Seville, Spain; November 19, 2000

These are photos I took while vacationing in Seville, Spain. I really enjoyed the Moorish architecture of this city. November 19, 2000.

Seville, Spain

Seville is the artistic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of 7 metres (23 ft) above sea level. The inhabitants of the city are known as Sevillanos (feminine form: Sevillanas) or Hispalenses. The population of the city of Seville was 704,414 as of 2009 (INE estimate). The population of the metropolitan area (urban area plus satellite towns) was 1,450,214 as of 2009 (INE estimate), ranking as the fourth largest metropolitan area of Spain.

Seville Cathedral

The Cathedral of Seville, also known as Catedral de Santa María de la Sede (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See) is the cathedral of the city of Seville in Andalucia. It is claimed by some to be the largest Gothic cathedral and the fourth largest Christian church in the world.

Construction of the cathedral began in 1402 and continued into the 16th century. Its central nave rises to a height of 42 metres.
The interior, with the longest nave in Spain, is lavishly decorated, with a large quantity of gold evident. In the main body of the cathedral only the great boxlike structure of the choir stands out, filling the central portion of the nave. It is also dominated by a vast Gothic retablo of carved scenes from the life of Christ. The altarpiece was the lifetime work of a single craftsman, Pierre Dancart.
The builders used some columns and elements from the mosque, and most famously the Giralda, a minaret converted into a bell tower. The Giralda is the city's most famous symbol.
This cathedral was built to demonstrate Seville's wealth, as it had become a major trading center in the years after the Reconquista.
During the planning of the cathedral's construction, a member of the chapter was recorded to have commented "we shall have a church [so great and] of such a kind that those who see it built will think we were mad."

Torre de Oro

The Torre del Oro (Spanish for "Gold Tower") is a dodecagonal military watchtower built in Seville, Spain during the Almohad dynasty in order to control access to Seville via the Guadalquivir river.

Constructed in the first third of the 13th century, the tower served as a prison during the Middle Ages and as a secure enclosure for the protection of precious metals periodically brought by the fleet of the Indies, another possible origin for the tower's name.
The tower is divided into three levels, with the third and upermost being circular in shape and added in 1760. This tower has a lesser known half sister: La Torre de la Plata, an octagonal tower.

A bull fighting stadium in Seville