Today’s Photohunt theme is “symbolic”.

NO8DO. If you ever come to Sevilla you will see this symbol everywhere, from manhole covers to newspaper kiosks, and from Christopher Columbus’s tomb to most official signs. But if you look closely you will see that the central symbol is not an “8”, but a skein of wool, “madeja” in Spanish, and the whole word can be read as “no-madeja-do” which run together sounds like “no me ha dejado”, Spanish for “she hasn’t abandoned me.”

So what’s the story behind it? When Fernando III reconquered Sevilla from the Moors in 1248, he made it his capital. His son, Alfonso X, was known as “The Wise”, due to his prediliction for poetry, art, astronomy and learning in general. Alfonso’s son, Sancho IV of Castile, however, believing that a Spanish king would be better employed in expelling the Moors, and that he himself could do the job, tried to usurp the throne. Many Spanish cities followed Sancho, but Sevilla remained loyal to its scholar king, and NO8DO became the official emblem of the city, symbolic of its loyalty.