Sevilla: The Great Gothic-Mudéjar Churches Along My Original Route Into the City. Part Five, Ominium Sanctorum, Another Gothic Church with an Islam-inspired Minaret-like Tower

 

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Omnium Sanctorum church on calle Feria, Sevilla by Gerry Dawes©2021

 

The Church of Omnium Sanctorum has a La Giralda-like Mudéjar tower which originally may have been the minaret of a mosque that once stood here, and a multi-archivolted Gothic doorway, both of which, despite their seemingly diverse religious origens, make it one of the most distinguished of the Gótico-Mudéjar churches of Sevilla.   

 

Omnium Sanctorum Gothic portal, photo courtesy Universidad de Sevilla.

 

Since it is located on call Feria, a few blocks west of calle San Luis, my original route into Sevilla, I likely did not see this church on my first day in Sevilla in 1968, but I did pass by it on my route in 2016 on my first try to re-trace my first entrance into Sevilla. 

Another of the oldest churches in Sevilla, Omnium Sanctorum was built in 1249, during the reign of Fernando III el Santo, who defeated the Almohades in 1248 after a year-long siege.  Obviously given the minaret tower and the fact that it was consecrated as a Catholic church so quickly after the reconquest, though just scant evidence remains of the foundation, this church was likely built on the site of a mosque, like any others from this period.  The Mudéjar tower, originally built at the end of the XIVth Century, shows that its design was inspired by the Giralda minaret that was appropriated as the belltower of Cathedral of Sevilla, with similar arched windows and sebka decoration.

And, again, because of the damage from the earthquake of 1356. Omnium Sanctorum underwent major renovations.  Declared an national monument in 1931, the church like most in this district was sacked and burned at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.  It was finally restored in 1993.

The interior has an interesting Mudéjar wooden artesanado ceiling, although it is obviously a restoration since the roof was destroyed during the civil war.

Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain Volume I, Chapter I Sevilla: Arrival in Spain (in 1968) Soldiers on a Train (Excerpt protected by copyright) Sevilla

 

Sevilla, Retracing Steps Part Two: Iglesia de San Gil A Remarkable Walk From El Arco de la Macarena to the Cathedral Featuring a Half Dozen Mudéjar-and-Gothic Churches Built on the Sites of Former Mosques in the 14th Century 

Sevilla, Retracing Steps Part Three: Iglesia de Santa Marina y San Juan Bautista de La Salle A Remarkable Walk From El Arco de la Macarena Featuring a Half Dozen Mudéjar-and-Gothic Churches Built on the Sites of Former Mosques in the 14th Century 

Sevilla: The Great Gothic-Mudéjar Churches Along My Original Route Into the City. Part Four San Marcos and Its Distinctive Giralda-like Mudejar Tower

 

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Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain Volume I Enhanced Photography Edition

 

(Available at Amazon, Despana (NYC), LaTienda.com, La Boca Restaurant (Santa Fe, NM) and at Kitchen Arts & Letters bookstore (NYC). 

 

Comments are welcome and encouraged.

 

Help Support Gerry Dawes's Spain & Its Content

If you enjoy these blog posts, please consider a contribution to help me continue the work of gathering all this great information and these photographs for Gerry Dawes's Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel. Contributions of $5 and up will be greatly appreciated. Contributions of $100 or more will be acknowledged on the blog.

Please click on this secure link to Paypal to make your contribution.

 

* * * * *

  Shall deeds of Caesar or Napoleon ring
More true than Don Quixote's vapouring?
Hath winged Pegasus more nobly trod
Than Rocinante stumbling up to God?

 

Poem by Archer M. Huntington inscribed under the Don Quixote on his horse Rocinante bas-relief sculpture by his wife, Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington,

in the courtyard of the Hispanic Society of America’s incredible museum at 613 W. 155th Street, New York City.

 ______________________________________________________________________________________

 

Again ranked in the Top 50 Gastronomy Blogs and Websites for Gastronomists & Gastronomes by Feedspot. (Last Updated October, 2019)

"The Best Gastronomy blogs selected from thousands of Food blogs, Culture blogs and Food Science blogs in our index using search and social metrics. We’ve carefully selected these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality information."  

36. Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel

 
About Gerry Dawes

My good friend Gerry Dawes, the unbridled Spanish food and wine enthusiast cum expert whose writing, photography, and countless crisscrossings of the peninsula have done the most to introduce Americans—and especially American food professionals—to my country's culinary life." -- Chef-restaurateur-humanitarian José Andrés, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and Oscar Presenter 2019

Gerry Dawes is the Producer and Program Host of Gerry Dawes & Friends, a weekly radio progam on Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York (streaming live and archived at www.pawlingpublicradio.org and at www.beatofthevalley.com.)

Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià. 

In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés. 

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009. 

 

Pilot for a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

Gerry Dawes's A Taste of Madrid, Western Spain (Castilla y León and Extremadura), Andalucía & La Mancha Tour With Acclaimed Spain Expert & Author Gerry Dawes and Santa Fe Star Chef James Campbell Caruso May 3 – May 14, 2023

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Note:  I led this tour for sixteen people. with a five-day pre-trip to northern Spain for for seven people, five of whom were on the main trip.

 Chef-owner Fernando Hermoso with langostinos de Sanlúcar at Bar Bigote in  Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

 
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Join a Spanish Adventure Designed, Organized and Guided by Acclaimed Spanish Gastronomy, Wine & Culture Expert Gerry Dawes, Premio Nacional de Gastronómía (Spanish National Gastronomy Prize) & James Beard Journalism Awards Finalist

 

 

 Food and Wine Road Warrior Gerry Dawes in Burgos, Spain.

 

James Campbell Caruso with Sunset in a Glass at La Boca.  

Photo by Douglas Merriam.

 

"Gerry Dawes, the unbridled Spanish food and wine enthusiast cum expert whose writing, photography, and countless crisscrossings of the peninsula have done the most to introduce Americans—and especially American food professionals—to my country's culinary life.  He has connected with all manner of people working at every level and in every corner of Spain.  I’m always amazed at this reach.  You can step into a restaurant in the smallest town in Spain, and it turns out they know Gerry somehow.”--Chef-restaurateur-humanitarian José Andrés, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, Chef-partner, Mercado Little Spain at Hudson Yards, New York.

 

 With  Santa Fe Chef James Campbell Caruso, 

Chef-owner of  La Boca Tapas Restaurant, Santa Fe, NM 

 

Santa Fe Star Chef James Campbell Caruso is an 8-time James Beard Award Nominee. His 30-year career as a chef, restaurateur, culinary instructor and cookbook author has been focused on bringing the passion and exuberance of Spanish gastronomy and wine to New Mexico. In 2006 he open La Boca Tapas Restaurant in downtown Santa Fe to rave reviews.  The New York Times called Caruso's food at La Boca “modern reinventions of classic Spanish Cuisine”and Town  & Country Magazine dubbed Caruso “the Southwest’s King of Tapas!” 

Click on the title above to see the full itinerary.

Sevilla, Retracing Steps Part Three: Iglesia de Santa Marina y San Juan Bautista de La Salle A Remarkable Walk From El Arco de la Macarena Featuring a Half Dozen Mudéjar-and-Gothic Churches Built on the Sites of Former Mosques in the 14th Century

 

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Iglesia de Santa Marina, Sevilla.

On my first entry into Sevilla I was uninformed about Sevilla, its history and its origins.  I was just a newly arrived American Navyman on his first trip to a foreign country, so I took little note of some the monumental churches along calle San Luís, some of whose foundations date to almost a millennium ago.  

Plaque on the church of Santa Marina denoting the route of Mudéjar churches in Sevilla.  The Islamic Art in the Mediterranean subtitle is a Freudian slip.  Although Sevilla is a city much closer to the Atlantic Ocean than to the Mediterranean, the weather is influened by both bodies of water.  The climate is very Mediterranean and hot in summer, but in winter the Atlantic influence takes over and Sevilla can be quite chilly.  But, there is no doubt that visitors to Sevilla can easily believe they are in a Mediterranean city.

The next church along the calle San Luís is the church of Santa Marina, which was one of the first parishes established in this populous district after the Reconquest of Sevilla in 1248 by Fernando III.  It is one of the oldest Gothic-Mudéjar churches in the city, dating its construction to 1262 under the reign of Fernando’s son Alfonso X el Sabio.  Though there is some polemic about this; it is claimed by many scholars not to have been built on the site of mosque even though there was supposedly a mosque built here in the 10^th century. 

