Archeological Museum and The Castle of San Jorge

NO8DO

Last week I went to a few museums in Sevilla with a few friends. Are first stop was the Archeological Museum. This large building is adjacent to Parque Maria Luisa in the Plaza de America. The museum is considered the top archaeological museum of souther Spain. It contains artifacts from prehistoric and early historic Spain, including a good quantity of roman artifacts that were discovered in and around Sevilla. A good portion of the artifacts comes from the old roman city of Italica, which is just north of Sevilla. You can see pictures from Italica from an early trip I took by clicking here.

Entrance to the Museum

Skull from archeological site

Statues from Italica

The museum was very large with 2 levels. The top floor mainly consisited of show rooms with old statues and mosaic tiles from Italica. The bottom floor contained artifacts found from earlier civilizations dating as far back as 12th century BC. They also have fossils of plants and animals from more than a millions years ago.

Mosaic Tiles from Italica

Cabezas Desconocidos (head statues of unknown people)

We spent an hour or so walking around the museum. You could spend that amount of time in one section alone. The museum is something I plan on visiting a few more times and recommend everyone to atleast walk through it, if only to see the artifacts from Italica.

More ruins from Italica

We walked around town for a bit and made our way across the Guadalquivir River to the Triana side of Sevilla. Here we stumbled apon the museum for "The Castle of San Jorge." From 1481 to 1785 the Castle was the headquarters of the Holy Inquisition in Spain. If you have read my blog before then you might recall that the Holy Inquisition was the persecution of all religions that were not catholic. Over the time scores of men and women were imprisioned, tortured and killed. Most of the claims were false and many innocent people were brutally murdered. Men and women were burned at the stake, tortured using simulated drowning techniques. Many innocent people confessed to their accusations during these trails. 

Model of what the Castle looked like in its day

The museum was very unique. It was built over the ruins and contained the basic layout inside. The first part of the museum was called the "Interactive Room." This sensory room contains three spaces. The first examines value judgements, the second the abuse of power, and the third the victims. The goal of these three spaces is to produce sensations in which the visitor experiences the feelings of being the subject of value judgements, of situations which they can't control, of the abuse of power, of their defenselessness in the face of power and the solitude of the victim. It was a very strange exhibit, each space containing a video being projected on a few walls and strange music/noises. I wasn't sure how to feel after words, but we made our way through the rest of the museum to take a look at what this castle was like in its day.

Artist drawing of Seville during the late 1400's

Old Sevilla drawing, the large bridge on the left connects to the castle 

View of the river from inside the castle

Ruins

As you walked through the museum they had bits of information about what certain sections were used for. Some areas were jails, some places to prosecute the accused, others were market areas and places to hold animals, like in the drawing/picture above. The museum was very interesting. I recommend checking it out as well if you are in Sevilla. It is free to enter too.