Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the
Spanish autonomous community of
Andalusia and the
province of Seville
The Province of Seville ( es, Sevilla) is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the provinces of Málaga, Cádiz in the south, Huelva in the west, Badajoz in the north and C ...
. It is situated on the lower reaches of the
River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the
Iberian Peninsula.
Seville has a municipal population of about 685,000 , and a
metropolitan
Metropolitan may refer to:
* Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories
* Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England
* Metropolitan county, a typ ...
population of about 1.5 million, making it the largest city in Andalusia, the
fourth-largest city in Spain and the
26th most populous municipality in the
European Union. Its
old town
In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...
, with an area of , contains three
UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the
Alcázar palace complex, the
Cathedral and the
General Archive of the Indies. The Seville harbour, located about from the Atlantic Ocean, is the only river port in Spain.
The capital of Andalusia features hot temperatures in the summer, with daily maximums routinely above in July and August.
Seville was founded as the Roman city of . Known as ''Ishbiliyah'' after the
Islamic conquest in 711, Seville became the centre of the independent
Taifa of Seville following the collapse of the
Caliphate of Córdoba in the early 11th century; later it was ruled by
Almoravids
The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that ...
and
Almohads until being incorporated to the
Crown of Castile
The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accessi ...
in 1248.
Owing to its role as gateway of the
Spanish Empire's trans-atlantic trade, managed from the
Casa de Contratación, Seville became one of the largest cities in Western Europe in the 16th century. Coinciding with the Baroque period, the 17th century in Seville represented the most brilliant flowering of the city's culture; then began a gradual economic and demographic decline as silting in the Guadalquivir forced the trade monopoly to relocate to the nearby port of
Cádiz.
The 20th century in Seville saw the tribulations of the
Spanish Civil War, decisive cultural milestones such as the
Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 and
Expo '92, and the city's election as the capital of the
Autonomous Community of Andalusia.
Name
Other names
''Hisbaal'' is the oldest name for Seville. It appears to have originated during the
Phoenician colonisation of the
Tartessian culture in south-western Iberia and it refers to the god
Baal. According to Manuel Pellicer Catalán, the ancient name was Spal, and it meant "lowland" in the
Phoenician language
Phoenician ( ) is an extinct language, extinct Canaanite languages, Canaanite Semitic languages, Semitic language originally spoken in the region surrounding the cities of Tyre, Lebanon, Tyre and Sidon. Extensive Tyro-Sidonian trade and commerci ...
(
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
to the Hebrew ''
Shfela'' and the Arabic ''Asfal'' ).
During
Roman rule, the name was Latinised as and later as . After the
Umayyad invasion, this name remained in use among the
Mozarabs,
being adapted into Arabic as ''Išbīliya'' (): since the /p/
phoneme does not exist in Arabic, it was replaced by /b/; the Latin place-name suffix ''-is'' was Arabized as ''-iya'', and ''a'' turned into ''ī'' due to the phonetic phenomenon called ''
imāla''.
In the meantime, the city's official name had been changed to ''Ḥimṣ al-Andalus'' (), in reference to the city of
Homs
Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
in modern Syria,
the jund of which Seville had been assigned to upon the Umayyad conquest;
"Ḥimṣ al-Andalus" remained a customary and affectionate name for the city during the whole period throughout the Muslim Arab world,
being referred to for example in the encyclopedia of
Yaqut al-Hamawi or in
Abu al-Baqa ar-Rundi
Abu Muhammad Salih b. Abi Sharif ar-Rundi () (or Abu-l-Tayyib/ Abu-l-Baqa Salih b. Sharif al-Rundi) was a poet, writer, and literary critic from al-Andalus who wrote in Arabic. His fame is based on his '' nuniyya'' entitled "" ''Rithaa' ul-Andalus' ...
's ''
Ritha' al-Andalus
''Rithā’ al-Andalus'' (, variously translated as "An Elegy to al-Andalus" or "Elegy for the fall of al-Andalus"), also known as ''Lament for the Fall of Seville'', is an Arabic ''qaṣīda nūniyya'' which is said to have been written by Anda ...
''.
The city is sometimes referred to as the "Pearl of Andalusia".
The inhabitants of the city are known as (feminine form: ) or , after the Roman name of the city.
Motto
''NO8DO'' is the official motto of Seville, popularly believed to be a
rebus signifying the Spanish , meaning "She
evillehas not abandoned me". The phrase, pronounced with
synalepha as no-madeja-do, is written with an eight in the middle representing the word "skein
f wool
F, or f, is the sixth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet#Let ...
. Legend states that the title was given by King
Alfonso X, who was resident in the city's
Alcázar
An alcázar, from Arabic ''al-Qasr'', is a type of Islamic castle or palace in the Iberian Peninsula (also known as al-Andalus) built during Muslim rule between the 8th and 15th centuries. They functioned as homes and regional capitals for gover ...
and supported by the citizens when his son, later
Sancho IV of Castile
Sancho IV of Castile (12 May 1258 – 25 April 1295) called the Brave (''el Bravo''), was the king of Castile, León and Galicia from 1284 to his death. Following his brother Ferdinand's death, he gained the support of nobles that ...
, tried to usurp the throne from him.
The emblem is present on Seville's municipal flag, and features on city property such as manhole covers, and
Christopher Columbus's tomb in the cathedral.
History
Seville is approximately 2,200 years old. The passage of the various civilizations instrumental in its growth has left the city with a distinct personality, and a large and well-preserved historical centre.
Early periods
The mythological founder of the city is Hercules (
Heracles), commonly identified with the Phoenician god
Melqart
Melqart (also Melkarth or Melicarthus) was the tutelary god of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre and a major deity in the Phoenician and Punic pantheons. Often titled the "Lord of Tyre" (''Ba‘al Ṣūr''), he was also known as the Son of ...
, who the myth says sailed through the
Strait of Gibraltar
The Strait of Gibraltar ( ar, مضيق جبل طارق, Maḍīq Jabal Ṭāriq; es, Estrecho de Gibraltar, Archaic: Pillars of Hercules), also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Medi ...
to the Atlantic, and founded trading posts at the current sites of
Cádiz and of Seville. The original core of the city, in the neighbourhood of the present-day street, Cuesta del Rosario, dates to the 8th century BC,
when Seville was on an island in the Guadalquivir.
Archaeological excavations in 1999 found anthropic remains under the north wall of the Real
Alcázar
An alcázar, from Arabic ''al-Qasr'', is a type of Islamic castle or palace in the Iberian Peninsula (also known as al-Andalus) built during Muslim rule between the 8th and 15th centuries. They functioned as homes and regional capitals for gover ...
dating to the 8th–7th century BC. The town was called ''Hisbaal'' by the Phoenicians and by the Tartessians, the indigenous pre-Roman Iberian people of
Tartessos, who controlled the Guadalquivir Valley at the time.
The city was known from
Roman times as ''Hispal'' and later as ''Hispalis''. Hispalis developed into one of the great market and industrial centres of Hispania, while the nearby Roman city of Italica (present-day
Santiponce, birthplace of the Roman emperors
Trajan and
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
)
remained a typically Roman residential city. Large-scale Roman archaeological remains can be seen there and at the nearby town of
Carmona
Carmona may refer to:
Places Angola
* the former name of the town of Uíge
Costa Rica
* Carmona District, Nandayure, a district in Guanacaste Province
India
* Carmona, Goa, a village located in the Salcette district of South Goa, India
...
as well.
Existing Roman features in Seville itself include the remains exposed ''in situ'' in the underground Antiquarium of the
Metropol Parasol building, the remnants of an
aqueduct, three pillars of a
temple in ''Mármoles'' Street, the columns of
La Alameda de Hércules and the remains in the Patio de Banderas square near the
Seville Cathedral. The walls surrounding the city were originally built during the rule of
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
, but their current course and design were the result of Moorish reconstructions.
Following Roman rule, there were successive conquests of the Roman province of ''
Hispania Baetica'' by the Germanic
Vandals,
Suebi
The Suebi (or Suebians, also spelled Suevi, Suavi) were a large group of Germanic peoples originally from the Elbe river region in what is now Germany and the Czech Republic. In the early Roman era they included many peoples with their own names ...
and
Visigoths during the 5th and 6th centuries.
Middle Ages
In the wake of the
Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Seville (''Spalis'') was seemingly taken by
Musa ibn Nusayr in the late summer of 712, while he was on his way to
Mérida.
Yet it had to be retaken in July 713 by troops led by his son
Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa, as the Visigothic population who had fled to
Beja had returned to Seville once Musa left for Mérida.
The seat of the
Wali of
Al-Andalus (administrative division of the
Umayyad Caliphate) was thus established in the city until 716,
when the capital of Al-Andalus was relocated to
Córdoba.
