What to see in Seville

The Church of Santa Ana, located in the heart of Triana, is the first church built in Seville after the reconquest of the city. Alfonso X "el Sabio", son of King Ferdinand III, conqueror of Seville, was a scholar. He would spend his nights reading, in the dark by candlelight, and he feared he was going blind. Legend says that, to save his eyes, he asked for help to Santa Ana. As he was succesful, he built this Church dedicated to her. It was built in the 13th century, [...]

We will be talking now briefly about San Telmo Palace. This building was a sailor school. This means that everyone who wanted to go to America had to study in this institution in order to enlist in the ships. But this system was not in place in the first decades after 1492 discovery. The first sailors enlisted were not great conquerors. Colón's crew was full of ex-prisoners, poor people and people from social minorities. Given the very high risk of the expedition, only those who had nothing to lose [...]

We will talk in this article about one of the mandatayr stops in our Free Tour in Santa Cruz: the Patio de Banderas. Firstly, we will say that the origin of its name comes from a group of flags that were painted on the door that gives access from Plaza del Triunfo. This place was used as the stable of the Alcázar, as it was located between the palace and the city, where the cars were kept inside the exit door of the Alcázar. Years later, it became a [...]

The Atarazanas were the place where the ships were built in the medieval years. However, its use as a shipyard finished in the year 1503, so the ships that were built in the building had little relationship with America. It is a building from the 13th century, and due to its limited height, only galleys could be made, which were not appropiate for the trip to America and the defense of its cargo. Once the construction of larger ships was seen as necessary, these larger ships began to be [...]

The "Casa de Contratación" has probably been the most important institution that Seville has ever had, although unfortunately we do not have the building anymore. It was created in 1503, to promote and regulate trade with America. This institution was given the monopoly to negotiate with America. The choice of Seville as the first headquarters of the Casa de Contratación for 214 years was not by chance. Huelva had bad communications by land with the rest of Spain. Cádiz was practically an island city, it was underdeveloped at the [...]

The importante presence of gold and silver in the newly found lands made the Catholic Monarchs decide to establish a permanent commercial line that would link the Hispanic kingdoms with the New World, the so-called Carrera de Indias. Seville had at that time an adequate road infrastructure and communications with the interior of the peninsula, and it was adequately supplied due to the abundant agricultural production of the Guadalquivir valley and, at the same time, it had a large number of merchants settled in the city since times after [...]

We start here a series of articles that will talk about the close links that Seville has had with the American continent during the last 5 centuries. We will talk now about the most important monument that remains of that relationship today: the "Archivo de Indias". The Archivo de Indias was built between 1584 and 1598. It was the place where the commercial exchanges of the main products that came from America were carried out. You can imagine then that it was a place with a lot of life. [...]