Ancient origins
To discover the ancient origins of the region, you must go outside the city. In Carmona, a town of Neolithic origin, there are some interesting remains of the passage of the legendary Romans, who erected walls and a necropolis there. But it is in Italica, the birthplace of the great emperors Trajan and Hadrian, that the most impressive remains are to be found. The city boasts the largest elliptical amphitheater in Spain. In addition to this architectural feat, there are ancient thermal baths, as well as the remains of houses, streets and sewage systems that bear witness to a particularly well planned urban layout. To complete this ancient journey, do not miss the Roman water mills of Alcala de Guadaira and the remains of the Roman bridge of Utrera. In Seville itself, you can see the remains of an impressive aqueduct and the columns and statues of Hercules and Julius Caesar on the Alameda.
Moorish splendors and treasures of the Reconquest
Although the Moors have been present in Seville since the 9th century, when the first stones of the Alcazar (fortress) were laid, it was the great Almohad dynasty that left its mark on the city in the 13th century. The walls of the city, of which we can still see entire sections, especially in the Macarena district, were originally 6 km long, punctuated by 162 towers and 14 doors. A defensive architecture that can also be found in the Alcazars of Carmona and Alcala de Guadaira whose crenellated silhouettes with powerful stonework dominate the landscape. The famous Torre del Oro in Seville, which owes its name to the golden ceramic tiles that originally covered it, is without doubt the finest example of Almohad architecture that combines defense (the tower served as a model for the watchtowers and dungeons of the castles!) and decorative art. The Almohad style is characterized by a search for rigor, rationality and balance and the use of abstract or geometric motifs, notably the star and the polygon. A sobriety that expresses wonderfully the Giralda
, former minaret of the Great Mosque of Seville once simply topped by 3 golden spheres. Despite its transformation into a cathedral, elements of the original mosque remain, including the beautiful horseshoe arches crowned with elegant molded alfiz and the Patio de los Naranjos whose refreshing pool was used for the ablutions of the faithful. The Santa Cruz neighborhood also preserves the effervescence of the original medina with its maze of narrow streets, plazas and vaulted passageways... a neighborhood that would later become the Juderia, a bustling medieval Jewish quarter. Seville's Moorish heritage can also be seen in the elegant patios of the houses and in the landscaped gardens designed as oases of coolness. A vision of architecture that impressed the Catholic Monarchs... which explains why the Reconquest was accompanied by a surprising syncretism between Islamic and Gothic art. The Spanish sovereigns employed many Moorish artists to build churches and palaces. This was the triumph of the Mudejar style. The churches of San Marcos, San Pablo and Santa Marina are made of brick and have magnificent coffered ceilings called artesonados, a legacy of the Islamic tradition. The Alcazar, whose core was built by King Peter I, bears the mark of the Mudejar. See the arcades covered with cedar inlays, ceramic tiles and stucco lacework in the Patio de las Doncellas, the ceiling with artesonados in the Salón Carlos V and especially the cedar dome in the Salón de Embajadores decorated with portraits of kings... superb proof of this syncretism! The Palace of Don Pedro is unique in its kind. It does not bear the mark of the Almohads, but that of the Nasrids, a powerful dynasty that ruled Granada from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. The Emir of Granada "lent" his craftsmen to the king, who had this palace built with elegant patios and dazzling decorative wealth (azulejos, polychrome wood ...). But this syncretism should not make us forget the objectives of the Reconquest, which finds its most grandiose expression in the cathedral of Seville. A Gothic masterpiece, the building impresses by its dimensions: 136 m long, 83 m wide and 56 m high in its authentically Gothic part. Stained glass windows, fasciculated pillars (composed of 5 columns glued together), astonishing elliptical chapter house, star vault... the gothic style is flamboyant here. Finally, don't miss the Casa de Pilatos, mixing a resolutely gothic-mudejar style (patio, stuccos, azulejos, artesonados...) with elements of a nascent Renaissance (Italian loggia, staircase with worked dome...)Golden Age of Seville
