SAN BARTOLOMEW ,OLD JEWISH QUARTER,SEVILLE (Jewels of our neighborhood 8)

SAN LEANDRO SQUARE

It receives this name by the convent of Augustinian nuns that occupies the eastern side of the square, "Convent of San Leandro". The square has a triangular shape, and the Alhóndiga, Zamudio and Imperial streets lead to it, and it extends to the corner between Francisco Carrión Mejías and Cardenal Cervantes. In the center of the square there is a 19th century fountain made of marble, known since ancient times as "Pila del Pato", very popular in the city. This fountain was originally located in the Plaza de San Francisco, first on the south side and later in the center. In 1870 she was transferred to the Alameda de Hércules. In the first half of the twentieth century was in the Plaza de San Sebastián, until in 1966 was finally established in the Plaza de San Leandro.  In this reform the square, which was of terra, was paved with cobblestones and enchinado. At the same time, the magnificent Laurel de Indias that already existed was respected and the perimeter orange trees were planted, which along with the fountain are the main elements of the square.

SAN BARTOLOMEW ,OLD JEWISH QUARTER,SEVILLE (Jewels of our neighborhood 7)

SAN ESTEBAN CHURCH

This temple was built on what was an old mosque, presenting three naves with apse,. The church has on the outside with two magnificent ogival covers in stone, flared and with archivolts; The most artistic, with beautiful images on columns and under the canopy, is placed at the foot of the church, and a magnificent body of polilobulated blind arches with sebka cloth topped by a fine line of stone carved horses in the form of lion head. The other, located on the side of the epistle, where the line of diamond tips of the inner arch protrudes. The date of these covers is estimated from the beginning of the 15th century.

Three longitudinal naves of brick, the central one more wide and high than the lateral ones, separated by high pillars also of brick on which they support the pointed arches that support the wood coffered ceiling and Mudejar style of the roof. And as is usual in this type of church, the presbytery, where the main chapel is located, is deep and finished in a polygonal apse, and is covered with a stone vault divided into sections by Gothic ribs.

The tower, attached to the front of the ship of the Epistle, is the product of several restorations. Built in the late seventeenth century by Juan Gómez, suffered the effects of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, then rebuilt according to project of Pedro de Silva in 1758 and executed by his son Andrew.

It had to be reconstructed after the damages suffered by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. In its interior there are altarpieces, images and canvases of great value, both artistic, historical and cultural, attributed to important artists such as Miguel Polanco and Zurbarán.

The church is the headquarters of the Brotherhood of the Christ of Health and Good Travel, which processions to the cathedral church on Holy Tuesday. Also of the Brotherhood of the Virgin of the Light, that makes annual procession with its image in the month of September.

       

SAN BARTOLOMEW ,OLD JEWISH QUARTER,SEVILLE (Jewels of our neighborhood 6)

PILATOS SQUARE

Next to the one that was surely the layout of the Decumano Maximo of the Roman Seville and to the height of the present one, they build at the end of the XV century his palace D. Pedro Enríquez -Adelantado Mayor de Andalucía- and his wife Dª Catalina de Ribera. It is then when, in order to achieve a certain amplitude in front of him, to give him greater prominence, they buy several houses that they demolish, giving rise to a square that will be known as Plaza del Adelantado. It is known that she had houses with arcades and a fountain. At the end of the 16th century it will be called the Marqués de Tarifa square, a title granted to the son of the previous D. Fadrique Enríquez de Ribera who profoundly reformed the old palace, especially after returning from the trip made to the Holy Land between 1518 and 1520. According to the tradition, it is then when he decides to establish a Via Crucis that had its first station in the palace and the last in the humiliation of the Cross of the Field and that presented a distance similar to the existing one in Jerusalem between the Palace of Pontius Pilate and the Golgotha. Because of this, soon the palace is known as Casa de Pilatos, (its real name is Palacio de San Andrés), a denomination that will eventually take place after the end of the 18th century, after being also known as Plaza del Duque de Alcalá. title granted by Felipe II to Per Afán de Ribera, another of the descendants of the former Major Adelantado, which will later be included among those held by the Ducal House of Medinaceli, its current owner.

