Visita al Real Alcázar desde la perspectiva de una irlandesa

Hola a tod@s! ¡Hoy os ofrezco un trozo de mi punto de vista como estudiante irlandesa cuando llegué a Sevilla y cuando vi unas de las joyas de la ciudad por primera vez! Pongo esta noticia en inglés para que puedo describir mis ideas naturalmente. ¡Espero que disfruteis!

 

The number 1 thing I wanted to do when I found out I could do my Erasmus in Seville was visit the Royal Alcázar of Seville. When you look up Seville on Google it’s the first thing that comes up so I knew it was a must see!

 

When I first entered, I realised I really didn’t know what to expect. I had been to Granada a few weeks before so I had heard about the Islamic reign of Andalusia and so I was aware of the Alcázar being the sultan’s palace but I guess I wasn’t fully aware of what that entailed. As soon as I arrived in the first courtyard, I was instantly astonished. I felt like I has been transported to some Arabic/Moroccan dream land.

     

 

Coming from a fairly small town in Ireland I’m definitely not used to anything like this. The only architecture I know is cattle gates or green Irish telephone boxes (yes they are the same as the famous red telephone boxes in London – but just green!!) So, this means I had never been exposed to any style of design like this before.

 

 

 

 

One of aspects of the design of the Alcázar that I really enjoyed were all the intricate, delicate designs that covered all the walls. From far away, all the little designs connect together to make one big shape. But then, on closer inspection you can see all the tiny little lines and curves that make up the bigger shape you’re looking at. I find that absolutely fascinating and I even think it gave the illusion that the rooms were much bigger and deeper than they actually were.

 

 

 

 

Also, the repetition of the circular, arching motifs in the doorways and on the ceilings (as seen to the left) was a design element I really enjoyed because it was something so different so what I had seen before. Ireland and Dublin have a lot of Georgian architecture which is very rigid and geometrical, with lots of rectangles and straight lines. So, that’s the complete opposite of the curvatures and bends of the Islamic style of the Alcázar. I personally find the arches and bends to be much prettier than the rigidness of the Georgian style as I think it’s a much prettier type of shape to look at.

 

 

 

 

The actual layout of the Alcázar itself was something I also found very interesting because it was so different to what I’m used to. You can really tell that the layout was designed with the climate in mind. The Patio de las doncellas (pictured on the right), for example really gave me the feeling of a palace in the desert. The open ceiling let in a lovely refreshing air flow in without letting too much sun get to us. The water and the trees gave a really cooling effect and the walls managed to keep in this amazing chilled feel that cooled down the whole patio. I could really imagine the dignitaries promenading around this patio for some coolness during the hot Summer days. This was something so different to the Georgian palaces I know which have small windows with thick curtains in order to keep in the heat and chimneys in every room where a fire would be lit.

 

 

 

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to the Alazar. It has opened my eyes a new style of architecture that’s so different to my home architecture style that I now really love.

 

 

 

 

 

Todos los imagenes son mis propias fotos sacados en mi visita al Alcázar.