10/7-20/7/2016: Seville and Cordoba part 1

Part 1 : Seville

It was cool and comfortable at the early morning. Less than 10 minutes walking from hotel, we reached our first attraction sight.

Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza，

is a 12,000 capacity bullring in Seville. It was started to construct in 1749.

It is the site of one of the most well-known bullfighting festivals ( Seville Fair) in the world.

Torre de Oro

another name: Tower of Gold, The name of the tower comes from the sunshine projected it on the river due to its building materials. The tower was constructed in first of the 13th century. It is a military watchtower in Seville and it also used to control access to Seville via the Guadalquivir river. During the middle ages, the tower served as a prison.

Jardines del Cristina

Jardine means garden.

Palacio de San Telmo,

is the seat of the presidency of the Andalusian Autonomous Government.

The building was started to construct in 1682. It was originally constructed as the seat of the Seminary school of the University of Navigators for orphan children of sailors.

———————————————————————————————————————

Some information about Spain

The political division of Spain can be divided into three levels of territorial organization: municipalities, provinces and autonomous communities. In Spain, an autonomous community, first level (highest) of territorial organization in Spain. Spain has 17 autonomous communities.It started implemented after the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The provinces are the second-level territorial and administrative divisions of Spain. The municipalities of Spain are the lowest level of territorial organization in Spain.

Andalusia (capital: Seville）， highest population
Aragon
Asturias
Balearic Islands
Basque Country （Highest GDP）
Canary Islands
Cantabria
Castile and Leon
Castile la Mancha
Catalonia (capital: Barcelona）
Community of Madrid ( capital: Madrid. Madrid also is the capital of Spain）
Extremadura （lowest GDP）
Galicia (Capital: Santiago de compostela）
La Rioja， ( lowest population)
Navarre
Region of Murcia
Valencian Community (capital: Valencia）

In this trip, I went to three capitals of autonomous communities: Barcelona, Seville and Santiago de Compostela. Among these three capitals, i think santiago is the poorest autonomous community compared with Seville and Barcelona. No doubt, the richest community is Barcelona.
————————————————————————————————————————

Maria Luisa Park

is a public park that stretches along the Guadalquivir River in Seville.

The park serves as a botanical garden and many green parrots and ducks can find in here.

Plaza de Espana

It is a plaza in the Parque de Maria Luisa. It was built in 1928 for the Ibero- American Exposition of 1929. The building architecture is a mixing elements of Renaissance Revival and Moorish Revival.

The main entrance to Plaza de Espana and park

It can find several stalls at here. The stalls sell some products related to water like water gun.

Here also can find horse carriage tour.

Casino de la Exposicion

Universidad de Sevilla

The main building of the University of Seville is known as the " old Tobacco Factory".

Seville's Tobacco factory was the largest industrial building in the world in 18th century.

It also the first of Europe's tobacco factory. In 1950, the tobacco operations move to the Los Remedios neighborhood and the building was use as the headquarters of the University of Seville.

The old town of Seville is the third largest in Europe and it has three UNESCO world heritage site: the Alcazar palace complex, the Cathedral and the General archive of the Indies.

The Archivo General de Indias, housed the extremely valuable archival documents illustrating the history of the Spanish Empire in the Americans and the Philippines. The design of the building was an example of Spanish Renaissance architecture. It housed 43,000 volumes and 80 million pages of the colonial administration.
The Alcazar of Seville， is a royal palace in Seville, developed by Moorish Muslim Kings. The place is renowned and now is one of the most beautiful palace in Spain. It is the olderst royal palace still in use in Europe.
La Plaza del Triunfo de Sevilla, the square is irregularly shaped, from the north adjacent of the Cathedral to the east of the old Provincial Council and continue towards to the south west of the Archive of the Indies.
The Cathedral of Saint Mary, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Seville. This cathedral is the largest Gothic cathedral and the third largest church in the world.The largest church is St Peter's Basilica at Vatican city, rome and the second largest church is Basilica of our lady of Aparecida at Aparecida, Brazil.Seville catheral was built using a former mosque which stood on the site and it contains 80 individual chapes along with the tomb of Christopher Columbus.
Casa de la Provincia
La Giralda, the bell tower of the Seville Cathedral. It was built as a minaret during the Moorish period. The Renaissance style top was added by Spaniards.

The streets in the old town Seville

I noticed here has two Starbucks, one is near the University and another is near the Cathedral. Besides, it has free walking tour for old town every morning. But I did not join. The University area has many cafes and the price is quick reasonable.