Seville (''Ishbīliya'')
was sacked by Vikings in the mid-9th century. After Vikings arrived by 25 September 844, Seville fell to invaders on 1 October, and they stood for 40 days before they fled from the city. During Umayyad rule, under an Andalusi-Arab framework, the bulk of the population were
Muladi Muladi may refer to:
*Muladí
''Muladí'' ( es, muladí, , pl. ; pt, muladi, , pl. ; ca, muladita, or , , pl. or ; ar, مولد, trans. , pl. , or , ) were Muslims of local Iberian descent or of mixed Arab, Berber, and Iberian origin wh ...
converts, to which Christian and Jewish minorities added up. Up until the arrival of the Almohads in the 12th century, the city remained as the see of a Metropolitan Archbishop, the leading Christian religious figure in al-Andalus. However, the transfer of the relics of
Saint Isidore to
León circa 1063, in the taifa period, already hinted at a possible worsening of the situation of the local Christian minority.
A
powerful ''taifa'' kingdom with capital in Seville emerged after 1023, in the wake of the
fitna of al-Andalus. Ruled by the
Abbadid dynasty
The Abbadid dynasty or Abbadids ( ar, بنو عباد, Banū ʿAbbādi) was an Arab Muslim dynasty which arose in al-Andalus on the downfall of the Caliphate of Cordoba (756–1031). After the collapse, there were multiple small Muslim states call ...
, the taifa grew by aggregation of smaller neighbouring ''taifas''. During the taifa period, Seville became an important scholarly and literary centre. After several months of siege, Seville was conquered by the
Almoravids
The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that ...
in 1091.
The city fell to the
Almohads on 17 January 1147 (12
Shaʽban
Shaʽban ( ar, شَعْبَان, ') is the eighth month of the Islamic calendar. It is called as the month of "separation", as the word means "to disperse" or "to separate" because the pagan Arabs used to disperse in search of water.
The fiftee ...
541). After an informal Almohad settlement in Seville during the early stages of the Almohad presence in the Iberian Peninsula and then a brief relocation of the capital of al-Andalus to Córdoba in 1162 (which had dire consequences for Seville, reportedly depopulated and under starvation), Seville became the definitive seat of the Andalusi part of the Almohad Empire in 1163, a twin capital alongside
Marrakech
Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...
. Almohads carried out a large urban renewal. By the end of the 12th century, the walled enclosure perhaps contained 80,000 inhabitants.
In the wider context of the Castilian–Leonese conquest of the Guadalquivir Valley that ensued in the 13th century,
Ferdinand III laid siege on Seville in 1247. A
naval blockade came to prevent relief of the city. The city surrendered on 23 November 1248,
after fifteen months of siege. The conditions of capitulation contemplated the eviction of the population, with contemporary sources seemingly confirming that a mass movement of people out of Seville indeed took place.
The city's development continued after the
Castilian conquest in 1248. Public buildings were constructed including churches—many of which were built in the ''
Mudéjar'' and
Gothic styles—such as the
Seville Cathedral, built during the 15th century with
Gothic architecture.
Other Moorish buildings were converted into Catholic edifices, as was customary of the Catholic Church during the Reconquista. The Moors' Palace became the Castilian royal residence, and during
Pedro I's rule it was replaced by the
Alcázar
An alcázar, from Arabic ''al-Qasr'', is a type of Islamic castle or palace in the Iberian Peninsula (also known as al-Andalus) built during Muslim rule between the 8th and 15th centuries. They functioned as homes and regional capitals for gover ...
(the upper levels are still used by the
Spanish royal family
The Spanish royal family consists of King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, their children (Leonor, Princess of Asturias and Infanta Sofía of Spain), and Felipe's parents, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía. The royal family lives at Zarzuela Palace i ...
as the official Seville residence).
After the 1391
pogrom, believed to having been instigated by the Archdeacon
Ferrant Martínez, all the synagogues in Seville were converted to churches (renamed Santa María la Blanca, San Bartolomé, Santa Cruz, and Convento Madre de Dios). The Jewish quarter's land and shops (which were located in modern-day
Barrio Santa Cruz
''Barrio'' () is a Spanish word that means "quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residential, commercial, industrial, etc.), social, arch ...
) were appropriated by the church. Many Jews were killed during the pogrom, although most were
forced to convert.
The first tribunal of the
Spanish Inquisition was instituted in Seville in 1478. Its primary charge was to ensure that all nominal Christians were really behaving like Christians, and not practicing what Judaism they could in secret. At first, the activity of the Inquisition was limited to the dioceses of
Seville and
Córdoba, where the Dominican friar, Alonso de Ojeda, had detected
converso
A ''converso'' (; ; feminine form ''conversa''), "convert", () was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of his or her descendants.
To safeguard the Old Christian po ...
activity.
[ Description of Dominican friar who agitated for the Spanish Inquisition.] The first
Auto de Fé took place in Seville on 6 February 1481, when six people were burned alive. Alonso de Ojeda himself gave the sermon. The Inquisition then grew rapidly. The Plaza de San Francisco was the site of the 'autos de fé'. By 1492, tribunals existed in eight Castilian cities: Ávila, Córdoba, Jaén, Medina del Campo, Segovia, Sigüenza, Toledo, and Valladolid; and by the
Alhambra Decree
The Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion; Spanish: ''Decreto de la Alhambra'', ''Edicto de Granada'') was an edict issued on 31 March 1492, by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain ( Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Arag ...
all Jews were
forced to convert to Catholicism or be exiled (expelled) from Spain.
[Levine Melammed, Renee. "Women in Medieval Jewish Societies." ''Women and Judaism: New Insights and Scholarship''. Ed. Frederick E. Greenspahn. New York: New York University Press, 2009. 105–106.]
Early modern period
Following the
Columbian exploration of the
New World, Seville was chosen as headquarters of the
Casa de Contratación in 1503, which was the decisive development for Seville becoming the port and gateway to the Indies. Unlike other harbours, reaching the port of Seville required sailing about up the River Guadalquivir. The choice of Seville was made in spite of the difficulties for navigation in the Guadalquivir stemming from the increasing
tonnage of ships as a result of the relentless drive to make maritime transport cheaper during the late Middle Ages. Nevertheless, technical suitability issues notwithstanding, the choice was still reasonable in the sense that Seville had become the largest demographic, economic and financial centre of Christian Andalusia in the late Middle Ages.
A 'golden age of development' commenced in Seville, due to its being the only port awarded the royal monopoly for trade with the growing
Spanish colonies in the Americas and the influx of riches from them.
Since only
sailing ships leaving from and returning to the inland port of Seville could engage in trade with the Spanish Americas, merchants from Europe and other trade centres needed to go to Seville to acquire New World trade goods. The city's population grew to more than a hundred thousand people.
In the late 16th century the monopoly was broken, with the port of
Cádiz also authorised as a port of trade. Throughout the 17th century, colonial trade declined. Spain's American Colonies improved their production of basic goods, reducing their need to import. Compounded with these tribulations was the
silting of the Guadalquivir river in the 1620s, which made Seville's harbors harder to use, and ceased upriver shipping.
The
Great Plague of Seville
The Great Plague of Seville (1647–1652) was a massive outbreak of disease in Spain that killed up to a quarter of Seville's population.
Background
Unlike the plague of 1596–1602, which claimed 600,000 to 700,000 lives, or a little under 8% o ...
in 1649, exacerbated by excessive flooding of the Guadalquivir, reduced the population by almost half, and it would not recover until the early 19th century. By the 18th century, Seville's international importance was in decline. After the silting up of the harbour by the River Guadalquivir, upriver shipping ceased and the city went into relative economic decline.
The writer
Miguel de Cervantes lived primarily in Seville between 1596 and 1600. Because of financial problems, Cervantes worked as a purveyor for the Spanish Armada, and later as a tax collector. In 1597, discrepancies in his accounts of the three years previous landed him in the Royal Prison of Seville for a short time. His short story ''
Rinconete y Cortadillo
"Rinconete y Cortadillo" (or "Novela de Rinconete y Cortadillo") is one of the twelve short stories included in ''Novelas Ejemplares'', by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes.
The story is set in Seville in 1569, which at the time was a rich city ...
'', since the 19th century one of his most-read pieces, includes much description of Sevillian society; it features two young vagabonds who come to Seville, attracted by the riches and disorder that the 16th-century commerce with the Americas had brought to the city.
During the 18th century
Charles III of Spain
it, Carlo Sebastiano di Borbone e Farnese
, house = Bourbon-Anjou
, father = Philip V of Spain
, mother = Elisabeth Farnese
, birth_date = 20 January 1716
, birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Spain
, death_d ...
promoted Seville's industries. Construction of the ''Real Fábrica de Tabacos'' (
Royal Tobacco Factory
The Royal Tobacco Factory ( es, Real Fábrica de Tabacos) is an 18th-century stone building in Seville, southern Spain. Since the 1950s it has been the seat of the rectorate of the University of Seville. Prior to that, it was, as its name indicat ...