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries marked the golden age of Seville. It was during this period that the city received a monopoly on trade with the New World and thus became a major economic and cultural center. This effervescence was first adorned with the finery of a Renaissance style called plateresque, due to its finely chiseled decorations that recall the work of a goldsmith(platero). The most beautiful example of this style is theTownHall, whose facade is adorned with scrolls, arabesques, garlands and bosses, and is punctuated by columns with carved capitals, balustrades and arcades. The coats of arms are also numerous. In 1574, the Count of Barajas had the marshes cleaned and drained to create the landscaped promenade of the Alameda de Hercules... the first public garden in Europe! The transition between the Renaissance and the Baroque was initially sober, even austere, in a style called Herrerian, after its great representative Juan de Herrera. The General Archives of the Indies are the most beautiful representatives of this style. Order and symmetry reign supreme and all superfluous decoration is excluded. This elegant sobriety is followed by an abundance of Baroque decoration. In Seville, it is Leonardo de Figueroa who makes his mark with torso columns, domes with glazed tiles, colored ceramic coverings and friezes, busts and cherubs. Among his most famous works are the Palacio San Telmo, the Hospital de los Venerables, theChurch of El Salvador, a superb vertical church-hall with vaults and decorations resting on 20 monumental stone pillars, and the Church of San Luis de los Franceses. Among the other superb witnesses of this abundant baroque, let's not forget the church of the Magdalena with its tangerine colored dome dotted with bright blue ceramics and its chapels overflowing with frescoes and gilding, and the gilded church of the Hospital de la Santa Caridad. In parallel to this decorative abundance, Seville became more sober under the impulse of the monastic orders which transformed it, in the 17th century, into a true convent-city. The city was then home to hundreds of monasteries. Today, a dozen or so remain, including the San Clemente Monastery, organized around a superb cloister with a double gallery of arcades, themselves supported by double Tuscan columns with wooden rails. The city's Museum of Fine Arts is housed in a former convent whose structure, organized around cloisters and patios, has been preserved. This is a far cry from the excitement of the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza, which is home to arguably the most beautiful bullring in the country. Although they were not officially completed until the 19th century, the bullring bears the mark of the late 18th century baroque style, which can be seen in the whitewashed walls with ochre and red frames and cornices, in the Prince's Gate flanked by turrets with tiled roofs and topped by pediments with scrolls, Doric pilasters and balustrades, and above all, in the Prince's Balcony with its profusion of columns and coats of arms.
Historicist follies
The 19th century in Seville was marked by the advent of neo styles and more particularly the neo-mudejar style, the most beautiful example of which is the San Telmo Pavilion or Costurero de la Reina designed in 1890 by Juan Talavera de la Vega, whose crenellated turrets and above all the superb bichromy of red and white bricks, so dear to Islamic art, can be admired. At the same time, Princess Marie-Louise of Orleans donated part of the gardens of the Palacio de San Telmo to the city to create a park designed by the aptly named Jean Forestier! Chosen to host the great Hispanic-American exhibition of 1929, Seville was then adorned with the trappings of historicism, sometimes bordering on pastiche, which was also accompanied by a renewed interest in the decorative arts, particularly ceramics. The Park of Maria Luisa, where the exhibition takes place, is then equipped with fountains, basins and other gazebos. Among the most astonishing buildings constructed for this occasion, let us note the Plaza de España, an immense hemicycle of 200 m in diameter punctuated with 48 benches for 48 provinces! See the red brick facade of its main building, highlighted by balustrades, decorated with beautiful ceramics and punctuated by galleries with semi-circular arches resting on marble columns. Another must-see is the Mudéjar Pavilion, a work by Anibal Gonzalez, inspired by the Alcazar, which unfolds in a half-moon shape in front of a canal spanned by bridges covered in azulejos. The Estacion de la Plaza de Armas, on the other hand, makes an elegant transition between historicism and modernity, with its façade combining neo-Mudejar bricks and ceramics with the glass and iron of industrial architecture. This neo effervescence continued in the following decades, as evidenced by the Basilica de la Macarena, a neo-Baroque temple from 1949 housing, in a chiseled silver alcove, the famous Virgin of La Macarena. But, like all of Spain, the city experienced a period of architectural and cultural stagnation during the Franco dictatorship.
