According to andyeducation, Seville [se i ʎ a], is a provincial in Southwest Spain, 10 m above the sea level, at Guadalquivir, 87 km before the mouth, (2020) 691,400 residents.
Economic, cultural and political center of Andalusia with archbishopric, two universities (founded 1502/05 and 1997), various universities (music, art, architecture), seminary, oldest nautical school on earth (founded 1552), Archivo General de Indias, libraries and Museums. The economy includes aircraft factories, shipyards, textile, chemical, food industry, mechanical engineering, brewing, china, ceramics, canning, soap, perfume and cork processing; Technology park; Solar power plant.
The trading port is accessible to seagoing vessels with a draft of up to 9 m at high tide; Marina, ferry service to the Canary Islands (via Cádiz); significant tourism. Seville is an important transport hub (including high-speed railroad via Cordoba to Madrid; highways to Cádiz, Huelva and Granada); San Pablo international airport 11 km northeast, Tablada airport in the southwest. 9 km to the northwest are the remains of the Roman Italica (finds in the Archaeological Museum of Seville). Famous events in Seville are Semana Santa (Holy Week, since the 16th century), Feria de Abril (Mass, since the 19th century) and pilgrimages (especially Romería del Rocío, in May). In 1992, Seville hosted the world exhibition »EXPO` 92 «.
Cityscape
The minaret of the former main mosque (»La Giralda«, 1184–96, with Almohad architectural décor; top floor and lantern from 1558 according to a humanistic program as a symbol of triumph over death and the »false« Muslim religion as well as victory of the Renaissance culture remains from the Moorish period redesigned) and the orange tree courtyard (Patio de los Naranjos, 12th century) has been preserved. The late Gothic five-aisled cathedral, which began in 1402 on the site of the Moorish mosque, is one of the largest churches in the West (rich furnishings: including royal tombs in the Plateresque Capilla Real, 1551–75; stained glass windows and other works of art in the sacristy and chapter house). The originally Almohad Alcázar (the inner courtyard “Patio del Yeso” was preserved) was rebuilt in the Mudejar style in the 14th century. In 16. In the 17th century Seville was a center of Spanish Renaissance culture as the “New Rome” (in 1574/78 statues were erected at the Alameda de Hercules for the mythical founders of the city, Hercules and Caesar). UNESCO declared the cathedral and the Alcázar as well as the Archivo General de Indias to be World heritage.
Numerous churches in Seville were baroque and richly decorated inside in the 17th century. Among the secular buildings, the Casa de Pilatos (Palace of the Dukes of Medinaceli), completed in 1520 in Mudéjar style, stands out, which is considered a model for the Andalusian palaces (inner courtyard with two-story arcades and azulejos), as well as the former stock exchange, the Casa Lonja (built 1583-98), which today houses the Archivo General de Indias, the most comprehensive archive in colonial history. The baroque hospital building de los Venerables Sacerdotes (1675) is located in the Santa Cruz district (the Jewish quarter in Arab times); The Hospital de la Caridad dates back to the middle of the 17th century, and it still largely retains its original furnishings by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Pedro Roldán and Valdés Leal preserved. On the river bank of the Torre del Oro, a Moorish fortification tower (1220) that was connected to the Alcázar. In the south of the city, the María Luisa Park with buildings that were built for the Ibero-American Exhibition in 1929/30, including Palacio Central in the semicircular Plaza de España. To the south of the old town the former Fabrica de Tabacos (18th century, today part of the university), model for G. Bizet’s »Carmen«. The Metropol Parasol business center, a gigantic wooden construction by Jürgen Mayer H. (* 1965), was built in the oldtown in 2005–11 inplace of the old market hall.
One of the seven new bridges over the Guadalquivir, the Puente de la Barqueta (1992), connects the old town with the site of the world exhibition »EXPO` 92 «(exhibition buildings by internationally renowned architects) on the Isla de la Cartuja (through a new arm of the Guadalquivir artificially created), the area on which the Carthusian monastery (since 1401, before that Franciscan hermitage) María de las Cuevas was (hid the grave of C. Columbus in the 1st half of the 16th century, among other things), which was redesigned into a ceramic factory after secularization (1835) in connection with the original function of the site (Cuevas refers to clay pits used by the Arabs) (shut down in 1982; extensively renovated and restored, now a museum with restoration school and art institute). In connection with the world exhibition, far-reaching urban changes took place; in addition to numerous residential complexes, the opera house (La Maestranza) inaugurated in 1991, the Santa Justa train station (1989–91) by Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz, the Maritime Museum (1988–92) by Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra, the Puente del Alamillo by S. Calatrava and the new airport San Pablo (1987–91) based on plans by J. R. Moneo.
In addition to the churches of Seville, the Museum of Fine Arts in the former monastery de la Merced offers a wealth of works by Spanish baroque sculptors (P. Roldán, A. Cano and especially J. Martínez Montañés), as well as a collection of paintings (B. E. Murillo, J. de Valdés Leal, F. de Zurbarán).
History
Seville, originally the Phoenician bridge place Sephala (“lowland”) at the last crossing over the Guadalquivir, called Hispalis under the Iberians, became 45 BC. Conquered by Caesar in BC and then became the capital of the Roman province of Baetica as the fortress Colonia Iulia Romula. In 411 Seville became the capital of the Vandal Empire and was temporarily the capital of the Visigoth Empire in the 6th century; Archbishop Isidore of Seville fought Arianism from here; In 590 and 619 Seville was the venue for important councils. With the Arab conquest in 712 the long heyday of the Moorish Ichbilija began, which soon competed economically and culturally with Córdoba, was surrounded by a new, extensive wall by the Umayyads in 913, was the capital of the Taifa under the Abbadid dynasty from 1023–91, then as the capital of the Spanish Almoravid Empire (until 1146) and the Almohad Empire with magnificent buildings became. In 1248 Seville was founded by Ferdinand III. recaptured from Castile. After the discovery of America, the city gained world political importance as initially the only transshipment point for overseas trade; Since 1503 the seat of the Casa de la Contratación (state trading house), Seville became one of the richest cities in the world at that time. Almost all of the gold from the American colonies was melted in the Casa de la Moneda (mint). The relocation of the state trade monopoly to Cádiz (1717) and the gradual silting up of the Guadalquivir led to a decline in the importance of Seville, but at the end of the 18th century it was still one of the largest cities in Europe with around 96,000 residents. In the 19th century, Seville experienced a new rise through canalization (with lock construction) of the Guadalquivir and the expansion of the port and survived the invasion of the French (1810).