) began in 1728. It was the second-largest building in Spain, after the royal residence
El Escorial. Since the 1950s it has been the seat of the rectorate (administration) of the
University of Seville, as well as its Schools of Law, Philology (language/letters), Geography, and History.
More operas have been set in Seville than in any other city of Europe. In 2012, a study of experts concluded the total number of operas set in Seville is 153. Among the composers who fell in love with the city are
Beethoven (''
Fidelio''),
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
(''
The Marriage of Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...
'' and ''
Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...
''),
Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...
(''
The Barber of Seville''),
Donizetti (''
La favorite''), and
Bizet (''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'').
The first newspaper in Spain outside of Madrid was Seville's ''Hebdomario útil de Seville'', which began publication in 1758.
Late modern history
Between 1825 and 1833, Melchor Cano acted as chief architect in Seville; most of the urban planning policy and architectural modifications of the city were made by him and his collaborator Jose Manuel Arjona y Cuba.
Industrial architecture surviving today from the first half of the 19th century includes the ceramics factory installed in the Carthusian monastery at La Cartuja in 1841 by the Pickman family, and now home to the El Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC),
which manages the collections of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Sevilla.
It also houses the rectory of the UNIA.
In the years that Queen
Isabel II
Isabella II ( es, Isabel II; 10 October 1830 – 9 April 1904), was Queen of Spain from 29 September 1833 until 30 September 1868.
Shortly before her birth, the King Ferdinand VII of Spain issued a Pragmatic Sanction to ensure the successio ...
ruled directly, about 1843–1868, the Sevillian bourgeoisie invested in a construction boom unmatched in the city's history. The
Isabel II bridge, better known as the Triana bridge, dates from this period; street lighting was expanded in the municipality and most of the streets were paved during this time as well.
[Diego A. Cardoso Bueno: ''Sevilla. El Casco Antiguo. Historia, Arte y Urbanismo''. Ediciones Guadalquivir (2006). . Consultado el 24 March 2010]
By the second half of the 19th century, Seville had begun an expansion supported by railway construction and the demolition of part of its ancient walls, allowing the urban space of the city to grow eastward and southward. The ''Sevillana de Electricidad'' Company was created in 1894 to provide electric power throughout the municipality, and in 1901 the ''Plaza de Armas'' railway station was inaugurated.
The Museum of Fine Arts ''(Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla)'' opened in 1904.
In 1929 the city hosted the
Ibero-American Exposition
The Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 (Spanish: ''Exposición iberoamericana de 1929'') was a world's fair held in Seville, Spain, from 9 May 1929 until 21 June 1930. Countries in attendance of the exposition included: Portugal, the United Stat ...
, which accelerated the southern expansion of the city and created new public spaces such as the
Plaza de España and the
Maria Luisa Park. Not long before the opening, the Spanish government began a modernisation of the city in order to prepare for the expected crowds by erecting new hotels and widening the mediaeval streets to allow for the movement of automobiles.
Seville fell very quickly at the beginning of the
Spanish Civil War in 1936. General
Queipo de Llano carried out a coup within the city, quickly capturing the city centre.
[''The Spanish Civil War'', Hugh Thomas, Penguin, 1961, pp. 221–223, ] Radio Seville opposed the uprising and called for the peasants to come to the city for arms, while workers' groups established barricades.
Queipo then moved to capture Radio Seville, which he used to broadcast propaganda on behalf of the Francoist forces.
After the initial takeover of the city, resistance continued among residents of the working-class neighbourhoods for some time, until a series of fierce reprisals took place.
Under
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...
's rule Spain was officially neutral in World War II (although it did collaborate with the
Axis powers),
and like the rest of the country, Seville remained largely economically and culturally isolated from the outside world. In 1953 the shipyard of Seville was opened, eventually employing more than 2,000 workers in the 1970s. Before the existence of wetlands regulation in the Guadalquivir basin, Seville suffered regular heavy flooding; perhaps worst of all were the floods that occurred in November 1961 when the River Tamarguillo, a tributary of the Guadalquivir, overflowed as a result of a prodigious downpour of rain, and Seville was consequently declared a disaster zone.
Trade unionism in Seville began during the 1960s with the underground organisational activities of the Workers' Commissions or Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), in factories such as Hytasa, the Astilleros shipyards, Hispano Aviación, etc. Several of the movement's leaders were imprisoned in November 1973.
Recent developments
On 3 April 1979 Spain held its first democratic municipal elections after the end of Franco's dictatorship; councillors representing four different political parties were elected in Seville. On 5 November 1982,
Pope John Paul II arrived in Seville to officiate at a Mass before more than half a million people at the fairgrounds. He visited the city again on 13 June 1993, for the International Eucharistic Congress.
In 1992, coinciding with the fifth centenary of the
Discovery of the Americas, the
Universal Exposition was held for six months in Seville, on the occasion of which the local communications network and urban infrastructure was greatly improved under a 1987
PGOU plan launched by Mayor
Manuel del Valle
Manuel del Valle Arévalo (10 November 1939 – 26 March 2020) was a Spanish lawyer, politician, and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) who served as Mayor of Seville from 24 May 1983 until 30 June 1991. Del Valle is credited ...
:
the SE-30 ring road around the city was completed and new highways were constructed; the new
Seville-Santa Justa railway station had opened in 1991, while the Spanish High-Speed Rail system, the ''
Alta Velocidad Española'' (AVE), began to operate between Madrid-Seville. The
Seville Airport was expanded with a new terminal building designed by the architect
Rafael Moneo, and various other improvements were made. The
Alamillo Bridge and the
Centenario Bridge, both crossing over the Guadalquivir, also were built for the occasion. Some of the installations remaining at the site after the exposition were converted into the Scientific and Technological Park
Cartuja 93.
In 2004 the
Metropol Parasol project, commonly known as ''Las Setas'' (''The Mushrooms''), due to the appearance of the structure, was launched to revitalise the Plaza de la Encarnación, for years used as a car park and seen as a dead spot between more popular tourist destinations in the city. The Metropol Parasol was completed in March 2011, costing just over €102 million in total, more than twice as much as originally planned. Constructed from crossed wooden beams, ''Las Setas'' is said to be the largest timber-framed structure in the world.
Geography and climate
Location
Seville has an area of , according to the National Topographic Map ''(Mapa Topográfico Nacional)'' series from the ''Instituto Geográfico Nacional – Centro Nacional de Información Geográfica'', the country's civilian survey organisation (pages 984, 985 and 1002). The city is situated in the fertile valley of the River Guadalquivir. The average height
above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''.
The comb ...
is . Most of the city is on the east side of the river, while
Triana,
La Cartuja and
Los Remedios are on the west side. The
Aljarafe region lies further west, and is considered part of the metropolitan area. The city has boundaries on the north with
La Rinconada
La Rinconada is a municipality located in the Seville (province), province of Seville, Andalusia, Spain. According to the 2020 census (Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spain), INE), the city has a population of 39,062 inhabitants.
File:Igles ...
,
La Algaba
La Algaba is a Spanish municipality in the province of Seville, Andalusia, with a population of around 16,000. It belongs to the region of La Vega, 7 km from the provincial capital, Seville. The town dates back to the Byzantine Empire, and ha ...
and
Santiponce; on the east with
Alcalá de Guadaira; on the south with
Dos Hermanas and
Gelves and on the west with
San Juan de Aznalfarache
San Juan de Aznalfarache is a city located in the province of Seville, Spain. According to the 2006 census (INE), the city has a population of 20,121 inhabitants.
Despite being a separate municipality, San Juan is in the metropolitan area of S ...
,
Tomares and
Camas.
Seville is on the same
parallel as United States west coast city
San Jose in central California.
São Miguel, the main island of the
Azores archipelago, lies on the same latitude. Further east from Seville in the
Mediterranean Basin
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and w ...
, it is on the same latitude as
Catania
Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...
in Sicily, Italy and just south of
Athens, the capital of
Greece. Beyond that, it is located on the same parallel as South Korean capital,
Seoul. Seville is located inland, not very far from the Andalusian coast, but still sees a much more continental climate than the nearest port cities,
Cádiz and
Huelva. Its distance from the sea makes summers in Sevilla much hotter than along the coastline.
Climate
Seville has a
Mediterranean climate (
Köppen climate classification ''Csa''), featuring very hot, dry summers and mild winters with moderate rainfall. Seville has an annual average of . The annual average temperature is during the day and at night. Seville is located in the lower part of the
Guadalquivir Valley, which is often referred to as "the frying pan of Spain", as it features the hottest cities in the country.
Seville is the warmest city in Continental Europe. It is also the hottest major metropolitan area in Europe, with summer average high temperatures of above and also the hottest in Spain. After the city of
Córdoba (also in Andalusia), Seville has the hottest summer in continental Europe among all cities with a population over 100,000 people, with average daily highs of in July.
