Alcázar is one of those words derived from Arabic in which the Al at the beginning signifies "the." Cázar is an Arabic word meaning fort or castle or palace. I'm going to go with "palace" for this particular alcazar in Seville because that's the main vibe of the joint. Thus "The The Palace."
Islamic, right? Not exactly.
The Alcazar in Seville is an example -- maybe the grandest example -- of a style known as mudéjar.
Most of my readers probably know that the Moors, Muslims from north Africa, conquered most of Spain and Portugal in the 8th century. By the 15th century, Christian resistance, in a series of military campaigns known as the Reconquista, had succeeded in driving them out. But many Muslims remained in the Iberian peninsula, and so did the thousands of edifices they had constructed according to their own distinctive aesthetic.
The Christians really liked this aesthetic. They liked it so much that they kept on using it to construct their own edifices. That's mudéjar style -- what you might call Christian appropriation of Islamic art. (To be clear, I heartily approve of this.)
Again I feel I simply must bombard you with a lot of pix. The Alcazar in Seville is surely one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.
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