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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SCY-SHA |
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SEVILLE (Span. Sevilla, Lat. Ispalis or Hispalis, Moorish Ishbiliya) , the capital of the Spanish province of Seville, and the chief city of Andalusia, on the left bank of the river Guadalquivir, 54 M. from the Atlantic Ocean, and 355 M. by rail S.S.W. of Madrid. Pop. (1900) 148,315. Seville is an archiepiscopal see, a port with many thriving industries, and in size the fourth city in the kingdom, ranking after Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. Its history; and its treasures of art and architecture render it one of the most interesting places in Europe. It is built in a level alluvial plain, as productive as a garden. Few parts of the city are more than 3o ft. above sea-level, and owing to the frequency of floods an elaborate system of defences against the Guadalquivir and its affluents the Guadaira, Tamarguillo and Tagarete, was undertaken in 1904. This entailed the construction (spread over many years) of dykes, walls and surface drains, the raising of certain streets and railway embankments and the diversion of the lower Tagarete along a new channel leading into the Tamarguillo. The climate is pleasant at all seasons except in summer, when a shade temperature of 116 Fahr. has been recorded. Water is provided by a British company, and a smaller quantity is obtained from Carmona, but the supply is inadequate.On the right or western bank of the river is the suburb of the Triana, inhabited to a great extent by gipsies. Seville retains its Moorish appearance in the older quarters, although their narrow and tortuous alleys are lighted by electricity, and traversed, wherever they afford room, by electric tramways. In the more modern districts there are broad avenues and boulevards, the chief of which is the beautiful Paseo de los Delicias, along the river and below the city. The animated and picturesque street-life of Seville has often been painted and described, or even, as in Mozart's Figaro and Don Giovanni, Rossini
Principal Buildings.The cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria de la Sede, is the largest church in the world, after St Peter's at Rome and the Mezquita at Cordova, being 414 ft. long, 271 ft. wide and 10o ft. high to the roof of the nave. The west front is approached by a high flight of steps, and the platform on which the cathedral stands is surrounded by a hundred shafts of columns from the mosque which formerly occupied the site. The work of building began in 1402 and was finished in 1519, so that the one style of Spanish Gothic is fairly preserved throughout the interior, however much the exterior is spoiled by later additions. Unfortunately the west front remained unfinished until 1827, when the central doorway was completed in a very inferior manner; but this has been renewed in a purer style. The fine relief above it representing the Assumption was added in 1885. At the east end are two Gothic doorways with good sculpture in the tympana; and on the north side the Puerta del Perdon, as it is called, has some exquisite detail over the horse-shoe arch, and a pair of fine bronze doors. The gateway in the southern facade, designed by Casanova, dates from 1887. The interior forms a parallelogram containing a nave and four aisles with surrounding chapels, a centre dome , 121 ft. high, and at the east end a royal sepulchral chapel, which was an addition of the 16th century. The thirty-two immense clustered columns, the marble floor (1787-1795) and the seventy-four windows filled with painted glass, mostly by Flemish artists of the 16th century, produce an unsurpassed effect of magnificence. The reredos is an enormous Gothic work containing forty-four panels of gilt and coloured wood carvings begun by the Fleming Dancart in 1479 and completed by Spanish artists in 1526; the silver statue of the Virgin is by Francisco Alfaro (1596). The archbishop's throne and the choir-stalls (1475-1548) are fine pieces of carving, and amongst the notable metal-work are the railings (1519), by Sancho Nuiioz, and the lectern by Bartolome Morel of the same period. The bronze candelabrum for tenebrae, 25 ft. in height, is a splendid work by B. More (1562). In the Sacristia Alta is a silver repousse reliquary presented by Alphonso the Wise in the 13th century; and in the Sacristia Mayor, which is a good plateresque addition made in 1535 from designs by Diego de Riaiio (d. 1532), there is a magnificent collection of church plate and vestments, including the famous silver monstrance (1580-1587), I2 ft. high, byppan de Arfe (Arphe). At the west end of the nave is the grave of erdinand, the son of Columbus, and at the east end in the royal chapel (1514-1566) lies the body of St Ferdinand of Castile (1200-1252), which is exposed three times in the year. This chapel akin contains the tombs of Alphonso the Wise (1252-1284) and Pedro I. (1350-1369) and a curious life-size image of the Virgin, which was presented to St Ferdinand by St Louis of France in the 13th century. It is in carved wood with movable arms, seated on a silver throne and with hair of spun gold. The chief pictures in the cathedral are the " Guardian Angel
1 This was stolen in 1874, sold in New York
ten of them before the altar; the custom is an old one but its origin is obscure. The Sagrario (16181662) on the north of the cathedral is a Baroque
At the north-east corner of the cathedral stands the Giralda, a bell tower of Moorish origin, 295 ft. in height. The lower part of the tower, or about 185 f t., was built in the latter half of the 12th century by Yusuf I.; the upper part and the belfry, which is surmounted by a vane formed of a bronze figure 14 ft. high representing Faith, were added (1568) by Fernando Ruiz in the Renaissance style. The ascent is made by a series of inclined planes. The exterior is encrusted with delicate Moorish detail, and the tower is altogether the finest specimen of its kind in Europe. At the base lies the Court of Oranges, of which only two sides now remain; the original Moorish fountain, however, is still preserved. But the chief relic of the Arab dominion in Seville is the Alcazar, a palace comparable in interest
