After its poignant “summer holiday” cover last July The Sevillaner is back with more on the effects of over tourism in our city. The Giraldilla is a gigantic sculpture at the top of the Giralda Tower that also functions as a weather vane. It represents a pregnant woman dressed in a long tunic and with a helmet surrounded by a crown. In one of her hands she holds a palm and in the other a warrior’s shield attached to a lance with a Christian cross on top. In the other hand, the palm in her left hand symbolizes victory, since the Giraldilla also represents the triumph of the Catholic religion over the Muslim world.
The Giraldilla symbolizes Christian Faith and Hope, a feature that is evident in the uncarved pupils and the fact of being pregnant. Her clothing and the elements of war also symbolize strength. For the same reason it was placed on the highest point of the Cathedral of Sevilla, built on the old mosque; specifically on the old minaret, reaffirming the message.
On this month’s cover we see a dejected Giraldilla sitting on a pile of suitcases, better described by the artist below…
Credit: Tavo Studio
Creative Director: Tavo Ponce
Designer: Pablo Travasos
I imagined a Giraldilla that is still pregnant with hope, but without the shield that serves as a weather vane for a city that seems to have given up and wanders aimlessly. That still clings to the palm leaf as a symbol of an imagined victory of a Sevilla that has no other triumph than to continue being in love with itself. That watches generations go by drunk with love, nostalgia and melancholy, accommodated in that eternal sensation of the Sevillas we have lost. And that, now, is forced to find a seat among the checked luggage of the tourists who invade it en masse, along with that of the young people who have to leave like swallows.