The palace is an interesting building that shows the first manifestations of the Italian Renaissance in Seville, especially its cover, giving rise to a group that today is an essential piece of Mudejar and plateresque Sevillians. After the reforms of Per Afán de ribera, viceroy of Naples, it also houses a good collection of Italian marbles. It also has interesting gardens inside. The square lacks a fountain today, the one it had at the end of the 19th century disappeared. It has undergone numerous reforms among which include the 1860 in which acacias are planted and is endowed with seats and gas lamps. In 1873 it is the object of the plantation of orange trees that, together with the acacias, are maintained until today. In 1977 the Plaza de Pilatos was remodeled again, installing its current paving.

The square has two spaces or different areas separated by a stretch of road that joins the streets San Esteban and Aguilas. The first of them is an enclosure of approximately triangular plant next to the building of the palace, landscaped with orange trees that in their alcorques have been recently adorned with masstero of bonetero (Euonymus japonicus) and with paving of enchinado. The other space, of greater dimensions and trapezoidal plant located on the other side, is the square itself. It is surrounded by buildings on three sides, leaving free the corresponding to the aforementioned road, which allows access to vehicles from San Esteban Street. These can surround the plaza on a cobbled road with granite, and return to join the traffic to Aguilas Street or Stables.

The gardening of this area is presided over by the monument to Zurbarán on a pedestal stone, (originally installed during the Ibero-American Exposition in the Extremadura Pavilion next to the avenue of Portugal) that presents the peculiarity of having at its base a flowerbed delimited by a small interior hedge of pitosporo and four specimens, in the corners, of lady at night (Cestrum nocturnum), which with its penetrating aroma contribute to make this place a relaxing haven in the warm Sevillian nights, only disturbed by the traffic of the street San Esteban This formula of the bed was frequent in many places of the XIX and that were organized around a central monument, being today only here and in the Museum (both reformed). The vegetation is completed with three palm trees (Phoenix canariensis) in raised circular basins and on which gracefully jasmine white climbing (Jasminum officinale). It is curious its triangular arrangement around the monument, instead of the usual square.



With the last reform of the square, which endowed it with isolated foundry banks - instead of the old stone ones - black acacias (Gleditsia triacanthos var. Inermis) have been planted in the perimeter, which have replaced the previous ones with thorns. The paving combines square stone pieces of Sierra Elvira, with small enchinados, also square, that form a checkerboard with the previous ones and coming, for the most part, from the aforementioned reform carried out by the municipal architect Amalio Saldaña.

SAN BARTOLOMEW ,OLD JEWISH QUARTER,SEVILLE (Jewels of our neighborhood 5)

Mercedarias Square



This square is located in the heart of the old Sevillian Aljama, surrounded by
rehabilitated buildings that let glimpse among their now modern traces the traces of
a noble past, and guarded by two convents,the Mercedarias and the Salesas,
which multiply even more if possible the calm and silent air that prevails in the 
neighborhood (who knows if it remained silent forever after the terrible events that 
in 1391 (they ended the lives of most of its inhabitants ...)

Taking a quick look at the history of the place, it was originally in
the shade of the church that gave its name to the collation, San Bartolomé el
Viejo; but transfer of the tempo to its current location motivated that in the
vacant lot The Marquises of Villanueva del Fresno established their houses,
which in turn they gave way at the end of the 19th century to the Salesas so
that they could be secluded after the magnificent façade of exposed brick that
since then closes its rooms convent. Miracle, because at the dawn of the Civil
War a fire was about to finish the building, which were barely saved some
equipment.

The same thing happened with San José de las Mercedarias Descalzas, which gives its name to the
square at the same time as finishes on the opposite side; this convent, more antiquity
(dating from 1625) and greater artistic wealth, suffered even more the ravages Arsonists
of the fratricidal war, barely saving the church and the cloister of flames
that that July 18 consumed almost all their assets, which forced the religious
community moved to the convent of Santa Inés, from where they returned later to
found in one of the dependencies that had been ruined after the fire the
College of the Mercedarias, in 1966.

In the square there is an old forge cruise on a white marble column that presides 
over the environment.


