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April 1, 2013

Sevilla’s moorish & medieval palace

Posted by Jennifer under history, Spain
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Even though Semana Santa and Easter are behind us, I think we’ll stay in Sevilla for a couple more days.

Going back to our Glimpses of the World book, here’s a late-nineteenth-century interior photo of the Real Alcázar … which is remarkable because the rooms are shown furnished.

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The book’s caption for this photo says: “The Alcázar (a name derived from Al Kasr, the “house of Caesar”) is a Moorish palace, begun when Arabian Caliphs ruled in Spain in 1181. It was, however, largely rebuilt by the [fourteenth-century] Christian sovereign, Pedro the Cruel. The room portrayed in this illustration is the boudoir of Maria de Padilla, the beautiful lady whom Pedro loved and secretly married. … The Alcázar of Sevilla is in some respects more beautiful than the Alhambra. At all events its Moorish ornamentation has suffered less from the ravages of Time and Man. Its exquisite tile-work and the stucco tapestry of its walls are like mantles of finely woven lace. Behind this palace are lovely gardens, laid out by Charles V, and abounding in myrtle hedges and orange groves, bright with their glistening leaves and fruit of gold. The windows of this apartment command a view of those gardens, and no doubt the beautiful Maria de Padilla has often looked out upon their charming terraces and breathed their perfume-laden air.”

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If you were to tour the Real Alcázar today, you could wander through gorgeous — but empty — rooms, and lovely courtyards and gardens.

Here are a few glimpses of the elaborately beautiful walls and doorways in the Real Alcázar, which I took in 2010:

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March 31, 2013

Happy Easter

Posted by Jennifer under Spain
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If you’re still following along with my trip back to Spain for Holy Week, here is a lovely (about half-an-hour-long) video of a portion of the Easter Sunday “Resurrection” procession in Sevilla. Each procession has two pasos: one that depicts a particular point in the Holy Week story, and one that features an elaborately dressed Virgin Mary. The pasos, many of them hundreds of years old, are carried along their route by a multitude of men who are underneath the paso. The points in the videos you may’ve watched from Friday’s post and in this one, where the paso stops, is when those men have a bit of a break. Then you can sometimes hear the bang of a doorknocker-type contraption that is the signal for the men to hoist the paso back up and begin its “dance” down the street. All of this is unbelievably impressive in person, especially given their size and apparent weight, but you can get a feel for it from these various videos.

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When I followed this particular procession on Easter Sunday 2011, the candles on the Virgin’s paso had burned way down and were dripping wax rather alarmingly by the third time I saw her, in the early afternoon. And I think people on balconies along the route must toss rose petals onto the fabric of the canopy as she passes by, because by that third time I saw her, petals came floating down every time the paso was hoisted back up.

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Again, if the embedded video won’t play, click here to watch it on YouTube.

 

March 30, 2013

inside a Spanish church

Posted by Jennifer under Spain
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Today, I wanted to share with you what is probably my favorite of the photos I took when I was in Sevilla for Semana Santa in 2011:

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And, then, the interior of the same church … I took these photos in 2010:

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March 29, 2013

remembering Semana Santa

Posted by Jennifer under Spain
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(I’m going off topic for the next couple of days. If Spain’s Holy Week celebrations aren’t something that interests you, please check back in on Monday!)

We’re nearing the end of Holy Week, and I’ve been reminiscing about Semana Santa. Having studied medieval history (which is, in many respects, the history of religion) in college, and with my affinity for Spain, and with my parents having lived there for a couple of years … I’d known about and heard stories of the various Semana Santa (Holy Week) processions for quite a long time. And even though I’m not Catholic, I really, really wanted to see the spectacle in person.

Two years ago, I finally made it to Sevilla at the right time to be able to see some of them for myself. And, of course (as it always seems to do when I’m in Sevilla), it rained. So much so, in fact, that most of the processions were cancelled. If you’ve been reading the blog for a while and remember back to the week before Easter in 2011, you’ll know that I did catch a bit of one procession that managed to go out between rainstorms on Saturday. And then I was lucky enough to see the glorious Easter Sunday procession several times … basically following it around town as it wound slowly from its home church, to the cathedral, and back again. Each of these processions, I’ve been told, typically lasts about ten hours.

None of the many stories I’d heard about Semana Santa, though, had truly prepared me for the experience: the scent of incense, the massive crowds, the eerie music, and the huge, elaborate pasos.

If you’d like to see and hear just a bit of it for yourself, here are snippets of two Good Friday processions, one from 2008 and one from 2010:

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If these embedded videos won’t play on your computer, click here and here to view them on YouTube.

 

March 18, 2013

driving in the bluegrass

Posted by Jennifer under CAA events, horses & driving, the Bluegrass
1 Comment 

I’ve realized that I haven’t posted anything in quite a while that involves actual, living horses being driven. Of course, it’s difficult to find very many, or any at all, being driven this time of year. But you and I are in luck today! Although our weather here in Lexington is horrible today, and was horrible yesterday, Friday was nice (if a bit windy and chilly) and Saturday was gorgeous. Over the weekend, the CAA hosted a program of driving lessons and Driver Proficiency evaluations at the Gayla Driving Center in nearby Georgetown. The special-guest instructors and evaluators were John Parker and Susan Townsend from England.

I made it out to Gayla for just a little while on Friday afternoon, but here are a few photos of, first, Colonel Davis (the CAA’s immediate past president) and, then, Colonel’s wife, Kathi, taking a lesson with John Parker and their morgan mare, Dixie. Then we’ll see Debbie Banfield taking a Level 3 evaluation with Susan. And in the background of all these photos: the Bluegrass in the early spring …

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Earlier today, some of the participants in the weekend program (those, especially, who came all the way from California and are staying in the area for a couple of extra days) stopped by the office to visit with John and Susan and to have a cup of tea. I’ve posted a photo of all those folks on the CAA’s Facebook page … which, coincidentally, is easier to find now: just click on the FB link in the upper right corner of this page and it will take you to our FB page, where you can see everything (but not post or comment) without having to either sign in or even have a Facebook account.

 

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