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The Patio de los Naranjos and Colombian Library
The Orange Tree Courtyard
Thecourtyard or old sahn of the mosque, has been very reformed by its successive restorations, although it can still be seen its original structure configured with pillars supporting pointed horseshoe arches.
In its center there is a modern fountain that occupies the place of the old sabil. However, the upper bowl is Visigothic and is the same as the primitive Almohad fountain, which is why the ablutions of the Sevillian Muslims were performed in it before entering the mosque. Of the three galleries that the courtyard originally had, only two remain, since the one on the west side was demolished to build the church of the Sagrario.
These galleries or naves have lost their original roofs, and today what remains after alterations and modifications has been preserved. The uncovered sector of the courtyard today has a rigid arrangement of orange trees, whose corridors are connected by a network of channels that draw geometric figures and are still used for the flow of water. The courtyard has two doors leading to the exterior and two others that give access to the adjacent enclosure of the Cathedral.
Colombian Library
In 1552, the library of Don Hernando Colón became part of the library of the ecclesiastical chapter of Seville by testamentary disposition of the great Spanish bibliophile and humanist. Although the number of chapter volumes was greater, the name “colombina” has prevailed in history and is how it is currently known, encompassing the two libraries combined.
The Chapter and Columbian Library is considered the most important in the city of Seville; two types of collections can be distinguished: the capitular, consisting of more than 100,000 volumes collected over the centuries by the Church of Seville, and the columbine, which derives from the large bequest of the Admiral’s son.
The holdings of the latter collection amount to some 6,000 items, including 940 incunabula and a thousand manuscripts. It is located in part of the Cathedral’s Nave del Lagarto, in the cathedral quarters that are located on the upper floor of the two naves that make up the northeast corner of the Patio de los Naranjos, with recently renovated accesses.
In its beginnings, since the legacy of Alfonso X “the wise” in 1284, the chapter contents have been stored in several rooms of the building. In 1543 they were moved to the sacristy of the chapel of San Clemente or Sagrario of the old temple from where, due to the works undertaken in the Royal Chapel, they were moved to one of the high galleries of the Patio, where, after the incorporation of the Colombian volumes and the works of adaptation of the enclosure around 1562, they have remained until the present day.
For more information: https://icolombina.es/