Seville City - Fascinating Fact 9

Seville City - Fascinating Fact 9

By Fiona Flores Watson

9) ORANGES AND LEMONS

There´s a saying that Sevillanos are so astonished the British actually want to use their bitter oranges to make marmalade, that they reckon the pith is secretly used to make gunpowder. If you have ever made the mistake of biting into one of the oranges from Seville´s tens of thousands of trees when visiting, you will understand why. They are not ´table´ oranges, designed for eating. In any case, Seville orange marmalade is considered the finest type in Britain and beyond, even if Sevillanos don´t appreciate it.

Seville´s orange trees are as much an integral part of the landscape as the Gothic archways of its churches, and the fans and Sevillana dresses in its shop windows. The oranges themselves appear in December and January, and are followed by the sweet-scented white blossom (its essence, neroli, used in perfumes such as Agua de Sevilla, has anti-depressant properties) in March and April, filling Seville with an improbably fragrant and incredibly romantic spring atmosphere.

In addition, a new plan by the municipal water company, Emasesa, is using juice from the city's oranges to power its waste water treatment centre. The orange juice is fermented, generating methane, with 1000kg of fruit producing 50kWh of energy.

Seville City - More Fascinating Facts

• Fact 1 - Sevillano pride and predudice.
• Fact 2 - Sevilla on the sliver screen.
• Fact 3 - Anyone for tapas?
• Fact 4 - Three Roman emperors were born just outside Seville.
• Fact 5 - Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition in Seville.
• Fact 6 - Seville's sign of the times.
• Fact 7 - The Cathedral-Colombus controversy.
• Fact 8 - The six bridges of Seville's Expo.
• Fact 9 - Oranges and Lemons.
• Fact 10 - Two faces of Seville.
• Seville City - Fascinating Facts - Home