Kissing Lanes Seville
by Joan Carroll
Title
Kissing Lanes Seville
Artist
Joan Carroll
Medium
Photograph - Digital Art
Description
Imagine life in another century...just a few short steps from the immense Seville Cathedral is the Barrio Santa Cruz. It seems romantic to a tourist, but to residents this is just another street that enables you to get from here to there! I seemed to have arrived here around quitting time for the local workers and as soon as one would round the corner at the far end of the lane, another came up right behind me! It took quite awhile to shoot a whole series of exposures without someone coming up from behind me on their way home from work. The Barrio Santa Cruz used to be the Juderia or Jewish Quarter of Seville. When Ferdinand III of Castile conquered the city from Muslim rule, he concentrated the city's Jewish population-second in the Iberian Peninsula only to that of Toledo-in this single neighborhood. Today the area is awash with narrow streets, restaurants, small stores, and well landscaped plazas that seem to blot out the sun. Due to the narrowness they are often called 'kissing lanes'. The labrynthine arrangement dates back to Moorish times where these narrow streets provided protection from the oppressive sun of the Sevillian summer. Or so they say....maybe it was lovers leaning out across the lanes from the upstairs windows. You decide!
FEATURED PHOTO, Pleasing the Eye group, 1/29/15
Uploaded
January 29th, 2015
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Comments (47)
Karen Cook
Great point of view...Would certainly be easy to borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbor here!
Phyllis Taylor
Wonderful capture!.....I always wonder why they built houses so close, but I know it was a normal practice in Europe.
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