Seville: an historical and descriptive account of "the pearl of Andalusia"Calvert, Albert Frederick
History
Seville: an historical and descriptive account of "the pearl of Andalusia"
Calvert, Albert Frederick
Art -- Spain -- Seville; Painters -- Spain; Seville (Spain) -- Description and travel
Chapels were also constructed in the four cloisters of the Patio de
los Naranjos. The cloister of the Caballeros contained eight--one of
which, Santa Lucia, was the place of sepulchre of the Haro family; the
cloister of the Granada contained three; the cloister of San Esteban,
three; the cloister of San Jorge or Del Lagarto, four--in one of
which, San Jorge, reposed that doughty warrior, Garci Perez de Vargas,
who distinguished himself before all his compeers at the assault of
Seville. This cloister was named Del Lagarto from the remains of an
enormous crocodile, a present from the Sultan of Egypt to King Alfonso
el Sabio, which are still suspended from the roof.
The cathedral--for so we must now call the mosque--was endowed and
richly embellished by St Ferdinand’s son and successor, the bookish
monarch Alfonso el Sabio. He also bestowed upon Seville its existing
coat-of-arms, consisting of the device NO8DO, which frequently appears,
to the bewilderment of strangers, on public buildings, uniforms, and
documents. The knot is in the vernacular _madeja_; the device thus
reads _no madeja do_, or, with an excusable pun, _no me ha dejado_--“it
has not deserted me.” This honourable motto the city won by its loyalty
to Alfonso during the civil wars which distracted the kingdom during
his reign. Seville bears the splendid title of “Most noble, most loyal,
most heroic, and unconquered city” (_muy noble_, _muy leal_, _muy
heroica_, _y invicta_). The surname “most noble” was bestowed upon it
by St Ferdinand; the style “most faithful” it received from Juan II. in
remembrance of its resistance to the Infante Don Enrique; “most heroic”
from Fernando VII. in recognition of its devotion to the national cause
during the War of Independence; and “unconquered” from Isabel II. to
commemorate its defence against the army of Espartero in July 1843.
The successors of the sainted king made their home in the Alcazar, and
adapted themselves to an environment created by their traditional foes.
The personality which looms largest in the history of the city is that
of Don Pedro I., surnamed the Cruel, or, by his few admirers, ‘the
Justiciary.’ What Harun-al-Rashid is in the story of Bagdad is this
ferocious monarch in the annals of Seville. Countless are the tales,
the ballads, and traditions of which he is the subject. Curiously
enough, Pedro enjoyed a certain measure of popularity in the country
he misgoverned. He was undoubtedly a vigilant protector of the humbler
classes of his subjects against the tyranny of the aristocracy, and
officials, and appears to have combined a grim humour and a strain of
what we should now call Bohemianism, with a tiger-like ferocity. He was
fond of rambling _incognito_ through the poorer quarters of the city;
and no account of Seville can be considered complete without a relation
of one of his most notable adventures in the street called Calle de la
Cabeza de Don Pedro.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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