Seville cathedral

After settling in your hotel, you must first visit the cathedral, one of the largest Gothic churches in the world, ranking in size with Saint Peter’s in Rome and Saint Paul’s in London. It was constructed between 1402 and 1506 on the site of a mosque. In the elaborate Royal Chapel at the east end is buried Alfonso X, “The Wise,” one of Spain’s most brilliant medieval monarchs, who supervised the codification of existing Roman law in the 13th century. When his son Sancho rebelled, Seville remained loyal to Alfonso. Alfonso’s gratified statement “No me ha dejado” (It has not deserted me) is the basis for the rebus symbol you are bound to notice painted and carved all over the city: a double knot (called a madeja) between the syllables “no” and “do,” thus producing No madeja do, which is pronounced approximately the same as No me ha dejado. Ferdinand III, later Saint Ferdinand, who freed Seville from Moorish domination, is buried in a silver shrine in front of the altar. On one side, in an ornate mausoleum, is one of the tombs of Christopher Columbus (the other is in Santo Domingo in the Caribbean—both cities claim to have his real remains).