Discover Roman Seville

The Roman Ruins of Italica was founded in 206 BC by General Scipio after the victory against the Carthaginians in the Battle of Ilipa. Italica was the point of origin of most of the senators of the time, and birthplace of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Today, Italica preserves a wonderful Roman amphitheater, and offers the opportunity to walk along the ancient streets and see some houses and public buildings of that era.

The fascinating Archaeological Museum of Seville is housed in a grandiose, neo-Renaissance palace at the southern end of the Parque de María Luisa.

The museum holds many Roman-era artworks such as Roman sculptures, mosaics and statues many unearthed at the nearby site of Itálica.

The Antiqvarium of Seville is a museum that encloses the visible remains of much of the Roman period, from Tiberius (AD 30) to the sixth century, and the Almohad Islamic house of the XII and XIII centuries. The Mosaic of the Bird House is spectacular.

The Palace of the Countess of Lebrija is in the heart of the city, it has very well preserved Roman mosaics, as well as columns, amphorae, vessels, sculptures and vases. The Countess gathered an interesting collection of artifacts from the Roman period.

You can see a famous Roman mosaic, the Loves of Zeus which came from Italica, in the main courtyard. The rooms of the palace were designed by José Sayez y Lopez to take into account the size of the mosaics they were to contain.

You will also be able to see the bust of Dionysus; a small sarcophagus with a relief depicting a lion hunt and a putto or a cherub riding a dolphin.

The Alameda de Hercules is a park area which was originally laid out in the late 16th century and became a fashionable promenade during the city’s 17th-century Golden Age.

The park is marked by 4 columns, the two Roman columns at its southern end were part of a Roman temple, and they are topped with statues of Hercules and Julius Caesar.

The Giralda or bell tower of the Cathedral was originally built at the end of the 12th century, as the minaret of a large mosque built by the Almohades, who dominated the region.

Construction of its minaret started in 1184 and to form a solid foundation for it, the Moors made a deep hole, into which they cast all the marble and stone monuments of the Romans that could be found.  At the foot of the Giralda one can still find inscriptions dating back to the era of emperor Augustus.

The Seville Cathedral is surrounded by hundred fifty-seven small granite or veined marbles columns linked by huge chains. These columns and chains were placed in 1565 to prevent the merchants from entering the temple with their horses when the weather was bad.

It is likely that many of the columns came from the nearby Roman ruins of  Italica.

The Casa de Pilatos contains a number of artifacts of Roman origin. The main courtyard has statues of a dancer, Minerva and Ceres and a bust of Scipio Africanus.

Pedro Afan Enriquez de Ribera was Viceroy of Naples in 1559-1571 and in that period, similar to many Italian cardinals and noblemen, he gathered a collection of antique statues which he eventually sent home to Casa de Pilatos in Seville.

It is difficult to say whether the ancient statues and busts adorn Casa de Pilatos comes from Italy or Italica.