An interesting tid bit about Sevilla:
If you are ever in Sevilla for more than 15 minutes you are bound to notice a Symbol that is all around the City. . This symbol you will see all over buildings, sidewalks, street signs, police cars, and basically every where you look. At first I thought it was just a symbol representing the Sevilla government but I did not know that it has a lot more meaning than just that.
The symbol as you can see in the picture, is the letters NODO with a piece of roped thread in the middle. In Spanish the word for this thread is called majeda in Spanish.
The symbol, which is spoken as “No me ha dejado” translates to “it (Sevilla) who did not abandon me.” When spoken in a Sevillian accent, the phrase sounds like “no madeja-do,” which explains the NO&DO symbol, as majeda can mean looped thread, an image easily represented by the thread symbol.
What is the story behind this you may be wondering?:
Well it became the motto after the “Reconquest” of Seville from the Muslims in 1248. King Fernando III, El Santo, King of Castilla and Leon moved his court to the former Muslim palace, the Alcazar of Sevilla.
After San Fernando’s death in the Real Alcazar, his son, Alfonso X, “the Wise”, assumed the throne. Alfonso X was a scholar king, hense his title. He was a poet, astronomer, astrologer, musician, and linguist. Alfonso’s son, Sancho IV of Castile, tried to steal the throne from his father, but the people of Seville remained loyal to their king and this is where NO8DO was believed to have originiated when, according to legend, Alfonso X rewarded the fidelity of the “sevillains” with the words that now appear as the official of emblem of the city of Seville.
Just thought you would like to learn something new about Sevilla! Next I will blog about my 10K race that I did in Madrid yesterday!
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