Seville (Spain) (AFP)
Work started last summer in a bar in Seville, in southern Spain, has brought to light a perfectly preserved 12th century hammam.
Guests can now enjoy a drink while admiring Islamic paintings and ornaments.
The star-shaped skylight appeared after the first hammer blows.
Alvaro Jimenez, an archaeologist commissioned to assist at the start of work in this protected area due to its proximity to Seville Cathedral, "absolutely did not expect", he told AFP.
There followed 87 other skylights, stars, octagons drawing a starry sky in this Arabist-style bar named Giralda - like the old minaret of the Seville mosque - which was getting a makeover.
After the amazement and the "swear words" released by Alvaro Jimenez, the workers discovered many paintings in this room of 202 square meters and a hammam with a cold room, a lukewarm and a hot one.
More than 800 years old thermal baths whose paintings, sculptures and wall decorations were frozen in time thanks to an architect of the beginning of the 20th century, Vicente Traver, who in 1928 concealed these decorations and these skylights, when he built two more floors.
This heritage, "we thought he had destroyed it, and we must recognize that he saved it", continues Alvaro Jimenez.
"He found it and he preserved it for the future".
In the 12th century, Seville, conquered by the Almohads in 1147, was one of the two capitals of their empire, along with Marrakech.
"The Cathedral of Seville was erected on the remains of the Almohad Aljama Mosque, built between 1172 and 1198" and "these baths are located right in this area of the city that the Almohads made monumental and converted into their political center , religious, economic ", recalls Alvaro Jimenez.
Above the mosaics already present before the renovation are now visible ornate walls, white engraved vaults.
The bar, which should soon reopen, has become a living museum, completely redone in a refined style, which highlights the history of the place and where customers can refresh themselves, as we already did in another way. eight centuries ago.
© 2021 AFP