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"Seville,"
wrote
Byron, "is
a
pleasant
city,
famous
for
oranges
and
women."
And for
its heat,
he might
perhaps
have
added,
since
SEVILLA
's
summers
are
intense
and
start
early,
in May.
But the
spirit,
for all
its
nineteenth-century
chauvinism,
is about
right.
Sevilla
has
three
important
monuments
and an
illustrious
history,
but what
it's
essentially
famous
for is
its own
living
self -
the
greatest
city of
the
Spanish
south,
of
Carmen,
Don Juan
and
Figaro,
and the
archetype
of
Andalucian
promise.
This
reputation
for
gaiety
and
brilliance,
for
theatricality
and
intensity
of life,
does
seem
deserved.
It's
expressed
on a
phenomenally
grand
scale at
the
city's
two
great
festivals
-
Semana
Santa
(in the
week
before
Easter)
and the
Feria
de Abril
(which
starts
two
weeks
after
Easter
Sunday
and
lasts a
week).
Either
is worth
considerable
effort
to get
to.
Sevilla
is also
Spain's
second
most
important
centre
for
bullfighting
, after
Madrid.
Despite
its
elegance
and
charm,
and its
wealth,
based on
food
processing,
shipbuilding,
construction
and a
thriving
tourist
industry,
Sevilla
lies at
the
centre
of a
depressed
agricultural
area and
has an
unemployment
rate of
nearly
forty
percent
- one of
the
highest
in Spain.
The
total
refurbishment
of the
infrastructure
boosted
by the
1992
Expo -
including
impressive
new
roads,
seven
bridges,
a high-speed
rail
link and
a
revamped
airport
- was
intended
to
regenerate
the
city's (and
the
region's)
economic
fortunes
but has
hardly
turned
out to
be the
catalyst
for
growth
and
prosperity
promised
at the
time.
Indeed,
some of
the
colossal
debts
are
still
unpaid a
decade
later.
Meantime,
petty
crime
is a big
problem,
and the
motive
for
stealing
is
usually
cash to
feed
drug
addiction.
Bag-snatching
is
common (often
Italian-style,
from
passing
motos
), as is
breaking
into
cars.
There's
even a
special
breed
called
semaforazos
who
break
the
windows
of cars
stopped
at
traffic
lights
and grab
what
they
can. Be
careful,
but
don't be
put off.
Despite
a
worrying
rise in
the
number
of
muggings
in
recent
years,
when
compared
with
cities
of
similar
size in
northern
Europe,
violent
crime is
still
relatively
rare.
Sevilla's
most
famous
present-day
native
son is
the
former
prime
minister,
Felipe
González
, who
led the
Socialist
administration
that
governed
Spain
for
fourteen
years
until
his
defeat
in 1996.
Another,
more
bizarre
Sevillano
is one
Gregorio
XVII
, who
calls
himself
the true
pope; in
defiance
of his
excommunication
by the
Vatican,
"Pope
Greg" is
leader
of a
large
ultra-reactionary
order
which
has made
the dead
Franco a
saint
and has
built an
extensive
new "Vatican"
in the
countryside
to the
south of
the city.
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