Saturday, May 17, 2025

Mosaics To My Heart's Content

Rick Steves gives Museo Palacio de la Condesa de Lebrija one star.  I'd give it two.  But then again, I'm gobsmacked by Roman mosaics.  Not only does this have a lot of mosaics, you can walk on some of them.  That astounds me.

Apparently the Countess of Lebrija found out that Spanish farmers in/around the nearby old Roman city of Italica were plowing up the mosaics so they had more field to plant, so she started buying up the mosaics and moved them to her mansion.  Her husband had died a few years earlier, so she didn't have to take his opinion into account, mostly on account of the fact that he was dead.

(I'd highly recommend visiting Italica from Seville -- we've been twice before, so we didn't go this time.) 

There's also glorious tiles in the staircase and dining room that come from a former 16th century convent.  She also had the house changed to fit the mosaics.  For example, there is an octagonal room changed to hold the eight-sided Roman mosaic.

We couldn't take pictures in the upstairs, which has been left as it was when the countess died in 1938, but it was definitely neat to see.  We had a very friendly American college student/art major/painter as our guide for the upstairs tour, and we had a nice time chatting with her.

The mansion was built in the 16th century, and it is considered the best collection of Roman mosaics in all of Europe.  It was owned by various counts.  The countess of Lebrija bought it in 1901, and she used it to house not just the mosaics and the tiles, but also pottery from the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and Moors.  You know, all the types of pottery that we have in our house and you have in yours.

The descendants of the countess opened the house to the public as a museum in 1999, and it's a must-see stop in Seville.

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