Giralda

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The Giralda
The illustration shows three stages of construction of the Giralda: on the left the tower in Almohad style, on the right an intermediate stage after the Reconquista, in the center today's view with the addition in the Renaissance style
Detail view

The Giralda is the former minaret of the main mosque of Seville ( Andalusia ), which after the Christian reconquest ( Reconquista of the city in 1248 first as a church) of Santa Maria la Mayor continued to be used before they demolished in the 15th century and as late Gothic cathedral new was built. The former minaret, made entirely of brick, remained, however, was partially reworked and serves as the bell tower of the Cathedral of Seville . The Giralda is still the most important landmark of the city.

Building history

After the city was conquered by the Almohads in 1147, building activity began in Seville, which the remains of the city walls, the Giralda and the Torre del Oro still bear witness to today . The minaret of the Great Mosque was built in 1196 by Abu Iussuf Iakub, Ahmed ibn-Basso and Ali al-Gomara from bricks with a height of 82 m. A Roman base and column capitals from a palace were reused as spoils .

A 32 m high tower in openwork in the Renaissance style by the architect Hernán Ruiz was completed in 1568; he has replaced the original lantern top with the four gold-plated spheres towering over it. The new tower with the bell house was made of brick and partially clad or encrusted with white and black marble.

The entire tower was painted red during the Almohad period as well as in the Renaissance era. The paint was renewed several times, and visible paint residues were still present in the 19th century.

architecture

The large Almohad minarets ( Great Mosque of Taza , Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech, Hassan Tower in Rabat - all in Morocco) all built in the second half of the 12th century actually consist of two towers - an inner one with several small rooms one above the other and a final attachment ( lantern ) and an outer one, which forms the façade. In between there is a 2.50 m wide ramp, which leads to a gallery at a height of approx. 70 m. A ramp and no stairs were built because during the construction period the building materials (stones, mortar, wood, water, etc.) were brought up with the help of horses and mules. In addition, there is the opinion - though not supported by sources - that the muezzin also rode up on a horse to call the believers to prayer or to announce important news.

Previous buildings

The most important architectural forerunner of all Almohad minarets was undoubtedly the ancient Pharos of Alexandria, which collapsed after previous structural damage and repairs in the 14th century . For the three-lane facade design of the Giralda - otherwise unknown in Almohad architecture - the minaret of the Qal'a of Beni Hammad (Algeria) was most likely of decisive influence.

Building ornamentation

The middle part of the minaret, which has the same design on all four sides, is pierced by several window openings that illuminate the interior ramps and rooms; the marble balustrades were added in the 16th century. The upper twin windows ( ajimez ) are covered by multi-pass arches and framed by rectangular frames ( alfiz ). The side panels each contain a - potentially infinite - diamond ornament, which develops from - potentially endless - overlapping arches above small columns. Unlike the Koutoubia minaret with its tile mosaic, the upper end of the tower shaft is a frieze with blind arcades.

meaning

Justa and Rufina with the Giralda in the background (around 1555)

In addition to the minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech, the Giralda is one of the monumental examples of Almohad architecture. The tower towered over all church towers in Spain and all minarets in Andalusia for a long time and thus shows the (great) claim to power of the Almohads in their heyday.

Justa and Rufina , the two patron saints of the city and the cathedral, were often depicted with the Giralda in their center, which is said to have saved them from collapsing in the event of several earthquakes.

In 1987 the ensemble consisting of the Giralda and the neighboring cathedral Maria de la Sede was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO .

The Wrigley Building in Chicago was partially modeled on the Giralda.

Giraldillo

El Giraldillo

At the top of the tower is an approximately 3.5 m high bronze statue, which, including its 4 m high base, weighs around 1,300 kg. It was created between 1566 and 1568 by Bartolomé Morel based on a model by Juan Bautista Vázquez. In 1997 the original was temporarily replaced by a slightly lighter copy for the purpose of restoration. This copy is now in front of the Puerta del Príncipe of the cathedral.

The statue, known as Giraldillo , is a female figure in a tunic, holding a palm branch in one hand and a flagpole with a cross on which a war flag flies in the other hand. It is believed that the design was inspired by statues of the goddesses Pallas Athene or Minerva. It is understood as the incarnation of the triumphant Christian faith (St. Fides, Spanish Santa Fé ) after the reconquest of Andalusia ( Reconquista ) and the expulsion of the Moors.

The name Giraldillo is derived from the Spanish word girar (turn, circle), as the statue with the weather vane turns with the wind. This is where the name Giralda is derived as a name for the entire tower.

Bells

In the Giralda there are a total of 27 bells and a large wooden ratchet.

Bell chamber

In the bell room (sala de campanas) below the tower lantern hang the 24 bells of the liturgical peal, of which 18 bells (esquilas) are in the front arcades: five bells each to the east and west and four each to the north and south. They are usually rotated around the axis of their high wooden yokes (de volteo) , sometimes only swung horizontally (medio pino) . Seven bells from the 20th century replace older bells that have been damaged.

The six remaining bells (campanas) are hung immobile and are struck with their clapper (de golpe) . To the north and south, behind the central arcade, hang the two largest bells, Santa Maria from 1588 and San Miguel from 1792. Four other bells from 1438, 1500, 1599 and 1764 are distributed over the corners of the inner gallery . Each of these four bell is of four adjacent bells in the outer arcades to a five-part choir (coro) summarized below: The choir Santa Cruz consists of the bell No. 13-17, the. Todos Santos from 7-11, the Santa Catalina from 1–5 and the Santiago from 19–23.

