The Spanish Association of Hebrew and Jewish Studies (AEEHJ), in collaboration with the Three Cultures Foundation of the Mediterranean, organizes the conference “Santa María la Blanca: mosque, synagogue and church in Seville”which will be given by Mr. Óscar Gil Delgado, professor at the University of Seville.
This conference will take place next Tuesday 11 June at 18.00 h. at the headquarters of the Three Cultures Foundation of the Mediterranean and will serve to inaugurate the conferences of the XXI Annual Symposium of the AEEHJwhich will be held in the Faculty of Humanities of the Campus of the Pablo Olavide University of Seville on 12 and 13 June.
The symposium programme includes papers covering various areas of Hebrew and Jewish studieslanguage and literature, as well as historical and documentary studies, all from different periods and disciplines (biblical, rabbinical, medieval, Sephardic…). For more information about the symposium, please visit the AEEHJ website: https://aeehj.net/
About the inaugural conference
The Church of Santa María la Blanca is located in the San Bartolomé quarter of Seville, close to the Puerta de la Carne, one of the historic gates of the city. The church attracts little attention from the outside, but has a very intense interior of great architectural and plastic interest, profusely decorated with exuberant plasterwork.
The architecture conceals a fascinating past dating back a thousand years in the history of the city. The studies and discoveries made in it, collected in the lecturer’s doctoral thesis, made it possible to reveal its past as a mosque until 1248, as the main synagogue of the Jewish quarter of Seville until 1391, and to analyse the different stages that have taken place as a church up to the present day.
These destinies are analysed in association with the corresponding stages of Islamic, Mudejar and Baroque art and architecture, which are so prevalent in Seville. The most important conclusion of the research consisted of verifying and documenting the fact that in Santa María la Blanca in Seville there coexist, still standing, the remains and fabrics of temples from the three most important religions of Mediterranean culture.