02 Tuesday Sep 2025
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The Antigua lglesia de San Hermenegildo, closed since 2006, has been hidden under scaffolding and a protective metal roof for the past two years or so while a major restoration was carried out. Hobbling by today the fresh white façade against that bright blue sky totally caught my eye. Nice to see it back. Apparently it will be an cultural centre now… we shall see.
25 Friday Oct 2024
Posted in architecture, bluesky, home, hope, sevilla
This is one of several of my dream houses here, where I would imagine some day having a top floor apartment. I mean, it probably never would have happened anyhow, but now that this landmark building houses tourist apartments, hope is dashed forever.
19 Friday Jul 2024
Posted in architecture, sevilla, spain
💙 💙 💙
11 Monday Sep 2023
Posted in architecture, history, sevilla
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Or rather, Paul fixed it for me. Remember my fabulous tasting menu at Balbuena y Huertas last week? I mentioned that the restaurant is housed in a rather splendid 5 Star GL boutique hotel (opening soon). However, when they renovated the building, which was built in 1924/25, they left up an antique ceramic tile ad that is, well, frankly racist. I always put a photo of the outside of bars and restaurants in my reviews but really didn’t want to lead with a pic of the offending tiles and so… Paul to the rescue.
In fact, Fiona and I had a talk with the chef about this after our meal the other day but he said that old tiles like this are protected and cannot be removed. And he’s right. But they can be covered up as long as the original tiles aren’t damaged (I’ve seen this done in various places around town). So we shall see.
12 Monday Dec 2022
Posted in architecture, sevilla
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Out for a walk this afternoon and noticed for the first time that the gables on one side of The House of My Dreams have these pulleys over the windows. It was suggested that they were used for lifting furniture up to the top floor, except you really couldn’t fit much through those windows. Also, although those rooms are clearly apartments now, back then they were probably used for storage (?) or servants quarters (??). This got me wondering about the history of this house, which is massive. Who was it built for? And most importantly, WHY did they install pulleys over those windows. Enquiring minds want to know.
