Walking through the side streets and alleyways close to the Hotel Las Casas de la Judería in Seville (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Patrick Comerford
I am booked on a three-hour walking tour of Seville, the capital of Andalucía in southern Spain, this morning [Wednesday]. This tour promises to be an opportunity to learn about the city’s Islamic past, Christian roots and Jewish legacy.
The tour begins at the main door of the Archivo de Indias on the Avenida de la Constitucion, and includes the Royal Alcazar, once the seat of many dynasties and home to three palaces, with its royal chambers, centenary gardens and chapels.
We are also visiting the bell tower La Giralda and ending the walking tour at the Door of Forgiveness of the majestic Catedral de Sevilla, the world’s largest Gothic church and the third largest cathedral in the world. The cathedral is built on the remains of a mosque, and has a history stretching back 900 years.
On the same square as the Cathedral and the Giralda stands the Convento de la Encarnación (the Convent of the Incarnation), another major religious site in Seville. It was built in the 14th century in the Mudejar style and its façade has been preserved, along with its chapel and tower.
It was here that Doña Josefa Eugenia Maria Francisca Comerford MacCrohon de Sales (‘Josefina’ de Comerford) (1794-1865), the femme fatale in my family history, as forced to live an enclosed life for six years after her death sentence was commuted in 1827 to spending her life in an enclosed convent.
An ultra-royalist rebel in the 1820s, the Regency had bestowed on Josefina the title of Condesa de Sales or Countess de Sales, a distinction later confirmed by King Fernando VII.
I also hope to visit the Corral del Conde, once a large mansion on Calle Santiago and now an apartment block. It was here Josefina was allowed to live a secluded, almost hidden life after she left the convent in 1833.
Seville was founded as the Roman city of Hispalis. It was later known in Arabic as Ishbiliyya after the Muslim conquest in 712. During the Muslim rule in Spain, Seville came under the jurisdiction of the Caliphate of Córdoba before becoming the independent Taifa of Seville.
Later, Seville was ruled by the Muslim Almoravids and the Almohads until finally being incorporated into the Christian Kingdom of Castile under Ferdinand III in 1248.
After the discovery of the Americas, Seville became one of the economic centres of the Spanish Empire as its port monopolised the trans-oceanic trade and the Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) wielded its power, opening a Golden Age of arts and literature.
In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan left from Seville for the first circumnavigation of the Earth. The 17th century saw a flowering of culture in Seville, but it was followed by gradual decline as silting in the Guadalquivir forced trade and commerce to move to the nearby port of Cádiz.
Tomorrow morning (Thursday), I plan to catch an early bus through Los Alcornocales Natural Park to the port of Tarifa, where Josefina lived for a few years during her early childhood. There I hope to take a ferry across the narrow Straits of Gibraltar, between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, to Tangier in north Morocco.
Stay with me for these few days as I explore these areas that link Spain’s Jewish, Muslim and Christian heritage, where Europe meets Africa, where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic.
I am staying in the Hotel Las Casas de la Judería de Sevilla, in the heart of the Jewish Quarter of Old Seville (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
24 October 2018
A few days in Seville
as I enjoy travelling on
my new Irish passport
I am staying in the Hotel Las Casas de la Judería de Sevilla, in the heart of the old Jewish quarter of Seville (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Patrick Comerford
I will arise and go now,
and go to Inisfree,
And a small cabin build there
of clay and wattles made
I arose early this morning and caught a Ryanair flight from Dublin to Seville, and I am here for the next few days on a city break, having arrived late this afternoon [23 October 2018].
I am staying in the Hotel Las Casas de la Judería de Sevilla, an unusual hotel complex made up of 27 traditional houses, where the 134 different rooms are linked through 40 patios, courtyards, gardens and a labyrinth of small passageways, balconies and Roman-style tunnels.
The hotel takes its name from its location in the heart of the old Jewish quarter of Seville, just minutes away from the main landmarks in the city.
Houses continue to be added to this intriguing hotel, and it is a pleasure and a surprise to be lost by the fountains, in the vegetation of the courtyards as I wander through this maze.
