The Cathedral in Sevilla

Our first night here, we were just ending our siesta around 5 pm when we heard a great cacophony of bells outside.  David has long admired the "one minute vacations" section of the site quietamerican.com which contains short audio recordings of the ambient sounds of foreign places.  (Check it out for yourself!  http://quietamerican.org/vacation.html)

In that spirit, David grabbed the best audio recording equipment he had available (his phone), ran to the window, and recorded this....



These turn out to be the bells from the bell tower of the Cathedral 6 or 8 blocks from our flat.  (The image for the recording above I took later on when I found out I could go see the bells themselves!)

A few cathedral facts:

• Construction began in 1402 and ended in 1506, but the dome collapsed several times over the next few centuries and had to be rebuilt several times.
• The central nave is 137 feet tall.
• The cathedral has 80 chapels, in which 500 masses were said daily (as reported in 1896)
• It has an awesome pipe-organ (!)

We were allowed into some of the out-of-view side areas during a mass and were very excited to hear their large and beautiful pipe organ in action.  David tried to record a little with his phone for your listening pleasure.  (Again, the image is of the pipe-organ you're hearing).

We are not sure the proper name for this thing (though Maria calls it "The Grand Elaborate Wall of Sainthood" (n.b. we're unsure if it actually depicts saints)), but whatever it's called, it was certainly large and ornate!

Later on, when there was no mass happening, we wandered around the other parts of the Cathedral where there were several works of art displayed.  Signs directed us down small corridors to hidden galleries.  Where does that sign labelled "Treasure" take us?  Why, to the treasure, of course!  David believes this one may be the holy hand-grenade.

We also discovered we could climb the bell tower!  Here are a few shots of the surrounding neighborhood on our way up and from the top.