Contemporary effervescence
The 60's mark a period of embellishment for the city. The school of architecture was officially created and a construction fever took hold of the city... unfortunately, real estate speculation quickly transformed this embellishment into a threat to the heritage. Entire neighborhoods were destroyed to make way for new buildings. It is necessary to wait until the 70's and the end of the dictatorship for the city to become aware of the richness of its heritage and the necessity to protect it. The 1980s were marked by the preparation of Expo92, the universal exhibition dedicated to the great discoveries and the future of innovation that the city would host on the Isla de la Cartuja. The preparation of the event acts as a real boost to the city. The construction and extension of highways, the repair of the road network, the creation of new high-speed train stations, the construction of the San Pablo airport designed by the famous Rafael Moneo... the city is being transformed. The great symbols of this renewal are the 6 new bridges spanning the waters of the Guadalquivir. It is impossible to miss the perfect arch of the Barqueta Bridge, the geometric canopy over the entire length of the Puente de Chapina, and the 138-meter-high pylon inclined at 58° supporting the 13 pairs of cables of the impressive Puente del Alamillo designed by the famous Santiago Calatrava. One of the most famous pavilions of the exhibition is the Navigation Pavilion designed by Guillermo Vazquez Consuegra, a great figure of Sevillian architecture. Its metal roof, large wooden beams spanning 40 meters and convex shapes are inspired by naval architecture and port sheds. Another must-see is the Estacion de Santa Justa, designed by Antonio Cruz and Antonio Cortiz and awarded the National Architecture Prize for its sober treatment of materials, its cleverly organized diaphanous interior and its mastery of proportions and light levels. Brick, concrete and metal structure are used here to evoke the dynamics of movement. To counter the possible criticism that such an event could raise, the city imagined the Cartuja93 project, which aimed to convert as many of the pavilions as possible into reception structures for companies and laboratories. In order to settle there, the latter had to prove their non-polluting character and above all ensure their presence until... 2033! Today, Guillermo Vazquez Consuegra continues to reinvent his city with amazing projects such as the CaixaForum de Sevilla, whose silver steel canopy overlooks the incredible underground space that houses the cultural center; the Magallanes Park, an authentic urban regeneration with the replanting of greenery and an ingenious rainwater recovery system; or the renovation of the beautiful Archaeological Museum, whose interior spaces the architect has redesigned, restoring the building to its original splendor. Among the other unmissable contemporary creations, let us also note : the unusual Museum of Ceramics of Triana imagined by AF6 Arquitectos unfolding on the former site of the pottery factory and whose blind facades are entirely covered with niches housing pottery; and of course the Metropol Parasol by the Berlin-based Jürgen Mayer, an astonishing wooden structure of 150 x 75 m and 28 m high supported by 6 pillars unfolding in ribbed structures supposedly reminiscent of the cathedral's vaults but which the locals renamed mushrooms! Since 2011 and the scandal that followed the construction of the Pelli Tower, an elliptical tower 180 m high with walls covered in terracotta-colored aluminum, whose proportions threatened the city for a time with being downgraded by Unesco, Seville has pledged not to build any more skyscrapers in order to protect its heritage and to advocate sobriety and sustainability.. the watchwords of the beautiful "cloud of pergolas" project designed by the famous Danish architect Bjarke Ingels and the winner of the competition launched as part of the eCitySevillan project to decarbonize the island of La Cartuja, which will then run solely on renewable energy. The future of Seville will be green!