  • Detail of the tower from the south. Bells in the arcades: Santa Cecilia (14), San Pablo (13), San Miguel (12), San Isidoro (11) and Santa Bárbara (10). In the lantern: Campana del reloj (A).

  • Detail of the tower from the east. Bells in the arcades (from left to right): Santa Inés (8), San Juan Evangelista (7), San Pedro (6), San Laureano (5) and San José (4). In the lantern: Matraca , behind it: Campana del reloj (A).

  • Upper edge of the picture: Todos Santos (9), left: San Pedro (6), middle: San Juan Evangelista (7), right: Santa Inés (8)

  • Santa Maria Bell (24)

  • Front: Santa Catalina bell (3), behind left: San Laureano (5), right: San Pedro (6)

No. Surname Casting year Caster diameter Weight (approx.) place suspension
1 San Juan Bautista 1908 Alfredo Villanueva 122 cm 1,051 kg North rotatable
2 Santa Lucía 1998 Bell foundry Eijsbouts 78 cm 275 kg North rotatable
3 Santa Catalina 1599 anonymous 133 cm 1,362 kg Northeast immobile
4th San Jose 1998 Bell foundry Eijsbouts 83 cm 331 kg east rotatable
5 San Laureano 1962 Murua company 94 cm 481 kg east rotatable
6th San Pedro 1773 Miguel Guerrero 115 cm 881 kg east rotatable
7th San Juan Evangelista 1793 Zacarias Ditrich 110 cm 771 kg east rotatable
8th Santa Inés 1872 Juan Japón 89 cm 408 kg east rotatable
9 Todos Santos (Ominum sanctorum) 1764 José de la Riva 142 cm 1,658 kg Southeast immobile
10 Santa Bárbara 1998 Bell foundry Eijsbouts 88 cm 395 kg south rotatable
11 San Isidoro 1788 Zacarias Ditrich 107 cm 709 kg south rotatable
12 San Miguel 1792 Manuel Luís Rodríguez 183 cm 3,548 kg south immobile
13 San Pablo 1851 Francisco Japón 111 cm 792 kg south rotatable
14th Santa Cecilia 1992 Company Hijo de Manuel Rosas 62 cm 138 kg south rotatable
15th Santa Cruz, de los cuartos 1500 Francisco Fernandes 118 cm 951 kg southwest immobile
16 Santa Florentina 1763 José de la Riva 88 cm 395 kg west rotatable
17th San Sebastian 1851 Francisco Japón 87 cm 381 kg west rotatable
18th San Cristobal 1998 Bell foundry Eijsbouts 139 cm 1,555 kg west rotatable
19th San Fernando 1763 José de la Riva 118 cm 951 kg west rotatable
20th Santa Justa 1851 Francisco Japón 63 cm 145 kg west rotatable
21st Santiago 1438 Juan Aubri 132 cm 1,332 kg northwest immobile
22nd Santa Rufina 1714 Matias Solano 74 cm 235 kg North rotatable
23 San Hermenegildo 1814 Francisco Fernández 108 cm 729 kg North rotatable
24 Santa María, la Mayor, la Gorda 1588 Juan de Balabarca 210 cm 5,362 kg North immobile

Lantern

In the tower lantern above the bell house hangs the Campana de las horas del reloj (A) for the strike of the hour. It was cast by Alfonso Domínguez in 1400. Its weight is around 1,439 kg with a diameter of around 156 cm.

A special feature is the large wooden ratchet (Spanish matraca , in Seville also carracaña called), which is suspended in the southern arcade of the lantern. While the bells are silent between the Gloria on Maundy Thursday and the Gloria on Easter Vigil, the ratchet is turned like a wheel instead, with the wooden hammers striking the four wooden wings one after the other.

Others

Two bells are exhibited in the tower room: the altar bell Campana del altar mayor (0) by Cristóbal Cabrera from 1509 with a diameter of 35 cm and a weight of around 25 kg and the former bell Santa Lucía (* 2) by Antonio Márquez the year 1914 with 275 kg and a diameter of 78 cm.

Views

  • Giralda at the cathedral

  • Clear: former minaret

  • Giraldillo

  • View from the Giralda

See also

literature

  • Hermann Thiersch : Pharos. Antiquity, Islam and Occident. A contribution to the history of architecture . Teubner-Verlag, Leipzig and Berlin, 1909
  • Marianne Barrucand, Achim Bednorz: Moorish architecture in Andalusia . Taschen-Verlag, Cologne undated ISBN 3-8228-0424-X (p. 192f)
  • Baedeker travel guide: Andalusia , 2004, Karl Baedeker GmbH, Ostfildern; ISBN 3-87504-543-2 (pp. 275-276)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ La Giralda era roja. In: El País , April 5, 2018, accessed on the same day.
  2. ↑ Precise campanological information and photos
  3. ↑ The bells are numbered according to the following figure: [1]
  4. ↑ The approximate weight was calculated using the following formula: (diameter in meters) 3 x 579
  5. ↑ Information on the Matraca

Web links

Commons : Giralda  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 37 ° 23 ′ 10.1 ″  N , 5 ° 59 ′ 32.9 ″  W.