The Water Gardens

Rolling the series of Game of Thrones in the Alcazar of Seville, they could not have chosen better scenario!

Patio del Alcázar de Sevilla. Foto: LD
The Alcazar of Seville´s courtyard. Photo: LD. Click for more information

Hi, the exceptional documents there are in all parts of the planet, these documents are part of our culture and our way of understanding the life. That’s one of the reasons why I, the tireless Rodolfo, I am a fan of libraries, these allow us to establish centers of gathering of all the possible information, and if you have a pendrive, you can also enjoy this information anywhere.

I don’t know if you’ve heard of “Game of Thrones”, or if you tried to assess where live the characters, but, surely, you’ve heard of the Real Alcazar of Seville. Of the new season (the fifth) I’ll take the scene in which Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma) claims before the Prince of Dorne, Doran Martell (Alexander Siddig) revenge for the death of her beloved Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal), you will discover that I if I have «heard» of the series. In the background of the scene «The Water Gardens” and the beautiful ceramic Arabic… wonderful… even I stay with a very special and common material: the Plaster.

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Filming of «Game of Thrones» in the Alcázar of Seville

The building is the oldest Royal Palace in Europe, only this already deserves a visit, began to take shape in the 8th century and it’s been occupied by innumerable hosts. With the passage of time (always wanted to write this sentence) each Governor was leaving (or tried) his personal imprint in the construction. The set is nothing more than a group of buildings of different styles: almohad, mudejar, gothic and renaissance, is a delight to the visitors and for the films, it allow scenes from different eras in the same place.

In the Alcazar is entered through the «door of the Lion» where you will enjoy an Almohad architecture, next door is the «Hall of Justice» built by Alfonso XI in 1340, which has a cover with mudejar armor that will provide you a good neck pain (it happened to me) . Next to the Hall of Justice is «the patio of the Plaster», this patio is one of the oldest parts of the Alcazar and corresponds to the Almohad Caliphate of Abu Yaqud Yusuf and Abu Yusuf al Manur, on it, porticoed arches with a rich decoration of the Almohad polychrome plasterwork, some parts in very poor condition (everything must be said), also, hit me very much the focuses on the top corners that you want me to say? I am a purist…

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The Alcazar of Seville´s courtyard.

Another place of interest is the «Patio of the Monteria» from where you can see the façade of the «Palacio Mudejar Pedro I», whose surname is «Fair» or «Cruel» (if they were friends or enemies). Its fully ornamented facade presents a lintel door, windows with arches and mullions in form of colonnades and a large eave supported by muqarnas (ornaments composed of coupled and combined prisms whose end is conical) of golden colour. Inside the Palace there are two patios where I could life: «The Patio of the Maidens‘ with its lobed arches on double columns and the «Patio of the Dolls» with its beautiful decoration based on small faces in the arches, tiles and stuccoes.

Visit forced the «Gothic Palace» built by Alfonso X in 1254, as an anecdote I will tell you that an ancestor of my long lineage enjoyed in the «Gothic room», that it was called «Party Room» in the 16th century, during the Royal Wedding of King Carlos I. From this room you can go to the left, to the «Garden of the Chorron» next to the «Mercury Pond» which is presided over by a figure of the God Mercury. If you access the right door of the room you immerse in the chapel presided by an altarpiece of the Virgin of the Old.

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Filming of «Game of Thrones» in the Alcázar of Seville

Finally emphasize the «Door of the Privilege» that separates into two parts «the gardens of the Alcázar» and on which Ellaria Sand observe (with hatred in his eyes) to the young Lannister strolling through the «Water Gardens» (Feel like to continue the series?). Of course the historical set has a lot more to see and enjoy, but if I tell it all, perhaps you never go back. When you go don’t forget the reverence it deserves a material very present in this construction.

The plaster is one of the oldest materials used in construction by its unique qualities. Its deposits was originated as marine deposits for millennia, the drying of the seas where they produced the phenomenon and its subsequent emergence led to his discovery by the humans. The plaster is obtained from a rock called Aljez, which is composed of dihydrate calcium sulphate (I don’t like how it looks the chemical formula). Basically it calcined (applying high temperatures to remove water from inside) and grind the result.

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Filming of «Game of Thrones» in the Alcázar of Seville

The main feature of the plaster is that it reacts quickly and violently with the water turning it into a rigid mass, of low hardness (2 on the Mohs scale, or easily scratched with a fingernail), of low weight (1,250 Kg/m³) and of white texture (can introduce darker colours if you have impurities); It is also an excellent temperature regulator as it absorbs water in atmospheres charged and expels water in dry atmospheres. All this makes it ideal as a coating material, to make different moulds, as a decorative element and gives unlimited functions that already knew in the 6th century BC in the ancient Jericho.

With all the best of the plaster is that I will be able to use without charge of consciousness in my next building for several reasons: it is 100 percent recyclable, it is able to improve the thermal and acoustic efficiency of walls, is found abundantly in nature (won’t be exhausted), (almost) any operator can work with it, and, the better, faithfully adapts to any shape that it receive. I will put to the test this material, Word of Rodolfo. Bye bye.

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