Portugal in this oratory, but the statement is not correct. Sandoval,
better informed, describes the happy event in the following
words:--“Eight days after the empress entered Seville, the emperor
entered, being greeted with the same ceremonies. He went direct to the
principal church, and from there passed to the alcazar, where the
empress awaited him, accompanied by the Duchess of Medina-Sidonia, Doña
Ana of Aragon, and the Marchioness of Cenete, wife of the Count of
Nassau, and by other great ladies; the empress and her ladies being all
most richly dressed. Afterwards the emperor arrived; they were married
that same night by the Cardinal Legate, in the great room which is
called the “half orange” (the Hall of Ambassadors), in the presence of
all the prelates and grandees assembled there. The empress appeared to
all present one of the most beautiful women in the world, as is
testified to by those who saw her, and by her portraits. The hour of
supper came, and the emperor and empress retired to their apartments;
and after midnight, the emperor wishing it thus for religious reasons,
an altar was erected in one of the apartments of the alcazar, and the
Archbishop of Toledo, who had remained for the purpose, said mass
there.”
This marriage, as M. de Latour rightly says, was the last memorable page
in the history of the alcazar; and the works completed by the emperor
are the last notable improvements made in the monument. The architects,
Louis and Gaspar de Vaga, were responsible for important works
[Illustration: PLATE XXXIII.
Borders of Arches.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--GALLERY IN THE COURT OF THE HUNDRED VIRGINS.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--THE SULTANA’S APARTMENT AND COURT OF THE VIRGINS.]
in the alcazar, the high gallery of the Court of the Damsels, and those
looking south over the gardens and over the baths of Doña Maria de
Padilla. New habitations were then erected, which shone with the art of
the Renaissance, intertwined with the Arab adornments of the style
called “plateresco.” But the emperor did not confine himself to
restoring, re-building, and to erecting fresh works in the old alcazar;
nor were the above-mentioned architects the only ones who worked, but he
also enlarged and embellished the gardens, and in that which is called
the “Lion Garden,” he had built by a certain Juan Hernandez, in the year
1540, an elegant dining hall, of singular architecture--half Italian,
half Moorish--which, without doubt, is a worthy dwelling place for a
fairy princess of the days of chivalry. This supper hall, or pavilion,
has a square plan, and measures ten steps in each frontage; a gallery of
five arches surrounds it on each side, which rest on graceful pillars of
the rarest marbles with capitals in the Moorish style. A frieze is seen,
externally made of arabesques, forming ribbons, cutting each other at
angles, and making stars; all the lower part is faced with blue tiles of
Triana, with the outlines of the designs in bold relief. Inside there is
another frieze in the “plateresque” style, cleverly perforated, and a
socle of blue tiles with a border, in which shine the arms of Castile
and the imperial eagles. In the centre rises a beautiful fountain with a
white marble basin. A facia of blue tiles, in imitation of inlaid tile
work, runs around, and between the work one can read the date of its
construction and the abbreviated name of the artificer. The dome is of a
decadent taste.
The wall which encloses these gardens to the west is decorated in the
style called “vignolesque,” with stout pilasters, and a frontispiece of
two bodies above the pond in the garden of the “Dance,” and light
arches which form a long “loggia” of beautiful effect.
The works carried out under Philip III., and Philip V., and Ferdinand
VI. are not worthy of close attention. They constructed the parts which
face the gateway of the “banderas,” containing the “apeadero” and the
“armeria.” The “apeadero” is a portico thirty-eight yards long and
fifteen wide, with two rows of marble columns in pairs. The “armeria,”
or armoury, is a spacious apartment above, destined for the object
indicated by its name. The epoch of the construction of both is
testified to by a stone set in the façade, which bears the following
inscription: “Reigning in Spain Philip III., he erected this work in the
year MDCVII.; Philip V. enlarged and repaired it, and destined it for
the royal armoury in the year MDCCXXVIII.”
Ferdinand VI. only constructed the offices above the baths of Doña Maria
de Padilla, repairing the damage caused by the terrible earthquake of
1755.
