HOG
Officer Training

HOT 2011 - SEVILLE

It's getting HOT in Seville…

The historic city of Seville is home to this year's H.O.G. Officer Training.

Seville is the provincial capital of the Andalusia community in the South of Spain. It encapsulates everything about the Andalucian way of life – flamenco dancing, bullfighting, fiesta and even the origin of the guitar are all embedded into this historical city.

The city is peppered with medieval lanes, hidden plazas and gothic buildings, which in the old quarter of Seville are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Cathedral, with its tower, Giralda, was built from 1401-1519 and is reckoned to be the world’s largest medieval and Gothic Cathedral. Opposite is the Alcazar, the Royal Palace, which took over 500 years to build. The University of Seville is based on the site of the first tobacco factory in Europe, and the famous Parque De Maria Luisa was built for the Spanish-American Exhibition in 1929, which Seville hosted.

Seville is known not only for its rich historical ambience, but also for its passion towards the famous festivals it hosts annually. The Semana Santa (Holy week) celebrations occur over Easter.

Every day between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, large images and life-size tableaux of scenes from the Easter story are carried from Seville’s churches through the streets to its cathedral. They’re accompanied by long processions, which take over an hour to pass, and are witnessed by huge crowds.

The Feria de Abril (The April Fair) takes place on a special site, El Real de la Feria, in the Los Remedios area, west of the second longest river in Spain, the Guadalquivir River. The ceremonial lighting-up of the fairgrounds is the start of six nights of eating, drinking, dressing-up and dancing through the night.

The Bienal de Flamenco, Spain’s biggest flamenco festival, and Corpus Christi, a religious event where the streets and houses of Seville are covered with flowers, are also notable events.

There is an unlimited amount of hotels and bars where visitors can practise one of the most deeply rooted traditions to the city – tapas.

There is nowhere else in Spain that blends the Spanish culture of dancing, music and bullfighting with historical landmarks more than Seville.