Looking at tower, the uninitiated visitor could easily assume that Santa Marina, like several other churches in Sevilla was built over a mosque, since the tower is of Mudéjar construction and could easily be mistaken for the minaret of a long-disappeared mosque.  However, it was not unusual for Moorish craftsmen working under Christian rule—Mudejares—to build structures that spoke of Islam, not unusual since even their Christian conquerors had long been used to seeing Islamic architecture and not only that, many of them had an appreciation for the aesthetics of such buildings.  Thus it was natural for them to retain such structures as La Giralda, the minaret tower of Sevilla’s main mosque.  It was functional, attractive and it cost much, much less to leave standing that it did to build a towering new structure.  

 

Built with bricks, favored by Mudéjar builders, the square tower of Santa Marina could easily be mistaken for an minaret, especially since  arched openings adorn the façade and crenelated top typical of the Moorish Almohade style tops the bell tower.

In the case of Santa Marina, not only was the tower built in the early 14^th century in the Mudéjar style resembling a minaret, the church and tower were was destroyed by a powerful earthquake and rebuilt in the same style in the mid-to-later 14^th century under Pedro I (the Cruel), who ordered numerous structures around Spain built by Mudéjar builders and craftsmen, including the Palace in the Alcázar and the exquisite Mudéjar palace in Tordesillas that he built for his favorite Maria de Padilla and has since become incorporated into the Convento de Santa Clara.   

Convento de Santa Clara, Tordesillas, built as a palace by Pedro I de Castilla (Pedro the Cruel). 

  

Interior of the Convento de Santa Clara, Tordesillas, built as a palace by Pedro I de Castilla (Pedro the Cruel).

 

 

Azulejos, tiles in the interior of  the Convento de Santa Clara, Tordesillas, built as a palace by Pedro I de Castilla (Pedro the Cruel).

Detail of azulejos, tiles in the interior of  the Convento de Santa Clara, Tordesillas, built as a palace by Pedro I de Castilla (Pedro the Cruel).  The tiles are identical to the tiles in the palacio of the Real Alcázar of Sevilla, also built by Pedro I de Castilla.

 

Text and photographs copyright by Gerry Dawes©2021.  Using photographs without crediting Gerry Dawes©2021 on Facebook.  Publication without my written permission is not authorized.

 

Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain Volume I, Chapter I Sevilla: Arrival in Spain (in 1968) Soldiers on a Train (Excerpt protected by copyright)

Sevilla, Retracing Steps Part Two: Iglesia de San Gil A Remarkable Walk From El Arco de la Macarena to the Cathedral Featuring a Half Dozen Mudéjar-and-Gothic Churches Built on the Sites of Former Mosques in the 14th Century 

* * * * * 

Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain Volume I Enhanced Photography Edition

 

(Available at Amazon, Despana (NYC), LaTienda.com, La Boca Restaurant (Santa Fe, NM) and at Kitchen Arts & Letters bookstore (NYC). 

 

Comments are welcome and encouraged.

 

Help Support Gerry Dawes's Spain & Its Content

If you enjoy these blog posts, please consider a contribution to help me continue the work of gathering all this great information and these photographs for Gerry Dawes's Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel. Contributions of $5 and up will be greatly appreciated. Contributions of $100 or more will be acknowledged on the blog.

Please click on this secure link to Paypal to make your contribution.

 

* * * * *

  Shall deeds of Caesar or Napoleon ring
More true than Don Quixote's vapouring?
Hath winged Pegasus more nobly trod
Than Rocinante stumbling up to God?

 

Poem by Archer M. Huntington inscribed under the Don Quixote on his horse Rocinante bas-relief sculpture by his wife, Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington,

in the courtyard of the Hispanic Society of America’s incredible museum at 613 W. 155th Street, New York City.

 ______________________________________________________________________________________

 

Again ranked in the Top 50 Gastronomy Blogs and Websites for Gastronomists & Gastronomes by Feedspot. (Last Updated October, 2019)

"The Best Gastronomy blogs selected from thousands of Food blogs, Culture blogs and Food Science blogs in our index using search and social metrics. We’ve carefully selected these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality information."  

36. Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel

 
About Gerry Dawes

My good friend Gerry Dawes, the unbridled Spanish food and wine enthusiast cum expert whose writing, photography, and countless crisscrossings of the peninsula have done the most to introduce Americans—and especially American food professionals—to my country's culinary life." -- Chef-restaurateur-humanitarian José Andrés, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and Oscar Presenter 2019

Gerry Dawes is the Producer and Program Host of Gerry Dawes & Friends, a weekly radio progam on Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York (streaming live and archived at www.pawlingpublicradio.org and at www.beatofthevalley.com.)

Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià. 

In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés. 

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009. 

 

Pilot for a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com