Temperatures above are not uncommon in summer. The hottest temperature extreme of was registered by the weather station at
Seville Airport on 23 July 1995 while the coldest temperature extreme of was also registered by the airport weather station on 12 February 1956. A historical record high (disputed) of was recorded on 4 August 1881, according to the
NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
Satellite and Information Service. There is an unaccredited record by the National Institute of Meteorology of on 1 August during the
2003 heat wave
The 2003 European heat wave saw the hottest summer recorded in Europe since at least 1540. France was hit especially hard. The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop shortfall in parts of S ...
, according to a weather station (83910 LEZL) located in the southern part of Seville Airport, near the former US San Pablo Air Force Base. This temperature would be one of the highest ever recorded in Spain, yet it hasn't been officially confirmed.
The average sunshine hours in Seville are approximately 3000 per year. Snowfall is virtually unknown, and the last important snowfall occurred in 1954. Since the year 1500, only 10 snowfalls have been recorded/reported in Seville. During the 20th century, Seville registered just 2 snowfalls, the last one on 2 February 1954.
* Winters are mild: December and January are the coolest months, with average maximum temperatures around and minimums of .
* Summers are very hot: July and August are the hottest months, with average maximum temperatures around and minimums of .
*
Precipitation varies from and there are around 50 rainy days per year, with frequent
torrential rain. December is the wettest month, with an average rainfall of .
Government
Municipal government and administration
Seville is a
municipality, the basic level of local government in Spain. The
Ayuntamiento is the body charged with the municipal government and administration. The Plenary of the ''ayuntamiento'' is formed by 31 elected municipal councillors, who in turn invest the
mayor. The
last municipal election took place on 26 May 2019. The current mayor is
Antonio Muñoz (
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), who has held the post since the reign of the previous mayor,
Juan Espadas
Juan Espadas Cejas (born 30 September 1966) is a Spanish politician of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was the Minister of Housing and Planning for the Government of Andalusia from 2008 to 2010 and a senator from 2010 to 2013. Fr ...
in early 2022.
Regional and provincial capital
Seville is the capital of the autonomous community of
Andalusia, according to Article 4 of the
Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia of 2007, and is the capital of the
Province of Seville
The Province of Seville ( es, Sevilla) is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the provinces of Málaga, Cádiz in the south, Huelva in the west, Badajoz in the north and C ...
as well. The historical building of the
Palace of San Telmo is now the seat of the presidency of the
Andalusian Autonomous Government. The administrative headquarters are in Torre Triana, in
La Cartuja. The
Hospital de las Cinco Llagas (literally, "Hospital of the Five Holy Wounds") is the current seat of the
Parliament of Andalusia.
Districts and neighbourhoods
The municipal administration is decentralized into 11 districts, further divided into 108 neighbourhoods.
*
Casco Antiguo
* Distrito Sur
*
Triana
*
Macarena
*
Nervión
*
Los Remedios
* Este-Alcosa-Torreblanca
* Cerro-Amate
*
Bellavista-La Palmera
* San Pablo-Santa Justa
Main sights
Seville is a big tourist centre in Spain. In 2018, there were over 2.5 million travellers and tourists who stayed at a tourist accommodation, placing it third in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona. The city has an overall low level of seasonality, so there are tourists year-round. There are many landmarks, museums, parks, gardens and other kinds of tourist spots around the city so there is something for everyone.
The
Alcázar
An alcázar, from Arabic ''al-Qasr'', is a type of Islamic castle or palace in the Iberian Peninsula (also known as al-Andalus) built during Muslim rule between the 8th and 15th centuries. They functioned as homes and regional capitals for gover ...
, the
Cathedral, and the ''
Archivo General de Indias'' (General Archive of the Indies) are UNESCO
World Heritage Sites.
Landmarks
The
St. Mary of the See Cathedral was built from 1401 to 1519 after the ''
Reconquista'' on the former site of the city's mosque. It is among the largest of all medieval and
Gothic cathedrals, in terms of both area and volume. The interior is the longest
nave in Spain and is lavishly decorated, with a large quantity of gold evident. La Giralda is a tower attached to the Cathedral that dates back to the twelfth century. It was originally built as part of a mosque when the Moors ruled in Spain and was later added onto by the Christians. Tourists today can climb the tower by walking up a series of ramps that were previously used by officials who rode their horses to the top of the tower. The overall tower construction is consistent with Roman lighthouse construction methods such as with the
Tower of Hercules (circa 2nd century CE) built on the northwest coast of Spain. La Giralda gets its name from the weathervane attached to the very top of it, as "gira" means "turning one" in the Spanish language.
The ''
Alcázar
An alcázar, from Arabic ''al-Qasr'', is a type of Islamic castle or palace in the Iberian Peninsula (also known as al-Andalus) built during Muslim rule between the 8th and 15th centuries. They functioned as homes and regional capitals for gover ...
'' facing the cathedral was developed from a previous Moorish
Palace
A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...
which was developed from a Visigoth establishment which was itself developed from an existing Roman construction. The redevelopment was started in 1181 and continued for over 500 years, mainly in the
Mudéjar style, but also in the
Renaissance style. The TV show
Game of Thrones
''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...
has shot many scenes at this location.
The ''
Church of Saint Louis of France
The Church of Saint Louis of France, located in the historic district of Seville, Spain, represents an example of Baroque architecture in the 18th century. The church was designed by the architect Leonardo of Figueroa and constructed between 1699 ...
'', located in the historic district of Seville represents an example of
Baroque architecture in the 18th century.
The ''
Torre del Oro'' was built as a
watchtower and defensive barrier on the river. The river was used as a mode of defense. A chain was strung through the water from the base of the tower to prevent boats from traveling into the river port.
The
City Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
was built in the 16th century in high
Plateresque style by master architect
Diego de Riaño
Diego de Riaño (died 1534) was a Spanish architect of the Renaissance. He was one of the most outstanding architects of the Plateresque style.
He was born at Riaño, in Cantabria, and is documented in Seville starting from 1523. In 1527 ...
. The façade to Plaza Nueva was built in the 19th century in
Neoclassical style.
The
Palacio de San Telmo, formerly the University of Sailors, and later the Seminary, is now the seat for the
Andalusian Autonomous Government. It is one of the most emblematic buildings of
baroque architecture, mainly to its world-renowned
churrigueresque principal façade and the impressive chapel.
The
Royal Tobacco Factory
The Royal Tobacco Factory ( es, Real Fábrica de Tabacos) is an 18th-century stone building in Seville, southern Spain. Since the 1950s it has been the seat of the rectorate of the University of Seville. Prior to that, it was, as its name indicat ...
is housed on the original site of the first tobacco factory in Europe, a vast 18th-century building in
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
style and the purported inspiration for the opera ''Carmen''.
The ''
Metropol Parasol'', in La Encarnación square, is the world's largest wooden structure. A monumental umbrella-like building designed by the German architect
Jürgen Mayer
Jürgen Hermann Mayer (born 1965 in Stuttgart) is a German architect and artist. He is the leader of the architecture firm "J. MAYER H." in Berlin and calls himself ''Jürgen Mayer H.''
Life and work
He studied at Stuttgart University, The ...
, finished in 2011. This modern architecture structure houses the central market and an underground archaeological complex. The terrace roof is a city viewpoint.
The
General Archive of the Indies, is the repository of extremely valuable archival documents illustrating the history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and the Philippines. The building itself, an unusually serene and Italianate example of Spanish Renaissance architecture, was designed by Juan de Herrera.
The ''
Plaza de España'' in the ''
Parque de María Luisa
The Parque de María Luisa (María Luisa Park) is a public park that stretches along the Guadalquivir River in Seville, Spain. It is Seville's principal green area.
History
Most of the grounds that were used for the park were formerly the garde ...
'' (María Luisa Park) was built by the architect Aníbal González for the 1929
Exposición Ibero-Americana. It is an outstanding example of Regionalist Revival Architecture, a bizarre and loftily conceived mixture of diverse historic styles, such as
Art Deco and lavishly ornamented with typical glazed tiles.
The Moorish urban influences continued and are present in contemporary Seville, for instance in the custom of decorating with plants and small fountains in the courtyards of the houses. However, most buildings of the Moorish aesthetic actually belong to the
Mudéjar style of Islamic art, developed under Christian rule and inspired by the Arabic style. Original
Moorish
The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a distinct or se ...
buildings are the ''Patio del Yeso'' in the
Alcázar
An alcázar, from Arabic ''al-Qasr'', is a type of Islamic castle or palace in the Iberian Peninsula (also known as al-Andalus) built during Muslim rule between the 8th and 15th centuries. They functioned as homes and regional capitals for gover ...
, the city walls, and the main section of the
Giralda, the bell tower of the
Seville Cathedral.
The neighbourhood of ''
Triana'', situated on the west bank of the River Guadalquivir, had an important role in the history of the city and constitutes by itself a folk, monumental and cultural centre.
On the other hand, ''
La Macarena
"Macarena" is a dance song by Spanish pop duo Los del Río, about a woman of the same name. The song uses a type of clave rhythm. Originally appearing on the 1993 album '' A mí me gusta'', a subsequent remix by Miami-based producers The Bay ...
