La Giralda

As the absolute visual centerpiece of Seville Cathedral—the largest Gothic church building currently in existence—La Giralda is, in fact, an undeniable and complete Islamic relic.

If you stand in the courtyard and look up at this 104-meter-tall colossal tower, pay close attention to the weathered brickwork on its lower half. You will discover that the entire wall is covered in incredibly complex Arabian geometric grids made of intersecting rhombuses (known as “sebka” ornamentation). This is a product of an entirely different world from the ornate Catholic Renaissance structure hanging with dozens of massive bells right above it.

Truthfully, this wasn’t because the Catholics were incredibly broad-minded and wanted to preserve pagan art. When Christians conquered Seville in 1248, the defeated Moors (the Muslims of Spain) were so fiercely defiant that they actually begged to destroy this grand mosque minaret—which they were so immensely proud of—rather than let it fall into the hands of infidels. However, Prince Alfonso famously issued a brutal threat: “If a single brick falls from that tower, I will cut off the heads of every person in the city!” Thus, this breathtakingly beautiful minaret was forced to “survive” and was directly converted into a bell tower to publicly flaunt the absolute triumph of Christianity.

If you personally go to “climb” this tower, you’ll discover something bizarrely strange: there are absolutely no stairs inside. That’s right—the interior is a continuous, wide, winding ramp! Why? Because the 12th-century Sultan was simply too lazy to hike up for the call to prayer every day, so he ordered the architect to design an interior that allowed him to literally ride his horse from the ground floor all the way to the very top.

Later, a gigantic bronze weather vane symbolizing the triumph of faith was added to the pinnacle (the “Giralda,” meaning “that which turns in the wind”), giving the entire tower its name. Today, as you walk up dozens of layers of those gentle ramps once trodden by horse hooves, you can still palpably feel the historical agony of two radically different and violently opposed civilizations being forcibly cobbled together in the most brutal way possible.

? ArtBuddy’s Tip: The massive bells at the top chime loudly on a schedule throughout the entire day. When you are standing at the top, gazing out over the absolute entirety of Seville through the narrow windows originally used by the muezzin to call the city to prayer, and the bells suddenly erupt… that bone-rattling sensation that physically vibrates your heart is an experience you will literally never forget.