On my first entry into Sevilla I was uninformed about
Sevilla, its history and its origins. I
was just a newly arrived American Navyman on his first trip to a foreign
country, so I took little note of some the monumental churches along calle San
Luís, some of whose foundations date to almost a millennium ago.
Plaque on the church of Santa Marina denoting the route
of Mudéjar churches in Sevilla. The
Islamic Art in the Mediterranean subtitle is a Freudian slip. Although Sevilla is a city much closer to the
Atlantic Ocean than to the Mediterranean, the weather is influened by both
bodies of water. The climate is very
Mediterranean and hot in summer, but in winter the Atlantic influence takes
over and Sevilla can be quite chilly.
But, there is no doubt that visitors to Sevilla can easily believe they
are in a Mediterranean city.
The next church along the calle San Luís is the church of
Santa Marina, which was one of the first parishes established in this populous
district after the Reconquest of Sevilla in 1248 by Fernando III. It is one of the oldest Gothic-Mudéjar
churches in the city, dating its construction to 1262 under the reign of Fernando’s
son Alfonso X el Sabio. Though there is
some polemic about this; it is claimed by many scholars not to have been built
on the site of mosque even though there was supposedly a mosque built here in
the 10th century.
Looking at tower, the uninitiated visitor could easily
assume that Santa Marina, like several other churches in Sevilla was
built over a mosque, since the tower is of Mudéjar
construction and could easily be mistaken for the minaret of a long-disappeared
mosque. However, it was not unusual for
Moorish craftsmen working under Christian rule—Mudejares—to build structures
that spoke of Islam, not unusual since even their Christian conquerors had long
been used to seeing Islamic architecture and not only that, many of them had an
appreciation for the aesthetics of such buildings. Thus it was natural for them to retain such
structures as La Giralda, the minaret tower of Sevilla’s main mosque. It was functional, attractive and it cost
much, much less to leave standing that it did to build a towering new
structure.
Built with bricks, favored by Mudéjar builders, the square
tower of Santa Marina could easily be mistaken for an minaret, especially since arched openings adorn the façade and crenelated top typical of the Moorish Almohade style tops the bell tower.
In the case of Santa Marina, not only was the tower built in
the early 14th century in the Mudéjar style resembling a minaret, the
church and tower were was destroyed by a powerful earthquake and rebuilt in the
same style in the mid-to-later 14th century under Pedro I (the
Cruel), who ordered numerous structures around Spain built by Mudéjar builders and craftsmen, including the Palace in the Alcázar
and the exquisite Mudéjar palace in Tordesillas that he built for his favorite
Maria de Padilla and has since become incorporated into the Convento de Santa
Clara.
Convento de Santa Clara, Tordesillas, built as a palace by Pedro I de Castilla (Pedro the Cruel). 
Interior of the Convento de Santa Clara, Tordesillas, built as a palace by Pedro I de Castilla (Pedro the Cruel).
Azulejos, tiles in the interior of the Convento de Santa Clara, Tordesillas, built as a palace by Pedro I de Castilla (Pedro the Cruel).
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