'' neighbourhood is located on the northern side of the city centre. It contains some important monuments and religious buildings, such as the Museum and Catholic Church of ''La Macarena'' or the ''
Hospital de las Cinco Llagas''.
Museums
The most important art collection of Seville is the
Museum of Fine Arts of Seville. It was established in 1835 in the former Convent of ''La Merced''. It holds many masterworks by
Murillo,
Pacheco,
Zurbarán,
Valdés Leal, and others masters of the Baroque Sevillian School, containing also Flemish paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Other museums in Seville are:
* The
Archaeological Museum
An archaeology museum is a museum that specializes in the display of archaeological
Types
Many archaeology museum are in the open air, such as the Ancient Agora of Athens and the Roman Forum. Others display artifacts inside buildings, such as Na ...
, which contains collections from the
Tartessian,
Roman and some of
Almohad and Christian periods, located in ''América'' square at the ''
Parque de María Luisa
The Parque de María Luisa (María Luisa Park) is a public park that stretches along the Guadalquivir River in Seville, Spain. It is Seville's principal green area.
History
Most of the grounds that were used for the park were formerly the garde ...
'' (María Luisa Park).
* The
Museum of Arts and Traditions, also in América Square, in front of the Archaeological Museum.
* The
Andalusian Contemporary Art Centre, situated in the neighbourhood of
La Cartuja.
* The Naval Museum, housed in the golden
Torre del Oro, next to the River
Guadalquivir.
* The Carriages Museum, in the
Los Remedios neighbourhood.
* The
Flamenco Art Museum
* The
Bullfighting
Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations.
There are several variations, including some forms wh ...
Museum, in the
La Maestranza bullring
* The
Palace of the Countess of Lebrija, a private collection that contains many of the mosaic floors discovered in the nearby Roman town of
Italica.
* The ''Centro
Velázquez'' (Velázquez Centre) located at the Old Priests Hospital in the touristic
Santa Cruz neighbourhood.
* The ''Antiquarium'' in
Metropol Parasol, an underground museum which is composed of the most important archaeological site of the ancient Roman stage of Seville and remains preserved.
* The ''
Castillo de San Jorge'' (Castle of St. George) is situated near the Triana market, next to the Isabel II bridge. It was the last seat for the
Spanish Inquisition.
* The
Museum and Treasure of ''La Macarena'', where the collection of the
Macarena brotherhood is exhibited. This exhibition gives visitors an accurate impression of Seville's
Holy Week.
* ''
La Casa de la Ciencia
La Casa de la Ciencia (''The House of Science'') in the city of Seville, Spain is a centre for popularizing science.
Along with a museum, the building houses the Andalusian headquarters of the Spanish National Research Council ( CSIC). CSIC is t ...
'' (The House of Science), a science centre and museum opposite the María Luisa Park.
* Museum of Pottery in Triana.
* ''Pabellon de la Navegación'' (Pavilion of Navigation).
Parks and gardens
* The ''
Parque de María Luisa
The Parque de María Luisa (María Luisa Park) is a public park that stretches along the Guadalquivir River in Seville, Spain. It is Seville's principal green area.
History
Most of the grounds that were used for the park were formerly the garde ...
'' (María Luisa Park), is a monumental park built for the 1929
World's Fair held in Seville, the
Exposición Ibero-Americana. The so-called ''Jardines de las Delicias'' (literally, Delighting Gardens), closer to the river, are part of the ''Parque de María Luisa''.
* The Alcázar Gardens, within the grounds of the ''
Alcázar
An alcázar, from Arabic ''al-Qasr'', is a type of Islamic castle or palace in the Iberian Peninsula (also known as al-Andalus) built during Muslim rule between the 8th and 15th centuries. They functioned as homes and regional capitals for gover ...
'' palace, consist of several sectors developed in different historical styles.
* The Gardens of Murillo and the Gardens of Catalina de Ribera, both along and outside the South wall of the Alcázar, lie next to the ''Santa Cruz'' quarter.
* The ''Parque del Alamillo y San Jerónimo'', the largest park in Andalusia, was originally built for
Seville Expo '92 to reproduce the Andalusian native flora. It lines both
Guadalquivir shores around the ''San Jerónimo''
meander. The 32-metres-high bronze sculpture, ''
The Birth of a New Man'' (popularly known as Columbus's Egg, ''el Huevo de Colón''), by the Georgian sculptor
Zurab Tsereteli, is located in its northwestern sector.
* The American Garden, also completed for Expo '92, is in
La Cartuja. It is a public botanical garden, with a representative collection of American plants donated by different countries on the occasion of the world exposition. Despite its extraordinary botanical value, it remains a mostly abandoned place.
* The
Buhaira Gardens
The Buhaira Gardens, also known as the Buhaira Palace or the ''Buḥayra'' (transliteration of ), is a former Almohad garden and palace in Seville, Spain. It was created in the 12th century. After the ''Reconquista'' it was also known in Spanish a ...
, also historically known as the ''Huerta del Rey'', are a public park and historic site, originally created as a garden estate during the Almohad period (12th century).
Culture
Theaters
The
Teatro Lope de Vega is located on Avenida de María Luisa avenue (next to ''
Parque de María Luisa
The Parque de María Luisa (María Luisa Park) is a public park that stretches along the Guadalquivir River in Seville, Spain. It is Seville's principal green area.
History
Most of the grounds that were used for the park were formerly the garde ...
''). It was built in 1929, being its architect
Vicente Traver y Tomás
Vicente Traver y Tomás (23 September 1888 – 15 November 1966) was a Spanish architect.
His most notable works were constructed in Seville between 1915 and 1933.
Biography
Vicente Traver y Tomás was born in Castellón de la Plana on 23 Septem ...
. It was the auditorium of the pavilion of the city in the Ibero-American Exhibition. This pavilion had a large room that became the Casino of the Exhibition. The theater occupied an area of 4600 m
2 and could accommodate 1100 viewers. Its architecture is
Spanish Baroque Revival
Spanish Baroque is a strand of Baroque architecture that evolved in Spain, its provinces, and former colonies.
History
As Italian Baroque influences penetrated across the Pyrenees, they gradually superseded in popularity the restrained classic ...
, being the building faithful to this style both in the set and in its ornamentation.
It has hosted varied performances, including theater, dance, opera,
jazz, and
flamenco and nowadays the most outstanding of the panorama is its programming national and international, becoming one of the most important theaters in Spain.
Others important theatres are
Teatro de la Maestranza
The Teatro de la Maestranza is an opera house located in Seville, Spain.
The theatre was conceived to be one of the main cultural venues of the Seville Expo '92, and the first performance took place in 1991, shortly before the inauguration of the ...
, Auditorio Rocío Jurado and Teatro Central.
Seville also has a
corral de comedias theatre, which is the
Corral del Coliseo
A pen is an enclosure for holding livestock. It may also perhaps be used as a term for an enclosure for other animals such as pets that are unwanted inside the house. The term describes types of enclosures that may confine one or many animal ...
, now used as a residential building.
Festivals
There are many entertainment options around the city of Seville and one of its biggest attractions is the numerous festivals that happen around the year. Some of the festivals concentrate on religion and culture, others focus on the folklore of the area, traditions, and entertainment.
Holy Week in Seville
Semana Santa is celebrated all over Spain and Latin America, but the celebration in Seville is large and well known as a Fiesta of International Tourist Interest. 54 local brotherhoods, or "cofradías", organize floats and processions throughout the week, reenacting the story of the Passion of Christ. There is traditional music and art incorporated into the processions, making Semana Santa an important source of both material and immaterial Sevillian cultural identity.
Bienal de Flamenco
Seville is home to the bi-annual flamenco festival La Bienal, which claims to be "the biggest flamenco event worldwide" and lasts for nearly a month.
Velá de Santiago y Santa Ana
In the district of Triana, the Velá de Santiago y Santa Ana is held every July and includes sporting events, performances, and cultural activities as the city honors St. James and St. Ana.
Feria de Abril
The April Fair (''Feria de Abril'') is a huge celebration that takes place in Seville about two weeks after the Holy Week. It was previously associated with celebrating livestock; however, nowadays its purpose is to create a fun cheerful environment tied to the appreciation of the Spanish folklore.
During the Feria, families, businesses, and organisations set up ''casetas'' (
marquees) in which they spend the week dancing, drinking, and socialising. Traditionally, women wear elaborate
flamenco dresses and men dress in their best suits. The marquees are set up on a permanent fairground in the district of
Los Remedios, in which each street is named after a famous bullfighter.
Salón Náutico Internacional de Sevilla
The International Boat Show of Seville is an annual event that takes place in the only indoor maritime port of the country, which is one of the most important in Europe.
