Giralda and Cathedral
Chapter 1/12 · Sevilla
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Welcome to Seville, the capital of Andalusia and Spain's fifth most populated municipality: according to the INE census, it had 689,423 inhabitants on 1 January 2025! We start in Plaza Virgen de los Reyes, at the foot of the Giralda. This is a circular walk of about seven and a half kilometres through the historic centre, and we will finish right here.
The Giralda is the cathedral's bell tower, but it was born as the minaret of the great Almohad mosque, when Seville was called Isbiliya. Work began in 1184 under the architect Ahmad Ben Baso. Inside there are no stairs, but 35 ramps and, at the end, 17 steps. It is said that the ramps were so wide that you could ride up them on horseback, although no document proves it.
The top part is Christian: the architect Hernán Ruiz added the bell section, finished in 1565, and in 1568 the Giraldillo was placed on the very top, a bronze statue about 3.5 metres tall that represents the Triumph of Faith and turns with the wind like a weather vane. The tower took its name from it. With the statue, the Giralda is 94.69 metres tall.
The cathedral was built on top of the Almohad mosque, from which it keeps the Giralda and the Patio de los Naranjos, the Courtyard of the Orange Trees, once the courtyard for ablutions. According to tradition, work began in 1401, and in 1988 the Guinness book recognised it as the cathedral with the largest surface area in the world. Inside lie the remains of Christopher Columbus and of the kings Ferdinand III, who conquered Seville in 1248, Alfonso X the Wise and Peter I. Now we walk around the cathedral to Plaza del Triunfo.
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