City Walls of Seville

City Walls and Tower in Seville

City Walls And The Torre Blanca In The Barrio De La Macarena.
CC BY-SA 2.5 / Asterion

The Walls of Seville are a series of defensive walls surrounding the Old Town of Seville. A four hundred meter long section of these Murallas in the northeast of the city is still mostly intact. The surviving section of the wall starts at the Puerta de Córdoba, a small crenelated tower with horseshoe-shaped doors located near the intersection of the Calle san Julián and Ronda de Capuchinos. Passing eight more towers the wall runs northwest towards the Puerta de la Macarena near the Macarena Basilica.

City Gates of Seville

Four of the 18 gates of the city survive today: Puerta de la Macarena, Puerta de Córdoba, Postigo del Aceite and Postigo del Alcázar.

The Macarena Gate’s appearance dates from the eighteenth century, when it was mostly rebuilt.

Defensive Towers of Seville

Out of the seven towers that can be seen on the current stretch of the Murallas the tallest is known as Torre Blanca or White Tower. Several towers that were originally part of the defensive wall around Sevilla survived in other parts of the city, including the Silver Tower and the Golden Tower, Seville’s most famous tower.

History of the City Walls of Seville

The defensive city walls were built in times of Julius Caesar when was quaestor of the city, between the years 68 BC and 65 BC. to replace the old Carthaginian stockade of logs.

The walls stood until 844 when the city was razed by the Vikings, and the walls were burned down.  The moors raised the walls again to protect the city from Christian troops in the 11th and 12th centuries. They built the six kilometre long wall with 166 towers and nine gates encircled the whole city.

The walls remained intact until the 19th century, when they were partially demolished after the revolution of 1868. Some parts of the walls still exist, especially around the Alcázar of Seville and some curtain walls in the barrio de la Macarena. The walls originally had eighteen gates or points of access. The surviving parts of the walls maintain an Almohad appearance, mixed with Classicist air resulting from restorations carried out in the 18th century.


The City Walls of Seville appears in our Complete Guide to Visiting Seville!

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Visiting City Walls of Seville

Hours:

24 Hours


Price:

Free

Address: Arco de la Macarena Calle Bécquer, 1 41003 Sevilla Spain
Duration: 20 minutes

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