Sevilla's cathedral was conceived in 1402 with the idea that this building would be so magnificient that posterity would believe that the builders were mad...indeed, it is of humongous proportions: it is the largest Gothic church in the world...

 There are treasures of amazing values in the Cathedral Sacristy: for example, the keys presented to Fernando King of Spain by Moorish communities on the surrender of the city. In one of the keys, there is an Arabic script sculpted in the metal: May Allah render eternal the dominion of Islam in this city...

 And what about this silver monstrance (ostensorio in spanish) made of silver? which is carried out of the Cathedral on certain days...Looking at all this wealth, we could not forget that gold and silver came from America and that thousands of Indians died in the process of this Spanish conquest of THEIR land and riches...there was no mention of that anywhere, of course.

 A very popular site in the catheral is the monument to Christopher Columbus: The coffin is held aloft by 4 huge allegorical figures representing the kingdoms of Leon, Castile, Aragon and Navarra.

Originally, the remains of Colomb were interred in the cathedral of Havanna.  When Cuba declared its independence in 1902, Spain insisted for the remains of the mariner to be transferred to Sevilla.  In 2002, researchers from the university of Granada carried out DNA tests in order to verify the authenticity of the remains..the tests proved inconclusive.  Nevertheless, this sepulchre is of great beauty...

After the visit of this imposing monument, we went on to the Giralda, the most significant building in Sevilla.

The Giralda towr was first a mosque's minaret and the artistic pinnacle of Almohad architecture. It served as model for other minaret towers in the islamic world as in Rabat and Marrakech.

Used as a minaret as well as an observatory, the tower's 35 gently inclined ramps enabled the muezzin to ride, on his horse, to the top of the tower.... We did not have a horse..so guess what! we walked.  We were lucky with the exterior temperature being around 20C...with 40C plus, it would not be an easy climb...

 When the Christian reconquered the city, the Moors expressed the wish to destroy their wonderful minaret: the then King warned them that if they removed on stone of the tower, they would all be put to sword...and so, the moorish tower became the bell tower of a Christian cathedral...

Both the Cathedral and the Giralda are UNESCO monuments...http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/383/