Music
Seville had a vibrant rock music scene in the 1970s and 1980s with bands like
Triana,
Alameda and
Smash, who fused Andalusia's traditional
flamenco music with British-style progressive rock. The punk rock group
Reincidentes
Reincidentes is a Spanish rock/ punk rock band. They were formed in the 1980s as ''Incidente Local'', by Manuel Pizarro on drums, Juan Barea on guitar, and Fernando Medina on bass and vocals. They performed their first live concert in 1987 at Uni ...
and indie band
Sr Chinarro, as well as singer
Kiko Veneno, rose to prominence in the early 1990s. The city's music scene now features rap acts such as
SFDK,
Mala Rodríguez,
Dareysteel,
Tote King,
Dogma Crew,
Bisley DeMarra Bisley may refer to:
;Places in England
*Bisley, Gloucestershire
*Bisley, Surrey
**National Shooting Centre, also known as Bisley Ranges, near the Surrey village
;Surname
* John Bisley (disambiguation)
*Simon Bisley, British comic book artist
* Ma ...
,
Haze and
Jesuly. Seville's diverse music scene is reflected in the variety of its club-centred nightlife.
The city is also home to many theatres and performance spaces where classical music is performed, including
Teatro Lope de Vega,
Teatro La Maestranza
Teatro may refer to:
* Theatre
* Teatro (band)
Teatro, Italian for "theatre", is a vocal group signed to the Sony BMG music label. The members of Teatro are Jeremiah James, Andrew Alexander, Simon Bailey and Stephen Rahman-Hughes.
Band members ...
, Teatro Central, the
Real Alcazar Gardens and the Sala Joaquín Turina.
Despite its name, the
sevillana
''Sevillanas'' () are a type of folk music and dance of Sevilla and its region. They were derived from the Seguidilla, an old Castilian folk music and dance genre. In the nineteenth century they were influenced by Flamenco. They have a relati ...
dance, commonly presented as
flamenco, is not thought to be of Sevillan origin. However, the folksongs called ''
sevillanas'' are authentically Sevillan, as is the four-part dance performed with them.
Flamenco
The
Triana district in Seville is considered a birthplace of flamenco, where it found its beginning as an expression of the poor and marginalized. Seville's Gypsy population, known as Flamencos, were instrumental in the development of the art form. While it began as and remains a representation of Andalusian culture, it has also become a national heritage symbol of Spain.
There are more flamenco artists in Seville than anywhere else in the country, supporting an entire industry surrounding it and drawing in a significant amount of tourism for the city.
Gastronomy
The ''
tapas'' scene is one of the main cultural attractions of the city: people go from one bar to another, enjoying small dishes called tapas (literally "lids" or "covers" in Spanish, referring to their probable origin as snacks served on small plates used to cover drinks).
Local specialities include fried and grilled seafood (including
squid
True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...
, ''choco'' (
cuttlefish
Cuttlefish or cuttles are marine molluscs of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone, which is used for control of ...
),
swordfish
Swordfish (''Xiphias gladius''), also known as broadbills in some countries, are large, highly migratory predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill. They are a popular sport fish of the billfish category, though elusive. Swordfis ...
, marinated
dogfish, and ''
ortiguillas''), grilled and stewed meat,
spinach
Spinach (''Spinacia oleracea'') is a leafy green flowering plant native to central and western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common edible vegetable consumed either f ...
with
chickpea
The chickpea or chick pea (''Cicer arietinum'') is an annual legume of the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. Its different types are variously known as gram" or Bengal gram, garbanzo or garbanzo bean, or Egyptian pea. Chickpea seeds are high ...
s, ''
Jamón ibérico'', lamb kidneys in sherry sauce,
snails, ''
caldo de puchero'', and ''
gazpacho''. A sandwich known as a ''
serranito
A serranito is a warm sandwich prepared in Andalusia, quite popular in Seville. It is the Andalusian traditional cuisine version of fast food.
The main ingredients are grilled meat (chicken or pork loin), cured ham, fried green pepper and slice ...
'' is the typical and popular version of fast food.
Typical desserts from Seville include ''pestiños'', a honey-coated sweet fritter; ''torrijas'', fried slices of bread with honey; ''roscos fritos'', deep-fried sugar-coated ring doughnuts; ''magdalenas'' or fairy cakes; ''yemas de San Leandro'', which provide the city's
convents with a source of revenue; and ''
tortas de aceite
Torta de aceite, is a light, crisp and flaky sweet biscuit in the shape of a torta.
The main ingredients are wheat flour, olive oil, almonds, sugar, sesame seeds, anise seeds and anise flavor.
The true origin of the olive oil tortas is unk ...
'', a thin sugar-coated cake made with olive oil. ''Polvorones'' and ''mantecados'' are traditional Christmas products, whereas ''pestiños'' and ''torrijas'' are typically consumed during the
Holy Week.
Bitter
Seville oranges grow on trees lining the city streets. Large quantities are collected and exported to Britain to be used in
marmalade. Locally, the fruit is used predominantly in aromatherapy, herbal medicine, and dietary diet products, rather than as a foodstuff. According to legend, the Arabs brought the bitter orange to Seville from East Asia via Iraq around the 10th century to beautify and perfume their patios and gardens, as well as to provide shade.
The flowers of the tree are a source of
neroli oil, commonly used in
perfumery and in skin lotions for massage.
In 2021, the municipal water company, Emasesa, began a pilot scheme to use the methane produced as the fruit ferments to generate clean electricity. The company plans to use 35 tonnes of fruit to generate clean energy to power one of the city's water purification plants.
Economy
Seville is the most populated city in southern Spain, and has the largest GDP (gross domestic product) of any in Andalusia,
accounting for one-quarter of its total GDP.
All municipalities in the metropolitan area depend directly or indirectly on Seville's economy, while agriculture dominates the economy of the smaller villages, with some industrial activity localised in industrial parks. The ''Diputación de Sevilla'' (Deputation of Seville), with provincial headquarters in the Antiguo Cuartel de Caballería (Old Cavalry Barracks) on Avenida Menendez Pelayo, provides public services to distant villages that they can not provide themselves.
The economic activity of Seville cannot be detached from the geographical and urban context of the city; the capital of Andalusia is the centre of a growing metropolitan area. Aside from traditional neighbourhoods such as
Santa Cruz, Triana and others, those further away from the centre, such as
Nervión, Sevilla Este, and El Porvenir have seen recent economic growth. Until the economic crisis of 2007, this urban area saw significant population growth and the development of new industrial and commercial parks.
During this period, availability of infrastructure in the city contributed to the growth of an economy dominated by the service sector, but in which industry still holds a considerable place.
Infrastructure
The 1990s saw massive growth in investment in infrastructure in Seville, largely due to its hosting of the
Universal Exposition of Seville in 1992. This economic development of the city and its urban area is supported by good transportation links to other Spanish cities, including a high-speed
AVE railway connection to Madrid, and a new international
airport.
Seville has the only inland port in Spain, located from the mouth of the River Guadalquivir. This harbour complex offers access to the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and allows trade in goods between the south of Spain (Andalusia,
Extremadura) and Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The port has undergone reorganisation. Annual
tonnage rose to 5.3 million tonnes of goods in 2006.
Cartuja 93 is a research and development park. employing 15,000 persons. The ''Parque Tecnológico y Aeronáutico Aerópolis'' (Technological and Aeronautical Park) is focused on the aircraft industry. Outside of Seville are nine
PS20 solar power towers
The PS20 solar power plant (PS20) solar power plant is a solar thermal energy plant in Sanlucar la Mayor near Seville in Andalusia, Spain. It was the world's most powerful solar power tower until the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California ...
which use the city's sunny weather to provide most of it with clean and renewable energy.
The
Sevilla Tower
The Sevilla Tower ( es, Torre Sevilla), known until 2015 as the Pelli Tower, is an office skyscraper in Seville, Spain. Its construction started in March 2008 and was completed in 2015. The tower is tall and has 40 Storey, floors. It is an offi ...
skyscraper was started in March 2008 and was completed in 2015. With a height of and 40
floors, it's the tallest building in
Andalusia.
Seville has conference facilities, including the
Conference and Convention Centre.
Research and development
The ''Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas en Sevilla'' (CSIC) is based in the former
Pavilion of Peru in the
Maria Luisa Park. In April 2008 the city council of Seville provided a grant to renovate the building to create the ''
Casa de la Ciencia'' (Science Centre) to encourage popular interest in science.
The internationally recognised company ''Neocodex'' has its headquarters in Seville; it maintains the first and largest
DNA bank
DNA banking is the secure, long term storage of an individual’s genetic material. DNA is most commonly extracted from blood, but can also be obtained from saliva and other tissues. DNA banks allow for conservation of genetic material and comp ...
in Spain and has made significant contributions to scientific research in genetics.
Seville is also considered an important technological and research centre for renewable energy and the aeronautics industry.
The output of the research centres in Sevillan universities working in tandem with city government, and the numerous local technology companies, have made Seville a leader among Spanish cities in technological
research and development
Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...