The greater part of the halls on the upper story looking on the gardens
perished in the dreadful fire of 1762; and the Government doubtless
fearing the expense which would be incurred by a regular restoration in
the original style, ordered all the roofs and ceilings destroyed by the
fire to be repaired in the “modern manner.” The unhappy result of this
order was to make the ceiling of many of the apartments much too low,
and to scrape away many of the ancient arabesques from the walls. In the
year 1805 the unhappy idea was conceived of changing the principal
entrance, and of white-washing with hideous lime the magnificent stucco
work in the Princes’ Hall, and of other ancient apartments. The
unfortunate reformation even went so far as to substitute a plaster
ceiling, which makes one shudder, for the beautiful Arab bowl-shaped
one, and
[Illustration: PLATE XXXIV.
Border of Arches.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--ENTRANCE TO THE SLEEPING SALOON OF THE MOORISH KINGS.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--DORMITORY OF THE KINGS.]
to put modern windows in the hall over the principal façade, called the
Hall of the Princes, near the Court of the Dolls; and also to spoil the
ceiling of the Hall of Ambassadors with heavy beams and supports, quite
ruining the beauty of this enamelled half-orange. One is curious to know
who it was who first tried to repair in a measure the harm done by these
so-called “restorations.” In 1833 a rational restoration of the Court of
the Dolls, and of the hall near it to the north, was begun with laudible
zeal by the Don Joaquin Cortes, professor of painting, and the
intelligent overseer, Antonio Raso, and the official, Manuel Cortes. The
real work of restoration commenced about the year 1842, thanks to the
praiseworthy efforts of Don Domingo de Alcega, administrator of the
royal patrimony, and to those who helped him in his difficult task, the
distinguished artist, Don Joaquin Dominguez Becquer, and the master
artificer, José Gutierrez y Lopez. Señor Becquer designed the Arab
cornice which to-day decorates the outer part of the edifice defining
the dome of the Hall of Ambassadors, which had been half destroyed in
1805, and he never ceased to devote his genius to the restoration, now
in part and again general, of the most precious monument of Moorish art
of the fourteenth century. During the years 1852 and 1853 the alcalde of
the royal palaces completed the work of replacing some of the stucco
ornaments in various apartments. Afterwards the vice-alcalde, Don Alonso
Nuñez de Prado, assisted by Señor Becquer, brought a complete
restoration to a successful end, which, though it may not be faultless
in the eyes of a modern critic, is still worthy of praise, considering
the period in which it was undertaken. In 1855 the administrator of the
alcazar invited the Queen, Doña Isabella II., to interest herself in the
works, with the result that he was able to cover the Court of the Dolls
with glass, and to re-build the thirty-six arches of the Court of the
Damsels.
There is no inscription in the alcazar which offers a real historical or
literary interest to the archæologist. One does not find here the
fragments of poems on the walls which in the Alhambra rest the eye and
speak to the intelligence in praising the heroic deeds of warriors and
the beauties of the sumptuous habitations. In the alcazar one reads the
Koran with its repeated salutations and some praises of Don Pedro, in
which the praises of the Mohammedan sultans have been suppressed, also
the word, Islamism; but we must draw attention to the fact that the
greater number of the inscriptions are the same as those employed in the
alcazar of Granada, repeated a thousand times, and it would be tedious
and tiresome to accompany the artistic description with the same verse,
repeated a hundred times, which is to be found in the different
apartments, and interrupted a hundred times also by others put in at the
time of the restorations. As the persons who were charged with the work
of restoring the inscriptions did not know the ancient language, they
very often placed the inscriptions upside down.
On the façade, and over the principal entrance of the alcazar, around
the twin windows, one reads the well-known verses: “Glory to our Lord
the Sultan;” “Eternal Glory for Allah, the perpetual empire for Allah;”
“Lasting happiness;” “Benediction;” “The kingdom of God, the power of
God, glory to God;” “Happiness and peace, and the glory and generosity
of perpetual felicity;” “In prosperous fortune this palace is the only
one.” The inscription, “There is no conqueror but God,” placed above and
below the wide frieze of painted porcelain, in cufic characters, in our
opinion, must be the work of an artist from Granada.
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--THE DORMITORY.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR.