This type of milestones abounded in the city until relatively recently, that the same was used 
to mark the limits of the collations, that to indicate the presence of an intramural cemetery as 
to simply give a touch of "spiritual" attention to walkers.

SAN BARTOLOMEW ,OLD JEWISH QUARTER,SEVILLE (Jewels of our neighborhood 4)

CHURCH OF SAN BARTOLOMÉ


It is considered that the original church of San Bartolomé, known as San Bartolomé, El Viejo, was located in the place now occupied by the Salesian convent of the Visitation, in the Plaza de las Mercedarias, (former palace of the Marquis of Villanueva del Fresno) , coexisting in time with the Jewish synagogue. With the beginning of the expulsion of the Jews, the church moves to the synagogue, in which the appropriate works of adaptation to its new use are carried out. In 1779, the old synagogue was demolished, due to the state of ruin that the property presented. A new temple was built between 1780 and 1796, according to plans by José Echamorro or Antonio Matías de Figueroa (controversy exists at this point), which was consecrated between 1,800 and 1,806. This exterior of the temple is very simple, and it highlights the main portal and the tower, both located on the wall of the Gospel. They respond to the classicist models of the late eighteenth century, with the use of Tuscan pilasters. On the square body of the tower there is a body of bells with alternating columns and pilasters, lacking in auction, something rare among the towers of the city.

SAN BARTOLOMEW ,OLD JEWISH QUARTER,SEVILLE (Jewels of our neighborhood 3)

PALACIO DE MARCHENILA
Located in the neighborhood of San Bartolomé, the house that occupies number 18 of the Conde de Ibarra street in Seville, is a clear example of Sevillian noble architecture, which evolved from the late medieval to the baroque, from nineteenth-century tastes to adaptation for administrative use with current criteria. The street where the house is located, today Conde de Ibarra, was named in the XV century of Toqueros, because it was installed in it by textile craftsmen who made toques.

Supported its facade on the old Jewish wall, the structure of the house recalls the typical Roman and Muslim houses, where the courtyards and gardens take center stage and symbolically lead us to Roman Olympus, Christian Eden and Muslim paradise. These open spaces have lasted over time adapting to new needs. The first documented references to his occupation lead us to the seizure of the assets of the Jewish religious minority expelled from the neighborhood of San Bartolomé and of his donation, by Enrique III, to the justice of the land Diego López de Zúñiga, who was also the owner of the neighbor Palace of Altamira.

In the second half of the 15th century it was again donated to the bachelor Fernando Díaz de Córdova, whose children would sell it in 1483 to Pedro Manuel de Lando, illegitimate son of a Sevillian family of nobility, councilor of the town council since 1474, who was benefited by the Catholic Kings for their frequent and loyal support for the crown. In 1502 it passed into the hands of the Alcocer family, contractors transporting goods and slaves to the Indies. Descendants of the latter occupied the house during the sixteenth and seventh centuries and will be in the last decades of the eighteenth century when it falls on the family of hidalgos of Santa Marina.

In the last third of the eighteenth century we saw the semi-ruinous state in which the house was located, so the municipal council urges its rehabilitation or forced sale to anyone who can carry out its reconstruction. The situation causes its sale by auction, being acquired by Don Francisco Keyser, a Ghent flamenco merchant based in Seville.

From this moment, the house takes on special splendor, endowing itself with the physiognomy that we recognize today, even modifying part of its exterior by settling one of its façade angles to remedy its narrowness, facilitating the passage of carriages. Likewise, the Flemish merchant tried to make his back - with access to the street that is still called Levíes and in which there was an alley that was always cause for complaint to favor the shelter of homeless and thugs - was part of the housing, at the same time that it allowed the private access of carriages, for which it urged in several occasions to the Cabildo in order to propose the new use always receiving the refusal of this one. This period of modifications ends with the century when the Keyser family lost the property due to a judicial embargo attributed to the efforts made by a partner of the merchant with whom he had contracted a large debt.

Throughout the nineteenth century sales and temporary transfers with their consequent changes of residents, until in 1854 the house is purchased by the Romero family, military high-ranking participants in the wars of independence and emancipation of the Spanish colonies .