. The ''Parque Científico Tecnológico Cartuja 93'' is a nexus of private and public investment in various fields of research.
Principal fields of innovation and research are telecommunications, new technologies, biotechnology (with applications in local agricultural practices), environment and renewable energy.
Transport
Bus
Seville is served by the TUSSA
(Transportes Urbanos de Sevilla)bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
network which runs buses throughout the city. The Consorcio de Transportes de Sevilla communicates by bus with all the satellite towns of Seville.
Two bus stations serve transportation between surrounding areas and other cities: ''Plaza de Armas'' Station, with destinations north and west, and ''Prado de San Sebastián'' Station, covering routes to the south and east. ''Plaza de Armas'' station has direct bus lines to many Spanish cities as well as
Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, Portugal.
Metro
The
Seville metro ("Metro de Sevilla" in Spanish) is a light metro network serving the city of Seville and its
metropolitan area
A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...
. The system is totally independent of any other rail or street traffic. All stations were built with
platform screen doors
Platform screen doors (PSDs), also known as platform edge doors (PEDs), are used at some train, rapid transit and people mover stations to separate the platform from train tracks, as well as on some bus rapid transit, tram and light rail syste ...
.
It was the sixth Metro system to be built in Spain, after those in
Madrid,
Barcelona,
Valencia,
Bilbao and
Palma de Mallorca
Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situate ...
. Currently, it is the fifth-biggest Metro company in Spain by the number of passengers carried (more than 12,000,000 in 2009).
The metro of Sevilla has 1 line with 22 stations and is currently expanding, with 3 more different lines projected.
Tram
MetroCentro
Metrocentro is a Salvadoran shopping mall chain in Central America.
History and organisation
Metrocentro is owned by Grupo Roble, which is based in San Salvador, El Salvador. The shopping mall Metrocentro in San Salvador is the largest sh ...
is a surface tramway serving the centre of the city. It began operating in October 2007.
The service has just five stops: Plaza Nueva, Archivo de Indias, Puerta de Jerez, Prado de San Sebastián and San Bernardo, all as part of ''Phase I'' of the project. It is expected to be extended to Santa Justa
AVE station, including four new stops: San Francisco Javier, Eduardo Dato, Luis de Morales, and Santa Justa. This extension was postponed although the City Council had made expanding the metro lines a priority.
Train
The
Seville-Santa Justa railway station is served by the
AVE high-speed rail
High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...
system, operated by the Spanish state-owned rail company
Renfe. A five-line commuter rail service (''
Cercanías'') joins the city with the Metropolitan area. Seville is on the Red Ciudades AVE, a net created with Seville connected to 17 major cities of Spain with
high-speed rail
High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...
.
Although Seville is close to the Portuguese city of
Faro, it is not possible to cross the border by train.
Bicycle
The
Sevici community bicycle program has integrated bicycles into the public transport network. Bicycles are available for hire around the city at low cost, and green curb-raised bicycle lanes can be seen on most major streets. The number of people using bicycles as a means of transport in Seville has increased substantially in recent years, multiplying tenfold from 2006 to 2011. , an estimated 9 percent of all mechanized trips in the city (and 5.6 percent of all trips including those on foot) are made by bicycle.
The city council signed a contract with the multinational corporation
JCDecaux, an outdoor advertising company. The public bicycle rental system is financed by a local advertising operator in return for the city signing over a 10-year licence to exploit citywide billboards. The overall scheme is called Cyclocity by
JCDecaux, but each city's system is branded under an individual name.
As of 2022, some companies in the
e-bike
An electric bicycle (e-bike, eBike, etc.) is a motorized bicycle with an integrated electric motor used to assist propulsion. Many kinds of e-bikes are available worldwide, but they generally fall into two broad categories: bikes that assist ...
community bicycle program industry such as
Lime (transportation company) and
Ridemovi started working in the city, thanks to the new parking spots made by the
City Council of Seville
Airport
The San Pablo Airport is the main airport for Seville and is
Andalusia's second busiest airport, after
Málaga
Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...
's, and first in cargo. The airport handled 7,544,357 passengers and just under 9,891 tonnes of cargo in 2019.
It has one
terminal and one
runway.
It is one of many bases for the Spanish low-cost carrier
Vueling, and from November 2010
Ryanair
Ryanair is an Irish ultra low-cost carrier founded in 1984. It is headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland and has its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings family ...
based aircraft at the airport. In addition, Ryanair opened its first
aircraft maintenance facility in Spain at Seville Airport in 2019.
This enabled low-cost direct flights to several Spanish cities, as well as to the neighbor country of Portugal with weekly flights to Porto and to other European cities.
Port
Seville is the only commercial river port in Spain and the only inland city in the country where cruise ships can arrive in the historical centre. On 21 August 2012, the Muelle de las Delicias, controlled by the Port Authority of Seville, hosted the cruise ship
Azamara Journey
''Azamara Journey'' is an owned and operated by Azamara Club Cruises. Gross register tonnage is 30,277, with a capacity of 694 passengers (double occupancy), plus 390 crew members. She was built in 2000 for Renaissance Cruises as ''R Six''. Af ...
for two days, the largest ship ever to visit the town. This vessel belongs to the shipping company
Royal Caribbean and can accommodate up to 700 passengers.
Roads
Seville has one ring road, the SE-30, which connects with the dual carriageway of the south, the A-4, that directly communicates the city with
Cádiz,
Cordoba and
Madrid. Also there is another dual carriageway, the A-92, linking the city with
Osuna,
Antequera
Antequera () is a city and municipality in the Comarca de Antequera, province of Málaga, part of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia. It is known as "the heart of Andalusia" (''el corazón de Andalucía'') because of its central locat ...
,
Granada
Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...
,
Guadix and
Almeria. The A-49 links Seville with
Huelva and the
Algarve in the south of
Portugal.
Public transportation statistics
The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Sevilla, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 34 min. 7% of public transit riders, ride for more than two hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is eight minutes, while 15% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is , while 7% travel for over in a single direction.
Education
Seville is home to three public universities. The
University of Seville (US), founded in 1505; as of 2019, it had 72,000 students. The
Pablo de Olavide University
Pablo de Olavide University (''Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO)'' in Spanish) is a public university in Seville, Spain. UPO offers both undergraduate and graduate programs in the traditional majors, as well as in biotechnology, environmental s ...
(UPO), founded in 1997, with 9,152 students in 2019; and the
International University of Andalusia (UNIA), founded in 1994.
The US and the UPO are important centres of learning in Western Andalusia as they offer a wide range of academic courses; consequently, the city has a large number of students from
Huelva and
Cádiz.
Additionally, there is the School of Hispanic American Studies, founded in 1942, the
Menéndez Pelayo International University, based in
Santander, which operates branch campuses in Seville, and
Loyola University Andalusia.
;International primary and secondary schools
*
Lycée Français de Séville
Lycée Français de Séville ( es, Liceo Francés de Sevilla) is a French international school in Seville, Spain. A part of the Mission Laïque Française (MLF), it serves ages 3–18.[Deutsche Schule Sevilla
Deutsche Schule Albrecht Dürer or Deutsche Schule Sevilla ( es, Colegio Alemán Alberto Durero de Sevilla) is a German international school in Seville, Andalucia, Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat ...]
(German school)
*
St. George's British School
Seville is also home to many international schools and colleges that cater to American students who come to study abroad.
Sport
Seville is the hometown of two rival association football teams:
Real Betis Balompié and
Sevilla Fútbol Club; both teams play in
La Liga. Both teams have only won the league once each: Betis in 1935 and Sevilla in 1946. Only Sevilla has won European competitions, winning consecutive
UEFA Cup finals in
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
and
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
and the
UEFA Europa League in
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
,
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
,
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
and
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
. The Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán and Estadio Benito Villamarín, Benito Villamarín, stadiums of Sevilla and Betis respectively, were a venue during the 1982 FIFA World Cup. Also Sevilla's stadium hosted the 1986 European Cup Final and the multi-purpose stadium built in 1999 Estadio de La Cartuja, La Cartuja, was the venue for the 2003 UEFA Cup Final. Seville has an ACB League basketball club, the Real Betis Baloncesto.
Seville has hosted both IAAF World Indoor Championships, indoor (1991 IAAF World Indoor Championships, 1991) and IAAF World Championships in Athletics, outdoor (1999 World Championships in Athletics, 1999) World Championships in athletics, while housed the tennis Davis Cup final in 2004 Davis Cup, 2004 and 2011 Davis Cup, 2011. The city unsuccessfully bid for the Bids for the 2004 Summer Olympics, 2004 and Bids for the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008 Summer Olympics, for which the 60,000-seat Estadio de La Cartuja was designed to stage. Seville's River Guadalquivir is one of only three International Rowing Federation, FISA approved international training centres for rowing (sport), rowing and the only one in Spain; the 2002 World Rowing Championships and the 2013 European Rowing Championships were held there.
