Seville is a Spanish city, the capital of province of Seville the region of Andalusia.

It is located on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir with the Seville harbor, located about 80 kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean and it is the only river port in Spain.

Its old town, has an area of 4 square kilometers, and contains three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Alcázar palace complex, the Cathedral and the General Archive of the Indies.

History of Seville

Founded by the Romans, the city was originally called Hispalis, later changing to Ishbiliyya after the Muslim conquest in 712. Under Muslim rule, Seville was under the jurisdiction of the Caliphate of Córdoba, later becoming  the independent Taifa of Seville. Later it was controlled by the the Muslim Almoravids and the Almohads until 1248 when it was incorporated into the Christian Kingdom of Castile by Ferdinand III.

With the discovery of the Americas in 1492 Seville became the port and doorway to the New World, with urban growth that made it the most developed city of the era.  Seville had obtained a royal monopoly on trade with the colonies and Spanish galleons departed from Seville and returned laden with bullion from the mines of Bolivia, Mexico, and Peru. Within a few decades, the city became one of the largest and most prosperous in Europe.

In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan departed from Seville for the first circumnavigation of the Earth.

Coinciding with the Baroque period of European history, the 17th century in Seville represented the most brilliant flowering of the  city’s  culture; then began a gradual economic and demographic decline as silting in the Guadalquivir forced the trade monopoly to relocate to the nearby port of Cádiz.