Also connected with Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov"! Visit Seville Cathedral, a World Heritage Site that is too huge! Around the World by Takahiro Ueda, Monk - Spain 30
Seville is the capital of Andalusia and the largest city in the region.
It was the largest city in Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries, and is still the fourth largest city in Spain.
Seville is famous for its bullfights and flamenco.
This is where our image of Spanishness comes from.
Cordoba to Seville is easily accessible by Spanish train renfe.
Well, of all the places in Seville, today's destination is the Seville Cathedral.
The Seville Cathedral is a cathedral whose construction began in 1402 and was completed in 1519.
It is a huge cathedral built under the slogan, "Let's build a cathedral so large that future generations will say it is insane."
Its scale is said to be the third largest in the world, following St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
And although it is not well known, here in Seville, Dostoevsky's masterpieceThe Brothers Karamazov.It is the highlight of theChapter of the Grand Inquisitor."It is the setting for the
Even though the Seville Cathedral does not clearly appear in the story, I believe that this building probably has nothing to do with "The Brothers Karamazov" since the high priest of Seville, the Grand Inquisitor, is one of the main characters in the story.
The city of Seville may have been a very important place for Dostoevsky, the 19th century Russian writer, to consider religious questions.
Depart from Cordoba station.
The car pushes through the plains of Andalusia.
An hour or so from Cordoba, the train arrives at the Sevilla Santa Justa station.
From there, take the city bus and walk 10 minutes from the stop to the cathedral.
It is as huge as the rumors say. It is overwhelmingly powerful.
It doesn't fit in the picture.
I have a cathedral rooftop tour booked for the rest of the day.
This tour is included with the cathedral admission ticket, and the cathedral staff will take you to areas that are not accessible with a regular ticket.
Meet at the entrance, which is cozy and different from the usual entrance.
Admission on time.
The moment you enter, you can't help but gasp. The interior of the cathedral is just enormous.
Suppressing my desire to see every corner now, I follow behind my guide.
The guide led us to the rooftop.
There is no elevator, so we just keep going up the stairs.
Arrive at the rooftop.
Today's high temperature was 37 degrees Celsius. On top of that, the rooftop was ridiculously hot due to the intense light of the sun.
We take shelter in the shade to rest and look around at the rooftop view.
A view that is not easily seen from under the building.
The cathedral is too huge to see every detail of the rooftop decoration.
Once indoors again.
Where is this place?
Directly behind the main altar.
It is a rare experience to look down on the main altar from the back and even from above.
Once again we go outside and look up at the Tower of Hilalda.
This concludes the rooftop tour.
After dismissal, we will tour the cathedral on our own.
Anyway, the interior of the cathedral is huge.
The robe of a high-ranking clergyman of the time was on display.
As expected of Spain's Golden Age. Quite gorgeous.
A seat was set up in front of the main altar, which I had just seen from the back.
An iron fence is provided in front of the building.
Strangely enough, churches in Andalusia often had an iron fence in front of the altar like this.
I saw many such iron fences in Granada and Cordoba.
The main altar seen through a gap in the iron fence.
I don't know how to describe the huge and elaborate gold work.
It is a uniquely structured main altar that sets it apart from the main altars of other churches.
It shows the overwhelming national power of Spain in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The main purpose of my visit to Seville was to see the tomb of Columbus.
In 1492, Columbus discovered the Americas.
Encounter between the European Christian world and the American world.
ここからキリスト教世界は一気に様変わりした。
There was such a shock there that it completely changed the way I had thought up to that point.
Article by Hieronymus BoschAs I told you, Columbus brought the unknown world from a world where everything was known under God.
The "Bible" that the Church preached was all about the world.
There is nothing you can't understand anywhere in the world.
The world is all explained and clarified under God.
To question it is blasphemy.
To question the very foundation of the world God has created is rebellion and heresy."
かつての世界はこのような考えが実際に幅を利かせていた。
In such a world, it is frightening to imagine how difficult it must have been for an individual to try to imagine and actually see how the world came to be.
There is no doubt that thinking about the origins of the world and how natural phenomena work was a very risky undertaking.
だが、そんな世界に修復不可能なほどの巨大な風穴を開けたのがまさしくコロンブスだったとも言えるのではないか。
An unknown continent, not mentioned in the Bible, was actually discovered.
Unlike the geocentric theory, the discovery of a continent that could actually be seen and touched was indeed something that the church could not ignore.
This convinced the inhabitants of the European Christian world that there are countless "unknowns" in the world.
The era of unthinking thought had come to an end, ushering in an era of free human thought and investigation.
The scientific era in which we live has exploded and accelerated from here.
それ以後の西洋社会の思考の枠組みを決定的に進路づけたコロンブスの航海は人間の歴史を考える上でも実に重要な出来事だ。（もちろん、この航海とその後の植民地支配の負の側面も忘れてはならない）
That is why I really wanted to visit the tomb of Columbus, who brought it to life.
From the train on the way back, we could see a field of sunflowers, a symbol of Andalusia.
Although the trip to Seville turned out to be a one-day bullet trip, it was a very worthwhile time to visit Columbus' tomb.
This is finally the end of the Spain section.
The next country is the United States.
We are now on our way to New York and Washington.
be unbroken
Next Article.
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