hall
interest
hall
1559 and enlarged in 1842; the foundling hospital (1558); the bull-ring, with room for 14,000 spectators; and fragments of the city walls, which formerly had a circumference of more than to m., with 12 gateways and 166 towers. Commerce and Industries.The port of Seville, in 370 10' N. and 6 to' W. has always been one of the chief outlets of the wealth of Spain. It is the terminus of three railways to Madrid, and of other lines to Cadiz, Almorchon, Ciudad Real, Huelva, Badajoz and Lisbon. Three of these lines have branches down to the water-side of the quays. The quay on the left bank, 4500 ft. long, is provided with powerful cranes, and sheds for merchandise. Navigation up the Guadalquivir from its mouth to Seville (where the river is still tidal) is less dangerous for steamer`s than for sailing vessels, but is nevertheless uncertain. The construction of a ship-canal 4 M. long fromthe Punta de los Remedios to the Punta del Verdetwo points between which the windings of the river render navigation especially difficultwas first proposed in 1839, and was undertaken in 1907. Dredging operations were begun at the same time, so that on completion of the canal vessels drawing 25 ft. (instead of 16 f t.) could come up to Seville. The principal exports are Manzanilla, Amontillado and other wines, oranges and lemons, iron, copper and lead ores, mercury, olives, oil, cork and wool; the imports include coal, wood, iron, manufactured goods, hemp, flax and colonial produce. There. are manufactures of machinery, tobacco, chocolate, soap, porcelain, beer, liqueurs, brandies, corks and silk. The royal artillery works and iron foundries are very important. The porcelain and earthen-ware factory in the Carthusian convent (Cartuja,' founded 1401) employs more than 2000 hands. Pottery has been the characteristic industry of the Triana from time immemorial; the patron saints of Seville, Justa and Rufina, are said by tradition to have been potters here. Equally important is the great tobacco and cigar factory, where 6000 women are employed. History.Seville appears originally to have been an Iberian town. Under the Romans the city was made the capital of Baetica in the second century B.C., and became a favourite resort for wealthy Romans. It was captured in 45 B.C. by Julius Caesar, who gave it the name of Colonia Julia Romula, and made it one of the conventus juridici. The emperors Hadrian, Trajan and Theodosius were born in the neighbourhood at Italica (now Santiponce) ,where are the remains of a considerable amphitheatre. The chief existing monument of the Romans in Seville itself is the remains of an aqueduct, on four hundred and ten arches, by which water from Alcala de Guadaira was supplied to the town. At the beginning of the 5th century the Silingian Vandals made Seville the seat of their empire, until it passed in 531 under the Visigoths, who chose Toledo for their capital. After the defeat of Don Roderick at Guadalete in 712 the Moors took possession of the city after a siege of some months. Under the Moors Seville continued to flourish. Idrisi
exile . But the position of Seville was too favourable for trade for it to fall into permanent decay, and by the 15th century it was again in a position to derive full benefit from the discovery of America. After the reign of Philip II. its prosperity gradually waned with that of the rest of the Peninsula; yet even in 1700 its silk factories gave employment to thousands of workpeople; their numbers, however, by the end of the 18th century had fallen to four hundred. In 180o an outbreak of yellow fever carried off 30,000 of the in-habitants, and in 1810 the city suffered severely from the French under Soult, who plundered to the extent of six millions sterling. Politically Seville has always had the reputation of peculiar loyalty to the throne from the time when, on the death of Ferdinand III., it was the only city which remained faithful to his son Alphonso the Wise. It was consequently much1 The interesting 15th-century tombs formerly in the Cartuja are now in the church of the university. favoured by the monarchs, and frequently a seat of the court. For its loyalty during the revolt of the Comuneros it received from Charles V. the motto Ab Hercule et Caesare nobilitas; a se ipsa fidelitas. In 1729 the treaty between England, France and Spain was signed in the city; in 18o8 the central junta was formed here and removed in 1810 to Cadiz; in 1823 the tortes brought the king with them from Madrid; and in 1848 Seville combined with Malaga and Granada against Espartero, who bombarded the city but fled on the return of Queen Maria Christina to Madrid. See P.deMadrazo,Sevilla,yCadiz(Madrid, 18841886) ; R.Contreras, Estudio de los monumentos arabes de Sevilla y Cordova (Madrid, 1885) ; J. Gestoso y Perez, Sevilla monumental y artistica (3 vols., Seville, 18891892); A. F. Calvert, Seville (London, 1907); J. Guichot y Parodi, Historia del Ayuntamiento de la ciudad de Sevilla (3 vols., Seville, 18961898) ; J. Cascales y Munoz, Sevilla intellectual (Madrid, 1896) ; W. M. Gallichan, The Story of Seville (London, 1903). S$VRES, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, on the left bank of the Seine, midway between Paris and Versailles, about 3 M. from the fortifications of the former. Pop. (1906) 7949. The town owes its celebrity to the porcelain manufactory established there in 1756 and taken over by the State three years later. In the museum connected with the works are preserved specimens of the different kinds of ware manufactured in all ages and countries and the whole series of models employed at Sevres from the beginning of the manufacture, for an account of which see CERAMICS. A technical school of ceramics is attached to the factory. End of Article: SEVILLE (Span. Sevilla, Lat. Ispalis or Hispalis, Moorish Ishbiliya) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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