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reviews_and_ramblings ([personal profile] reviews_and_ramblings) wrote2009-06-13 10:52 am

Around the World: Town Hall of Seville

Seville (Siviglia) is a beautiful city, it has a little and full of life historical centre, and it's a joy to walk by night among its narrow road. I chose this picture since it proves you how "hot" Seville can be in August: they built a cover to create shadow in front of the Town Hall (Ayuntamento), due to the high temperature it reaches there in summer.

 
by Elisa, Ayuntamento de Siviglia, Andalusia, 2000:
http://www.elisarolle.com/travel/2000Andalusia.htm

The Town Hall, built in the 16th century in Plateresque style by Diego de Riaño. The Facade to Plaza Nueva was built in the 19th century in Neoclassical style.

Seville (Spanish: Sevilla[seˈβiʎa], see also different names) is the artistic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of 7 metres (23 ft) above sea level. The inhabitants of the city are known as Sevillanos (feminine form: Sevillanas) or Hispalenses. The population of the city of Seville was 704,414 as of 2009 (INE estimate). The population of the metropolitan area (urban area plus satellite towns) was 1,450,214 as of 2009 (INE estimate), ranking as the fourth largest metropolitan area of Spain.

Seville is more than 2,000 years old. The passage of the various people instrumental in its growth has left the city with a distinct personality, and a large and well-preserved historical centre.

The city was known from Roman times as Hispalis. The nearby Roman city of Italica is well-preserved and gives an impression of how Hispalis may have looked in the later Roman period. Existing Roman features in Seville include the remnants of an aqueduct.

After successive conquests of the Roman province of Hispania Baetica by the Vandals and Visigoths, in the 5th and 6th centuries, the city was taken by the Moors in 712 and renamed Išbīliya (إشبيلية), from which the present name "Sevilla" is derived. It was an important centre in Muslim Andalusia and it remained under Muslim control, under the authority of the Umayyad, Almoravid and Almohad dynasties, until falling to Fernando III in 1248. The city retains many Moorish features, including large sections of the city wall.

Following the Reconquest, the city's development continued, with the construction of public buildings including churches, many in Mudéjar style. Later, the city experienced another golden age of development brought about by wealth accumulating from the awarding of a monopoly of trade with the Spanish territories in the New World (See Winds in the Age of Sail). After the silting up of the Guadalquivir, the city went into relative economic decline.

The Great Plague of Seville in 1649 reduced the population by almost half, and it would not recover until the early 1800s.

Seville's development in the 19th and 20th centuries was characterised by population growth and increasing industrialisation.

Seville fell very quickly to General Franco's troops near the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 due to its proximity to the invasion force coming from Morocco. After the initial takeover of the city, resistance continued amongst the working class areas for some time, until a series of fierce reprisals took place. (From Wikipedia)

[identity profile] elisa-rolle.livejournal.com 2009-06-13 02:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I was in a little hotel placed more or less behind the ayuntamento and the alcazar... it was the old jewish neighborhood, if I remember well. It was a three store guesthouse with an inner garden, a little jewel. Elisa