The Companion Guide to the South of Spain

Alfonso Lowe
Edited by Hugh Seymour-Davies

Excerpts from this Guide

On the mihrab of the Mezquita (Great Mosque) , Córdoba:
The south wall of the second addition to the Mezquita, that of Al-Hakam II in the tenth century, contains the mihrab, the culmination of the beauty which was so lavishly bestowed on this building by the Moslem princes; while approaching it, you should note the more refined arrangements of the naves, with columns of alternate colours, each type with its own style of capital. The purpose of a mihrab is to show the kibla, or direction of Mecca, in which the worshipper has to prostrate himself during prayer. It is therefore startling to find this mihrab pointing to Timbuktu instead of Mecca.
Chapter Two, Córdoba and the Great Mosque, p. 22.

On Montañés' sculpture The Immaculate Conception in Seville's Cathedral:
The Immaculate Conception, of polychrome wood, 'is so beautiful', wrote a Spanish critic, 'that with the modesty, gravity, devotion and loveliness of her face it refreshes the souls of those who see her'. The sculptor himself, scorning false modesty, described it as one of the best things there were in Spain and the best which he had made, and it was the favourite model of his brilliant pupil Alonso Cano. The Sevillians call her La Cieguecita, 'the little blind one', from her downcast eyes; the neck has a delicacy of moulding outstanding even in this perfect work, and a peculiarity not often commented on is that she is serious when seen from the left but smiling from the right. 
Chapter Five, Seville - The Cathedral, p. 86.

On Cádiz:
The houses themselves are flat-roofed and most of them sport a small tower, on which the owner would stand in the old days to watch for the homecoming of his fleet. From these roofs the people of Cádiz listened to the thunder of the guns at Trafalgar. It was soon after this catastrophe that Cádiz faced her greatest crisis: as the naval and mercantile station on the life-line that connected Spain with her American colonies, she had to face the prospect of losing her golden monopoly. Her daughters were suddenly her sisters and she was no longer the capital of Latin America. 
Chapter 11, Jerez to Cádiz, p. 181.

On the Gardens of the Generalife, Alhambra:
The heart of the palace buildings, the Patio de la Acequia, lies between two pavilions, the first deluged with wistaria. The central pool is fed from either side with the feathery spray of a score of fountains that lean lazily inwards, the cypress hedges form arches, and the paths run between the beds of roses; on the outer path, the seats and the stupendous view invite rest and contemplation. […] The scale is minor, the elements are simple and much of the masonry is plain; yet viewing the scene through the narrow entrance arch, drugged by the flicker of the fountains and the scent of blossom, you have no doubt that you are looking at one of the great gardens of the world.
Chapter 18, The Alhambra Circuit and the Generalife, p. 314. 

Sample Images

1. Adalusian landscape
2. Seville's sixteenth-century cathedral
3. The Gardens of the Generalife, Granada
4. Tower of the Giralda, Seville