The widow of the distinguished military man will bequeath to his grandchildren, being, among them, Cecilia who would maintain the property until the beginning of the 20th century, transferring it to her children, who will live there until 1934.

From 1937 the house was used as a free Catholic school, a residence for noble families and, from 1940 onwards, a printing workshop for a businessman from A Coruña. Subsequently it would be the property and commercial headquarters of Miguel Ybarra Pharmaceutical Industries, who was mayor of the city between 1940 and 1943. Small bourgeois representative of an emerging self-sufficient industry that would install in the house its laboratory and warehouse until, at the end of the years Sixty, the company will disappear.

Once again, the inheritance and the distribution led this farm to change owners, remaining in 1969 in the hands of the Discalced Carmelites of San José de Dos Hermanas, being mortgaged by them as an economic resource in 1977.

The farm, as it will happen in many of the surrounding manor houses, suffers from that moment the consequences of abandonment and degradation, being practically in a ruinous state. During this period is acquired by a real estate group that aims to unify several properties to convert them into garages and homes -in which we are concerned was built part of a basement in the rear area- without the management came to occur. P.G.O.U. of Seville in 1985 declared it as a palace, suggesting expropriation to avoid deterioration.

Of the building we can emphasize in the first place its facade, divided in three bodies and where the restoration has been more intense integrating the remains found, of classic drawings and avitoladas lines. The apilastrado of the same and part of his rejería shows us its richest aspect. The ground floor, the main door, centered, of great size crowned with blazon, that gives access to the vestibule. The second body is structured with large windows and balcony with tejaroz. The last floor has a series of windows with a gable roof, possibly destined for storage.

SAN BARTOLOMEW ,OLD JEWISH QUARTER,SEVILLE (Jewels of our neighborhood 2)

CASA PILATOS

In 1520, Don Fadrique Enríquez de Rivera, the first Marquis of Tarifa, returned from a two year long trip through Europe to the Holy Land.

His encounters with the marvelous Renaissance architecture in cities like Rome, Venice and Florence made such an impression on him that he decided to drastically alter his residence and turn it into a Renaissance style palace. His palace became a showcase for Renaissance architecture and his ideas had a large impact on the architectural scene in Seville.

Intriguingly, the royal palace of the Dukes of Medinaceli is commonly known as the House of Pilate. The name can be traced back to the first Marquis of Tarifa, who, on his trip to Jerusalem discovered that the distance from his house to a small temple at Cruz del Campo was exactly the same as the distance between the former house of Pontius Pilate and the Golgotha (the biblical name of the place where Jesus was crucified).

Back at home, the Marquis created a Way of the Cross with twelve stops along the path to the temple. Hence people started to identify the palace with the House of Pilate and over time it became referred to as such. Several rooms of the palace also have been given names referring to Pontius Pilate such as the Praetor's Room and the Praetor's Study.

The most famous part of the palace is the central courtyard, known as the Patio Principal. Construction of the courtyard started in the late fifteenth century.

Its current appearance dates back to the sixteenth century, after Don Fadrique's trip through Europe. Influenced by the Renaissance architecture he had seen on his trip to Italy, he transformed the courtyard by creating balconies, adding classical columns and placing a marble Genoan fountain at its center. The four impressive Roman and Greek statues in each corner of the Patio Principal were added in 1539. Around the same time busts were places in niches all around the courtyard. The intricate decorations on the walls are Mudejar in style while the balconies have beautiful Gothic balustrades.

The palace has two garden, simply known as large and small garden. The large garden, originally an orchard, is lined with Italianesque loggias. Inside the loggias are niches with classical statues. You can also find a small grotto in a corner of the garden.
The small garden has a pond with a fountain depicting a young Bacchus.

The interior is splendid with detailed Mudejar decorations on the walls throughout. Some of the rooms, such as the Praetor's Room and Praetor's Study have elaborately decorated coffered ceilings.

A staircase, considered one of the most magnificent in all of Seville, connects the ground floor with the upper floor where you can find several furnitured rooms with pieces from the art collection of the Medinaceli. The upper floor however can only be visited on a guided tour.