Carmona, not far from Seville.

[onlyMark]

A short photo report, one of a series starting with the previous slightly longer coastal walk and then Ubeda.

It’s probably best to say Carmona has mixed heritage. It’s situated on a defensible escarpment about 33km north east from Seville and first settled around 5000 years ago.
With the arrival of Phoenician traders from Tyre, Carmona was transformed into a city. Centuries later it became a Roman stronghold and known as Carmo in the time of Julius Caesar.

With the demise of the Roman Empire, Carmona also declined and from the beginning of the 8th century until the middle of the 13th century, the city was part of Muslim al-Andalus. The city was made even more impregnable during the long occupation of the Moors, who erected walls around it, and built fountains and palaces inside the walls. It was eventually taken over by the Christian forces sweeping through Andalusia, who also did their fair share of remodelling.

The architecture is quite a mix of styles and you never quite know what you’ll see around the next corner.
We did our usual walking around beginning late afternoon when all and sundry were tucked away in the shade and snoozing, nipped back to the hotel for our own rest, then went out again as it got dark to have dinner.
And yes, it was 40 degrees C still as we walked around in the afternoon.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Carmona,_Spain

[onlyMark]

A few more photos as an overview of the place tomorrow.

[kerouac2]

Not a cloud in the sky in the evacuated city! I see the last refugee bus fleeing in the photo of the countryside.

[onlyMark]

I can see three cars being driven and possibly they are trying to find their way out of the city as well.

[onlyMark]

Another time, it'll be another place for some photos.

[bixaorellana]

Your pictures really depict the baking heat and the utter stillness of siesta time. I do hope you get back for more pictures later, as this town is so surprising in the variety of architecture through the centuries. I'd love to see it during the populated hours to get an idea of its character.

Re: surprising ~ the first surprise is that church tower of many styles, with the sharp brickwork surrounding the Moorish looking windows. There is quite a lot of brickwork shown in the pictures, all in that same pleasing toasty tone. Bu that doorway with the mitre over the arch was a shock -- who let someone paint the stonework?!

That tall white church (3rd down, reply #4) is interesting, partly because of the brickwork. I do love how the paint on the heart delicately ran.

Obviously much of the town looks Spanish, but it kept reminding me of Italy, too. The Teatro Cerezo reminded me of this building I snapped in Trapani, https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5745/21300674999_a488d0257d_c.jpg

Just below the Teatro is a picture that seems to sum up all the styles in the town, with the tile-clad one right in the middle. That is a huge colonnaded square! The dryness in the landscape shot is downright scary. It kind of explains why so many sons of this region joined Cortés and his ilk to find fortune in Latin America.

[onlyMark]

I won't be back for maybe a year. Mrs M wants to go so I'll no doubt visit then but whilst she is working away a daughter and I nip here and there.
The church and tower (translated from Spanish) -
"It is a temple with a long construction history that began in the 15th century under the technique and aesthetics of the Mudejar, and ended in the 18th century with the full boom of the Baroque.
Specifically, its chronology extends, for its first stage, during the period of time between the years 1400 and 1499 ; and for the second, a long space that goes from 1600 to 1784.
Among the first important reforms that were undertaken in this church is precisely that of the tower , built in brick, whose current state responds firstly to the work carried out around 1565 by the famous Renaissance architect Hernán Ruiz II , and then to other successive interventions which were not completed until well into the eighteenth century."

sevillapedia.wikanda.es/wiki/Iglesia_de_San_Pedro_(Carmona)

The theatre was built in 1931 and seems of the same style as your photo as there was only a few years between them. It was built by a man who won a million pesetas on the lottery in 1928.
The city certainly does have a mish mash of styles and as though things took so long to build, new styles came in and out of fashion.
The colonnaded square is the Plaza de Abastos (Mercado). No idea when it was built.