In 1987, UNESCO declared the three buildings surrounding the Plaza del triunfo a World Heritage Site: the Cathedral of Seville, the Reales Alcázares and the Archivo General de Indias. Today we are going to focus on the Cathedral of Seville, one of the most emblematic monuments of the city of which the symbol of Seville par excellence is part: the Tower of the Giralda.

 

In the place where today we can see the Cathedral of Seville, officially called Santa María de la Sede, a new Aljama Mosque was erected in the 12th century by the Almohad dynasty that replaced the one in the current Church of El Almohad. Savior.

 

When Ferdinand III "the Saint" took Seville and Christianized it in 1248, he was going to reuse the structure of the mosque, adding Christian elements to transform it into a Christian Cathedral. However, after suffering a severe earthquake, most of the structure of the mosque was badly damaged in the fourteenth century. The chronicles tell us that in the year 1401 the ecclesiastical council met with the intention of building a new space of worship that included the part of the mosque that could be reused (most of what we see today in brick, including a large part of the Giralda).

 

In that ecclesiastical council one of the canons said: "Let's make a church so big that everyone who sees it finished takes us for crazy," and they succeeded, they managed to be taken for crazy because today is the third largest Catholic cathedral of the world, and more. We are before the largest Catholic cathedral in the world in Gothic style.

 

But if you are observers, you will have noticed that in some parts of the Cathedral of Seville both inside and outside, the architectural style is not Gothic but we see Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical, Neo-Gothic style ... And it is that originally Santa Maria de la Sede is conceived as a Gothic temple, but the last decorative details of the cathedral end in the twentieth century. We speak of a Christian temple that takes five centuries to build, to which we must add the original part of the old mosque that dates back to the twelfth century. Of course the Cathedral of Seville can be visited at different times of which we will inform you at the end of this entry and which of course include access to the Giralda.

 

The tower of the Giralda was in the XII century the minaret of the Main Mosque, that is to say the tower to which the muezzin rose five times a day to call the faithful to prayer. In its origin was crowned by four spheres that were lost after the earthquake of the fourteenth century, being replaced by a simple bulrush that in the sixteenth century was replaced by the second body that we see today that starts in the bells and ends in "The Giraldillo" , sculpture that symbolizes the triumph of the Christian faith and that gives name to the tower (Giraldillo because it turns with the wind, it is the most imposing vane of the whole city).

 

Of course the first part of the tower is not the only thing that we keep from the old mosque, the one currently called Patio de los Naranjos is the original Patio de Abluciones in which the Muslims had to wash their hands, feet and face five times the day before praying.

 

In addition the Cathedral of Seville hides many curiosities, secrets and mysteries that you can discover and ask our guides during the guided tours we offer for the historic center in which of course we talk about the Cathedral looking at it and advise you the best ways to visit it .

 

And is that the Cathedral is one of the must-see monuments to come to Seville, and we can not stop telling you that inside you can delight before the largest Gothic altarpiece in the Christian world designed by the flamenco Pedro Dancart in the fifteenth century. We also find here the tomb of Fernando III "el Santo" and that of Christopher Columbus, whose story about how he comes to be buried in the Cathedral of Seville for me is one of the most interesting of those that can be found in Seville.

 

After this brief tour of the history of the Cathedral of Seville, we can not fail to tell you that one of the best options to visit in Seville is our Cathedral of Santa María de la Sede. As I wrote before, during our guided tour "Free Historical Center Tour" (every day at 10.00 a.m. in Plaza Nueva) you can discover all the history, curiosities and secrets of the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world

 

Then we leave the information of the visiting hours and prices of access to the Cathedral of Seville: