Seville

Seville is the capital of Andalusia in southern Spain, a river port on the Guadalquivir. Its Gothic cathedral holds a tomb said to contain the remains of Christopher Columbus, and the city is the setting of the operas Carmen and The Barber of Seville.

The Roman town of Hispalis stood here, and the emperors Trajan and Hadrian were born in nearby Italica. Under the Almohads in the 12th century Seville received a great mosque, whose minaret survives as the Giralda, crowned with a Renaissance belfry and a bronze weather vane. The city passed to Castile in 1248. Once ships began to cross the Atlantic, Seville held the royal monopoly of trade with the Americas, and the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan sailed from its quays in 1519.

Cruzcampo beer was first brewed in Seville, and its brewery still stands in the city. Seville oranges, too bitter to eat raw, are shipped to Britain for marmalade, and olives from the farms of the province are cured and packed around the city. Ships reach the port of Seville through the Guadalquivir estuary and a lock that keeps the inner dock at a steady level.

The Real Alcázar, a royal palace begun by the Moors and rebuilt by Peter of Castile in Mudéjar style, is still used by the Spanish royal family. Plaza de España, a curved brick and tile square with alcoves for every province of Spain, was built for the Ibero-American Exposition of the late 1920s. The painters Diego Velázquez and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo were both born in Seville. The Feria de Abril follows Holy Week each spring, with flamenco dresses, horse carriages and sevillanas danced in striped tents.