FRONT OF THE SLEEPING SALOON OF THE MOORISH KINGS.]
[Illustration: ALCAZAR.
SLEEPING SALOON OF THE MOORISH KINGS.]
Then comes the vestibule, where one sees almost the same inscriptions.
The African characters are changed into cufic, or neskis. These are what
are in the frieze:
“Happiness and prosperity are the benefits of God;” and after: “Glory to
our Lord the Sultan Don Pedro, may his victories be magnificent.”
In the Court of the Damsels we find very much the same thing: “Praise to
God, on account of His benefits.”
It must be remarked that, in all the inscriptions mentioned above, the
word “Islamism” has been suppressed, which proves that the artists were
the same Arabs who, under the Christian dominion, took advantage of the
traditional formulas in effacing the religious part of the verse.
On a frieze of the same court:
“Glory to our Sultan Don Pedro, may God lend him His aid and make him
victorious,” &c., &c.
Then follow a number of inscriptions of no importance, where one sees
repeated: “Happiness, Praise, Grandeur; God is Unique, the Fulfilment of
Hopes;” and this one, more worthy of notice, “God is Unique, He does not
Beget, He was not Begotten, He has no Companion.” This inscription is
also found at Granada on the Charcoal Gateway, in cufic characters, and
it proves that it could not have been constructed under the Christian
dominion, because it is completely contrary to the religion of Christ;
and, consequently, that Don Pedro profited by the work of Yusuf as much
as was possible. Amador do los Rios, the well-known _savant_, supposes
that artists were brought from Toledo to construct this alcazar; but
this is not exact, they only did the repairs and restorations.
On one of the doors, which like all the rest in this edifice has
undergone many restorations, the most interesting legend is found: “The
Sultan our Lord, the exalted, noble Don Pedro, King of Castile and of
Leon--may God perpetuate his happiness--ordered Jalabi, his architect,
to make the doors of worked wood for this magnificent portal of
happiness; he ordered this in honour of the Ambassadors. Joy broke out
for their construction and dazzling embellishment. The chiselings are
the work of artists from Toledo, and it was done in the year of grace
1404.
“Similar to the twilight of the evening, and very similar to the light
at dawn of day, this work is dazzling on account of its brilliant
colours and the intensity of its splendours, from which abundance of
felicity flows for the happy town where the palaces were built, and
these habitations, which are for our Lord and Master, the only one who
communicates life to his splendour, the pious Sultan, who is also
severe, had it built in the town of Seville, with the aid of his
intercessor, in honour of God.”
One sees the same inscriptions repeated in the Hall of Ambassadors, and
in the room to the left one reads:
“Oh! entrance to the habitation newly dazzling and noble, Lord of
protection, of magnificence, and of virtues.”
In the Court of the Dolls, and round the entrance arch, one reads:
“There is no protection if it is not Allah, in whom I trust, for I shall
return to him.” “All that thou dost possess comes from God,” &c., &c.
And in the same court (cufic): “Oh! incomparable Master, issue of a
royal race, protect it.” “Praise God for His benefits.” “God, my
Master.”
In the sleeping apartment, called that of the Moorish kings, amongst
other known inscriptions this one is found: “Oh! illustrious new
dwelling, thy splendid happiness has progressively increased on account
of the lasting brilliancy
[Illustration: PLATE XXXV.
Ornament in Panels on the Wall.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--ROOM OF THE INFANTA.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--COLUMNS WHERE DON FADRIQUE WAS MURDERED.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXXVI.
Bands, Side of Arches.]
of the greatest beauty. Thou wert chosen for the place where the feasts
should be celebrated. He is the support and the rule for all good,
source of benefits, and food of courage! For thee....”