In fiction
* The picaresque novel ''
Rinconete y Cortadillo
"Rinconete y Cortadillo" (or "Novela de Rinconete y Cortadillo") is one of the twelve short stories included in ''Novelas Ejemplares'', by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes.
The story is set in Seville in 1569, which at the time was a rich city ...
'' by
Miguel de Cervantes takes place in the city of Seville.
* The novel ''La Femme et le pantin'' (''The Woman and the Puppet'') (1898) by Pierre Louÿs, adapted for film several times, is set mainly in Seville.
* Seville is the setting for the legend of Don Juan (inspired by the real aristocrat Don Miguel de Mañara) on the Paseo Alcalde Marqués de Contadero.
* Seville is the primary setting of many operas, the best known of which are Georges Bizet, Bizet's ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'' (based on Prosper Mérimée, Mérimée's Carmen (novella), novella), Gioachino Rossini, Rossini's ''
The Barber of Seville'', Giuseppe Verdi, Verdi's ''La forza del destino'', Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethoven's ''
Fidelio'', Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart's ''
Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...
'' and ''
The Marriage of Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...
'', and Prokofiev's ''Betrothal in a Monastery''.
* Seville is the setting of the novel ''The Seville Communion'' by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.
* Seville is both the location and setting for much of the 1985 ''Doctor Who'' television serial "The Two Doctors".
* Seville is also used as one of the locations in Dan Brown's ''Digital Fortress''.
* Seville is one of the settings in Jostein Gaarder's book ''The Orange Girl'' (''Appelsinpiken'').
* Seville is the hometown of the two main characters in the 2000 film ''The Road to El Dorado'' by DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks. Miguel and Tulio are con artists that stow away on a ship bound for the
New World and win a map for the fabled lost city of gold, El Dorado, and are invariably seen as gods by the locals.
* Arthur Koestler's book ''Spanish Testament'' is based on the writer's experiences while held in the Seville prison, under a sentence of death, during the
Spanish Civil War.
* Robert Wilson (crime novelist), Robert Wilson's police novel ''The Hidden Assassins'' (2006) concerns a terrorist incident in Seville and the political context thereof, with much local colour.
* The ''
Plaza de España'' in the ''Parque de María Luisa'' appears in George Lucas' ''Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'', in ''The Dictator (2012 film), The Dictator'', starring Sacha Baron Cohen, as the palace of the dictator ''Aladeen'', and in ''Lawrence of Arabia (film), Lawrence of Arabia'' as the British Army headquarters in Cairo, while the courtyard was the Hotel Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII Hotel.
* The ''Plaza of the Americas'' also appeared in ''Lawrence'', substituting for Jerusalem, and in Anthony Mann's ''El Cid (film), El Cid''. It also appears as the Palace of Vladek Sheybal's Bashaw in ''The Wind and the Lion'' (1975).
* The
Alcázar
An alcázar, from Arabic ''al-Qasr'', is a type of Islamic castle or palace in the Iberian Peninsula (also known as al-Andalus) built during Muslim rule between the 8th and 15th centuries. They functioned as homes and regional capitals for gover ...
and other sites appear in the television series ''
Game of Thrones
''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...
'', in the cities of Dorne.
* In the 2016 film ''Assassin's Creed (film), Assassin's Creed'', Master Assassins Aguilar de Nerha and Maria escape execution and are pursued by Templars through the city, eventually performing Leaps of Faith off of an unfinished Seville Cathedral to escape.
* In ''Mission: Impossible 2'', Ethan Hunt is sent to Seville to recruit Nyah Nordoff-Hall.
In travel writing
* ''The Tomb in Seville'' by Norman Lewis (author), Norman Lewis.
Twin towns – sister cities
Seville is twin towns and sister cities, twinned with the following cities:
* Angers (France), 1989.
* Barcelona (Spain), 1987.
* Buenos Aires (Argentina), 1976.
Hermanamientos con Latinoamérica
'' (102,91 kB). [29-9-2008]
* Columbus, Ohio (United States), 1988.
*
Córdoba (Spain), 1908.
* Guadalajara (Mexico), 1984.
* Havana (Cuba), 2007.
* Kansas City, Missouri (United States), 1969. The relationship between Seville and Kansas City is due to a small replica of the Giralda tower, Sevilla's cathedral belltower, that exists in Kansas City.
* Laredo, Cantabria, Laredo (Spain), 2017.
*
Marrakech
Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...
(Morocco), 2017.
* Medina de Rioseco (Spain), 2016.
* San Salvador (El Salvador), 2018.
* Sevilla la Nueva (Spain).
;Partnerships
* Kraków (Poland), 2002.
Titles
Seville has been given titles by Spanish monarchs and heads of state throughout its history.
* Very Noble, by King Ferdinand III of Castile after his reconquest of the city.
* Very Loyal, by King Alfonso X of Castile for supporting him against a rebellion. See also the Motto "NO8DO".
* Very Heroic, by King Ferdinand VII of Spain by Royal Document on 13 October 1817 for support against the French invasion.
* Invictus (Invincible in Latin language, Latin), by Queen Isabella II of Spain for the city's resistance against General Van Halen's asedium and bombing in 1843.
* Mariana, by General
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...
in 1946 for the city's devotion to the Virgin Mary.
Notable people
* Maria Antonietta of Spain, ''Queen consort of Sardinia'' (1729–1785)
* Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad, poet and Arabic king of Sevilla 1040–1095
* Physician Ibn Zuhr, Avenzoar
* The family of the Arabic historian and sociologist Ibn Khaldun
* 13th-century poet Ibn Sahl of Seville
* Renaissance composers Cristóbal de Morales, Francisco Guerrero (composer), Francisco Guerrero
* 16th-century novelist Mateo Alemán
* Playwrights Lope de Rueda and Hermanos Alvarez Quintero
* Historian of New Spain Bartolomé de Las Casas
* Colonial governor of La Florida and Cuba: Laureano de Torres y Ayala
* Colonial governor of La Florida: Pablo de Hita y Salazar
* Baroque painters Diego Velázquez,
Valdés Leal and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
* Explorer and astronomer Antonio de Ulloa
*
Renaissance poets Fernando de Herrera and Gutierre de Cetina
* Notable Costumbrista painter who liked to depict the 19th century society of Seville and its buildings José Jiménez Aranda
* Romantic poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
* Bullfighters Juan Belmonte, Curro Romero, Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, Emilio Muñoz and José Gómez Ortega
* Second Spanish Republic Prime Minister Diego Martínez Barrio, Diego Martinez, communist politician José Díaz (politician), José Díaz and Carlist politician Manuel Fal Conde, Manuel Fal.
* 20th-century poets:
** Vicente Aleixandre (Nobel Prize for Literature, Nobel Laureate)
** Antonio Machado, Antonio and Manuel Machado y Ruiz, Manuel Machado
** Luis Cernuda
** Jose Julio Cabanillas Serrano continuing in the 21st–century
* Composer Joaquín Turina
* Cartoonist William Haselden
* Actors Juan Diego (actor), Juan Diego, Paco León
* Actresses Soledad Miranda, Verónica Sánchez, Carmen Sevilla, Paz Vega, Azucena Hernández
* Models
** Teresa Sánchez López who won the title of Miss National in the Miss Spain contest 1984 and, representing Spain, was close to the crown of Miss Universe in 1985 (1st runner up).
** Eva Maria González beauty queen and model who was Miss España 2003 (representing Andalusia)
* Singers Isabel Pantoja, Juanita Reina, Lole y Manuel, Paquita Rico, El Caracol (singer), El Caracol, Falete, Pastora Soler, and
Mala Rodríguez
* Comedian Manuel Summers
* Navy officer Miguel Buiza Fernández-Palacios who became Captain General of the Spanish Republican Navy
* Association footballers José Antonio Reyes, Fernando Muñoz, Fernando "Nando" Muñoz, Ricardo Serna, Sergio Ramos, Jesús Navas, Antonio Puerta, Carlos Marchena, Capi (footballer, born 1977), Jesús Capitán "Capi"
* Olympic swimmer Fátima Madrid
* Politicians Felipe González, President of the Government of Spain from 1982 to 1996, and Alfonso Guerra, vice-president from 1982 to 1991
* Maria Pages, dancer
* Jairo Barrull Fernández, Spanish Gypsy flamenco dancer
* El Risitas, humorist
* Criminal Manuel Delgado Villegas, serial killer
* Drag queen Carmen Farala, winner of the Drag Race España (season 1), first season of ''Drag Race España''
See also
* Cadillac Seville, a car that was named after the city
* Azulejo
* Isla Mágica
* Seville Public Library
* Seville Statement on Violence
References
*
External links
Seville in the official website of Tourism in SpainOfficial website of the city council.
Postal Codes in Seville
{{Authority control
Seville,
Archaeological sites in Spain
Phoenician colonies in Spain
Roman sites in Spain
Municipalities of the Province of Seville
Port cities and towns on the Spanish Atlantic coast
Province of Seville