This interesting location is an invitation to spend time over the next few days exploring the Jewish quarter on my doorstep, and to get lost in the labyrinth of alleys in this area.
This is my sixth passport and just my third time to travel with my new Irish passport issued in August. The features on this newly-designed passport include those opening lines from ‘The Lake Isle of Inisfree’ by William Butler Yeats, as well as excerpts from poems in Irish by Nuala Ní Dhommhnaill and in Ulster Scots, as well as the score of the National Anthem.
The new passport includes images of Irish landmarks and Irish scenery, including Croagh Patrick in Co Mayo, Kylemore Abbey, Co Galway, the Convention Centre in Dublin, the Samuel Beckett Bridge, the Rock of Cashel, Co Tipperary, the Cliffs of Moher in Co Clare, the Aviva Stadium at Lansdowne Road and Croke Park, as well depictions of Irish music and dance, Irish wildlife the Tara Brooch, the Book of Kells and Gaelic games – including the Sam Maguire Cup for football and the Liam McCarthy Cup for hurling – and horse racing.
The passport also quotes the words: ‘It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish nation.’
One nine-year-old born in Dublin has found in recent days that this does not apply to him, and faces deportation China, and perhaps 3,000 to 5,000 vulnerable children, who are undocumented or whose birth does not give them automatic Irish citizenship, may be facing the threat of deportation.
I am thinking of their vulnerability and yet cherishing my own freedom to travel as I invite you to join me over these next few days as I travel freely through southern Spain and hopefully into Morocco in north Africa later this week and to share my experiences with me.
My new Irish passport quotes a birthright that not every person born in Ireland seems to be able to claim (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Patrick Comerford
I will arise and go now,
and go to Inisfree,
And a small cabin build there
of clay and wattles made
I arose early this morning and caught a Ryanair flight from Dublin to Seville, and I am here for the next few days on a city break, having arrived late this afternoon [23 October 2018].
I am staying in the Hotel Las Casas de la Judería de Sevilla, an unusual hotel complex made up of 27 traditional houses, where the 134 different rooms are linked through 40 patios, courtyards, gardens and a labyrinth of small passageways, balconies and Roman-style tunnels.
The hotel takes its name from its location in the heart of the old Jewish quarter of Seville, just minutes away from the main landmarks in the city.
Houses continue to be added to this intriguing hotel, and it is a pleasure and a surprise to be lost by the fountains, in the vegetation of the courtyards as I wander through this maze.
This interesting location is an invitation to spend time over the next few days exploring the Jewish quarter on my doorstep, and to get lost in the labyrinth of alleys in this area.
This is my sixth passport and just my third time to travel with my new Irish passport issued in August. The features on this newly-designed passport include those opening lines from ‘The Lake Isle of Inisfree’ by William Butler Yeats, as well as excerpts from poems in Irish by Nuala Ní Dhommhnaill and in Ulster Scots, as well as the score of the National Anthem.
The new passport includes images of Irish landmarks and Irish scenery, including Croagh Patrick in Co Mayo, Kylemore Abbey, Co Galway, the Convention Centre in Dublin, the Samuel Beckett Bridge, the Rock of Cashel, Co Tipperary, the Cliffs of Moher in Co Clare, the Aviva Stadium at Lansdowne Road and Croke Park, as well depictions of Irish music and dance, Irish wildlife the Tara Brooch, the Book of Kells and Gaelic games – including the Sam Maguire Cup for football and the Liam McCarthy Cup for hurling – and horse racing.
The passport also quotes the words: ‘It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish nation.’
One nine-year-old born in Dublin has found in recent days that this does not apply to him, and faces deportation China, and perhaps 3,000 to 5,000 vulnerable children, who are undocumented or whose birth does not give them automatic Irish citizenship, may be facing the threat of deportation.
I am thinking of their vulnerability and yet cherishing my own freedom to travel as I invite you to join me over these next few days as I travel freely through southern Spain and hopefully into Morocco in north Africa later this week and to share my experiences with me.
My new Irish passport quotes a birthright that not every person born in Ireland seems to be able to claim (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
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