast: five aisles, filling the entire original Mosque interior, and still the second-largest Catholic Church, but with the greatest interior dimensions (this is certified in the Guinness Book of Records).
The “Virgen de las Batallas,” the venerated image that Fernando took into battle with him, still exists; she’s in the sacristy, but she’s of French origin, and made of ivory not wood. Her jeweled crown is lost (stolen in 1873), but other, later ones of precious materials are still on view. On the other hand, the remains of King Fernando and his wife Elizabeth of Swabia, are in 18th-century urns—and, incidentally, Columbus is buried in the Cathedral as well—in a 19th-century tomb.
A good deal of the enormous and complex Alcázar, with its extensive gardens, still exists. It was not built by Alfonso X, however. It began its life as an Almohad palace, beautifully decorated with tile work, stucco and inlaid wooden ceilings. All of this was later adapted by King Pedro I of Castile, who conserved much of the original decorations, and augmented it with additional embellishments, mainly by Nasrid artisans imported from Granada and mudéjares from Toledo starting in 1364. Unlike the Palace of Carlos I at the Alhambra, here the 15th and 16th-century additions by the Catholic Kings and King Carlos I are basically off to one side, and not very obtrusive.
What Münzer Could Have Seen:
Münzer doesn’t mention city walls; they were a given. Only a tiny vestige remains near the Macarena Basilica.
At the Cathedral, if he had managed to visit the workshops, Münzer could have seen the huge high altar retablo under construction (though it was not finished until much later). The center image of the Virgin might have been available for viewing—she was made in the 14th century, as well as two venerable painted icons, the Virgen de los Remedios and the Virgen de la Antigua. And there were also sumptuous tombs of church dignitaries.
What Münzer Never Would Have Seen:
Bullfights! Flamenco! Tapas Bars! The theme park that was Expo 1992; and also the fabulous church in the Hospital of Charity, not built and decorated until the 17th century.
A modern parallel to tidying up the city in Münzer’s time could be seen in the urban changes made for the Expo in 1992. This included dredging 300 years of river silt out of the Guadalquivir.
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