We left the story of Seville somewhat abruptly to deal in detail with
the alcazar. Under Almohade rule, and while the alcazar and the mosque
were in course of construction, the city knew peace, and its commerce
flourished. But the days of its security were limited; the end of the
Moslem domination in Seville was drawing to its close. The revived
prosperity of the Mohammedans spurred the Christian Spaniards to renewed
efforts to encompass the overthrow of the infidels. Pope Innocent III.
declared a crusade, and numbers of adventurous French and English
free-lances travelled to Spain in answer to the call. But in 1195 the
Christians were defeated at Alarcos, near Badajoz, and again the
ambitious projects of San Fernando were temporarily frustrated. In 1212
the Almohade army, it is said to the number of 600,000 men, was almost
destroyed on the disastrous field of Las Navas, and the work of the
expulsion of the Moors from Spain was begun. City after city was
captured by the soldiers of Fernando III., Cordova fell in 1235, and the
conqueror, with the help of the King of Granada, who had sworn
allegiance to the Christian monarch, marched against Seville.
The army brought by the holy king to Seville was the most brilliant and
numerous ever seen in Christian or Mohammedan Spain. No smaller force
would have been sufficient for the taking of a city which contained
12,000 Mussulman families divided into twenty-four tribes, and which had
been in the hands of the followers of Islam for more than five
centuries. In the spring of the year 1235 the army was moved from
Cordova and divided into two parts, one under the command of the Prince
of Molina and the Master of Santiago, which was to march to the Ajarafe;
and the other under the direction of the King of Granada and the Master
of Calatrava, which was to harass the country near Jerez. The attack on
Seville and its territories commenced immediately, and a series of
uninterrupted victories prefaced the happy termination which was to
crown the constant and generous efforts of the Christian warriors.
Seville, at this period the court and seat of the Islamite empire, was a
city calculated to defy the strategy of the most skilful generals, the
valour of the most devoted men at arms. In form it would resemble a
shield, stretching from north-east to south-west. Its head and right
side were formed by the walls with its towers, defended by a barbican
and a moat, with eight gates and a narrow side entrance. These gates
were veritable fortresses. They were defended by towers and bastions.
Their exits were narrow, and never in front; the exterior passages to
the city had angles and turnings, and very often the first turning
opened into a square armed place, with narrow doorways at both sides.
“The gates of Seville,” says Morgado, “were constructed of planks of
iron, fastened on to strong hides with steel bolts. And because it was
best defended on its west side by the river Guadalquivir, which
protected more than half the city, with the six gates in that side, it
was thought well to place the strongest walls and the best fortified
towers, with as many barbicans, and the widest and deepest moats on the
other side.”
The left side of the shield boasted the majestic curve of the river, the
arsenal, and another series of walls and gates; but at this part, there
were no moats nor false entrances, because it had the strong towers of
the Ajarafe opposite to defend it. There were four gates on this side,
not counting
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR.
GATE OF THE HALL OF SAN FERNANDO.]
[Illustration: ALCAZAR.
GALLERY OF THE HALL OF SAN FERNANDO.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--HALL IN WHICH KING SAN FERNANDO DIED.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXXVII.
Bands. Side of Arches.]
that of Bib-Ragel, which occupied the north angle of the city; and, in
addition to these, it is believed there was a small postern, afterwards
called the “atarazanas,” through which it is supposed that Axataf, or
“Sakkáf” his Moorish name, went out to receive King Ferdinand, and to
deliver up the keys of Seville. The old wharf of Saracen Seville came as
far as this; and in all the space, which to-day is called El Barrio de
los Humeros, or the Chimney Quarter, the Mohammedans had their arsenal
and shipbuilding yard, while the sailors and fishermen of the
Guadalquivir were also housed in this district. The Gate of the Triana
must have been in the vicinity; and the Gate of Hercules was directly
opposite the Ajarafe, which was also called the Garden of Hercules. With
the gardens and orchards of the Macarena, which adorned it to the north,
the plains and woods of Tablada, which supplied it with corn and wood to
the east and south, with an abundant supply of fresh water brought from
Carmona by the aqueduct, with the river which was its principal
commercial artery to the west, with the castles on the opposite side of
the Guadalquivir, protecting the river and its bridge, and occupying all
the heights from Azalfarache nearly as far as Italica, Seville was one
of the best situated, best supplied, best defended, and most prosperous
cities of the Mussulman empire in Andalusia. To attack her she must be
cut off from the Ajarafe, and her bridge of boats must be taken. It
would have been useless to descend to Italica and be exposed to the
assaults of the city and of Triana, as long as the bridge existed, and
this task was thought to be beyond the power and ingenuity of any enemy.
