Statues and Stories
It’s been a while since I last posted! Sorry about that! When we got back from the Immersion Weekend, classes at the CIEE Study Center started, and then this past week was the start of classes at the University of Seville! It’s been pretty busy, since both weeks I was trying out more classes than I’m actually going to take this semester. (This was primarily the case at the University, where I tried out six classes but I’m only selecting three!)
However, it wasn’t “all work and no play”! There’s more to studying abroad than being in a classroom! I’ve spent a good amount of time exploring Seville and having some local “adventures”, which has been really fun. As all of this was happening, something that kept popping into my head was a song from one of my favorite musicals: “Statues and Stories” from The Light in the Piazza. The musical, with a book by Craig Lucas and music/lyrics by Adam Guettel, is about an American woman and her daughter who travel to Italy in the 1950s and go through trials and tribulations as they explore a foreign land and find love. The opening song, “Statues and Stories”, sets the stage for the show and describes “a city made of statues and stories” in what is a “new old world to [them].” The musical is beautiful and touching, and won the Tony Award for Best Original Score for a reason!
Below is a clip of the song from the 2005 Tony Awards. A full performance at Lincoln Center was filmed and broadcast on television, which can be watched in parts on YouTube here: Link. I highly recommend it!
In the musical, the “city made of statues and stories” is Florence, but the lyric keeps coming to my mind as I’ve been exploring Seville! I’ve found many statues, and have learned many stories (both factual stories and legends) in the past few weeks.
About two weeks ago, I had signed up to take a tour through CIEE of Triana. Triana is sometimes referred to as Seville’s “little sister”. Once a separate town outside the walls of the city of Seville, on the opposite side of the Guadalquivir River, Triana has a unique identity and today has been absorbed as one of Seville’s barrios (neighborhoods). Known for its Gypsy community, flamenco, and ceramic works, Triana has an artsy vibe that feels different from other parts of Seville.
The day of my tour, I had time to kill, so I slowly meandered and took my time walking to the meeting point. I had a lot of fun making my way down the Paseo de Cristobal Colón on the north/east side of the river (where I live), stopping to check things out and enjoy the day before eventually crossing the Puente de Isabel II and heading into Triana.
The Palace of San Telmo was where I first started noticing statues. One side of the building has twelve statues of famous Sevillians, including Velázquez and Murillo.
Across the street from the Palace of San Telmo are the Jardines de Cristina, a small park with sidewalks named after Spanish writers and rocks carved with samples of their work.
Also in the Jardines is a statue of Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, the 18th Duchess of Alba. I’ll admit that when I found this statue, I had no idea who she was, but I snapped a photo anyway. (I figured if she was important enough to have a statue sculpted of her, she must be worth Googling.) I later searched for her online and discovered that she is the current head of the House of Alba in the Spanish nobility, and holds a World Record as the noblewoman with the highest number of titles recognized by existing world governments!
I then made my way down the street to the Teatro de la Maestranza, one of the larger theaters in Seville where many ballets, operas, and concerts are performed.
Outside the Theater is a statue of Mozart. Mozart set many of his most famous operas in the city of Seville, including The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni.
Down the street from the Theater is the Plaza de Toros: the bullfighting ring. I knew I would be returning to the Plaza de Toros in a few days for a tour, so I didn’t explore it too much. However, outside the bullfighting ring are several statues of famous bullfighters, and even a statue of Carmen, the legendary title character from Bizet’s opera, Carmen.
I then made my way further down the river, where I saw a sculpture closer to the waterfront. I walked down the stairs and discovered the sculpture was a “Monument to Tolerance” dedicated in 1992. The sculpture, which I interpreted to resemble a person hugging or an embrace, is accompanied by a metal plaque that has the transcript of a speech by Elie Wiesel. Given the information on the plaques and information I later found online, I believe the monument was prompted by the city’s history of involvement with the Spanish Inquisition. When I toured Triana later that day, we visited the ruins of the Castillo de San Jorge, which was once a seat of the tribunal of the Inquisition in Seville. These events are considered a “rough spot” in Spanish history, but the museum of the Castillo, and the Monument to Tolerance, encourage reflection and remembrance of this dark period of time.
I then crossed the bridge and enjoyed the view of the river. There was a man sitting and playing an accordion on the bridge, and it made for a lovely, very “European” atmosphere!
The meeting point for the tour was in the Plaza del Altozano, which had a neat statue of Juan Belmonte, another famous bullfighter. When I first saw it, I thought the design was a kind of “modern art” response to all of the more traditional statues of bullfighters I had seen earlier. However, when the tour began, I learned that the reason for the hole in the statue’s chest is because of Belmonte’s history. Apparently Belmonte was a bullfighter from Triana, but he had a strong love of Seville. So the statue of him was placed in Triana, but he faces Seville, and through the hole in his chest, at just the right angle you can see the Giralda! (Seville will always be in his heart!)
The rest of the tour was spent walking the streets of Triana. The main attractions are the ceramics workshops, as well as one of the cathedrals. Unfortunately, because the tour was scheduled during the siesta hours, most of these places were closed so I couldn’t get any pictures. (#spainproblems)
However, the next day I took a tour of Barrio Santa Cruz, Seville’s historic Jewish quarter. Our first stop was at a former synagogue which had been turned into a Catholic church during the Reconquista, and is now called Santa María la Blanca. The décor is very Rococo, which, while extremely gaudy, is one of my favorite artistic styles. Inside the church are blank spaces where Murillo paintings were once located, until Napoleon stole them! Today they’re in the Mueso del Prado in Madrid, so the empty holding places are still there.
Our group then went to the Plaza de los Refinadores, where there is a statue of Don Juan. This famous character in many legends, operas, stories, and plays was said to have lived in Seville.
Some more photos of Barrio Santa Cruz:
One street, formerly called Calle de la Muerte, sits right beside Calle de la Vida (Life and Death side by side!) However, Calle de la Muerte was renamed Calle Susona, after a famous legend from Barrio Santa Cruz. The legend of Susona says that Susona, a young Jewish woman living in Seville, was the daughter of a man planning an uprising against the Sevillian Christians. For fear of the life of the Christian man she loved, Susona revealed the plot to the Christians. This resulted in a counter-attack, and many of Susona’s friends and family were killed. She was so saddened after betraying her own people that she joined a convent and remained there until her death. She asked that after her death, her skull be placed in Barrio Santa Cruz as a reminder of the suffering that had occurred. Today, there are only tiles to commemorate the story.
The following day, I took another tour, this time of Barrio Arenal. This included the Plaza de Toros, as well as a few other buildings. I won’t write too much about the bullfighting ring, as I intend to go to a bullfight in the future and I can write more about the history of that when I make a post later.
After visiting the bullfighting ring, we stopped at a couple of other nearby sights:
And there you have it! Triana, Barrio Santa Cruz, Arenal. Three areas of Seville with lots of history, lots of statues, and lots of stories. I know this was a long post, so thanks for sticking with me! Haha. I intend to get caught up with everything I’ve been up to! Last weekend I saw Otelo (Shakespeare’s Othello) in Spanish (!) with some of my friends, as well as took day trips to the small town of Carmona, as well as the city of Córdoba. This week has been crazy with starting up classes, but I intend to write about all of those happenings sometime soon. Until next time! I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for more statues and stories to share.
kelseygoestospain 