The bridge of boats, protected by a great wooden chain, linked by iron
rings, kept the communication open between the city and the Ajarafe,
that vast and fertile district from which the Sevillians received all
sorts of supplies, and where the Saracen magnates had their country
villas. This delightful Garden of Hercules, in whose praise many Arab
writers have exhausted the treasure of their rich and exalted
imagination, has been described in the following manner by an anonymous
poet, in some verses dedicated to the Abbadite Sultan Almutamed:
“Seville is a young widow, her husband is Abbad, her diadem the
Aljarafe, her collar the winding river.” Indeed, says the poet Ibn
Saffar, “the Aljarafe surpasses in beauty and fertility all the lands of
the world, the oil of its olives goes even to far Alexandria, its farms
and orchards are superior to those of other countries on account of
their extension and convenience; and, always white and pure, they seem
to be so many stars in a sky of olive gardens.” Travelled Arab
historians recall with pleasure the delights of Andalus; preferring
Seville to either Baghdad or Cairo, saying: “The Aljarafe is a luxuriant
wilderness without wild beasts, and its Guadalquivir is a Nile without
crocodiles.” One of the authors, quoted by El-Makkari, gives the
following exact description of the Aljarafe: “It is an immense district,
measuring forty miles long, and almost as many broad, formed of pleasing
hills of reddish earth, on which there are woods of olive and fig-trees,
which offer a delicious shade to the traveller in the hours of the
mid-day heat. This district contains a numerous population, scattered in
beautiful farms or collected in villages, none of which are wanting for
markets, clean baths, fine buildings, and other conveniences, such as
are usually only to be found in cities of the first order.”
This fertile territory, which the Saracens called the “Orchard of
Hercules,” rose gradually to the west of Seville, after stretching along
the right bank of the river.
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--ROOM OF THE PRINCE.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--VIEW OF THE GALLERY FROM THE SECOND FLOOR.]
Its heights were covered with farmhouses and hamlets, as the Arab writer
indicates, which formed, as it were, a continuous population, rich in
provisions, from which Seville usually received abundant supplies of all
necessaries. There were four principal villages: Aznalfarche (to-day,
San Juan de Alfarache), Aznalcazar, Aznalcollar, and Solucar de Albayda,
strong walled places, where the Mohammedans collected the revenues of
the district. The fringe, formed by the heights of the Aljarafe, was
given the name of “Mountain of Mercies” (Jebl arrahmah) by the
Mohammedans, on account of its extraordinary fertility, a surprising
abundance of figs, known as “Al-kuiti” and “Ash-shari,” being produced
there.
The Sevillians faced the Christian attack with boldness, bred of
confidence, and a determination to strain every nerve, and exhaust every
resource, in repelling the invaders. They were engaging upon their last
throw for the sovereignty of Andalusia. Fernando’s warships encountered
the Moorish fleet at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, and drove them from
their position, and the infidels collected their forces to make a last
stand on land. But their stubborn front was broken by the Christian
host, and the war-worn remnant of the Moorish army prepared to withstand
a siege. Even when the bridge of boats was destroyed, and all
communications with the suburb of Triana and the surrounding country was
cut off, the Moors still fought on within the city walls, and it was not
until fifteen months had elapsed that Seville was starved into
submission. On the 23rd February, 1235, Fernando entered the city, and
Abdul Hassan, rejecting the king’s invitation to become a dependent
officer of the Spanish Crown, retired with thousands of his vanquished
Almohades to Africa.
Fernando’s first act was to have the mosque purified for the
celebration of a high and imposing Mass; he took up his quarters in the
alcazar; divided the Moorish possessions among his knights, and rested
his army after their long and arduous campaign. Four years later he died
of dropsy. He was succeeded by Alfonso X., who founded the University of
Seville, devoted his leisure to the study of poetry, history, and
ancient laws, and merited the title of “El Sabio,” “the Learned.” But
although the beautiful alcazar appealed to the studious temperament of
“El Sabio,” the fortress-palace is more closely associated with his son,
Pedro I., Pedro, “the Cruel,” the most renowned of all the Christian
sovereigns who ruled Andalusia from Seville.