Seville, one of the most famous of Spanish cities, stands on the left bank of the Guadalquivir, 62 miles (95 by rail) N. by E. of Cadiz, and is connected with a large suburb (Triana) on the right bank by an iron bridge (1848). It has had two periods of great splendour in its history, first as the capital of a Mohammedan emirate, and later in the 16th and 17th centuries as the headquarters of Spanish painting and the chief port of Spanish commerce; and it is now rapidly recovering a good deal of its former commercial prosperity, the river Guadalquivir being navigable for large vessels (of 16 feet draught) up to the city. Until quite recently Seville had the appearance of a picturesque Moorish town—the streets narrow, tortuous, and shady, the houses built round handsome court-yards and gardens, the squares studded with fountains. But during the last few years the city has been greatly modernised by the clearing away of the narrower quarters to make room for wide straight streets and modern houses and shops. Only a few fragments now remain of the former circular city wall, which was adorned with sixty-six towers. The water-supply was formerly brought from Alcalá de los Panaderos by an old Roman aqueduct of 410 arches, but this has been superseded by new water-works constructed by Englishmen in 1883. The greatest ornament of the city is the vast Gothic cathedral, built in 1401-1519 on the site of a Moorish mosque. It is one of the largest in Europe, and contains valuable paintings by Murillo (a native of Seville), Valdés Leal, De Vargas, and other masters; magnificent Flemish stained glass of the 16th century; one of the largest organs in the world; the tombs of King Ferdinand III. of Castile, Ferdinand the son of Columbus, and other notabilities; and much most excellent artistic work in bronze, wood-carving, and sculptured work. Close beside the cathedral stands the beautiful Campanile (q.v.) or bell-tower called Giralda, 275 feet high, two-thirds of it built by the Moorish Abu Jussuf Jakub in 1196; the upper part, with its beautiful open work, dates from 1568. The Giralda has twenty-two sweet-toned bells. Both cathedral and tower were seriously damaged by an earthquake in 1884. Another of the glories of Seville is the Alcazar, or Moorish royal palace, begun in the end of the 12th century, and considerably enlarged and beautified by Peter the Cruel; its halls and gardens are surpassed only by those of the Alhambra. Amongst the other interesting buildings and public institutions of the city must be mentioned the House of Pilate built by a Spanish nobleman in 1533 in imitation of the reputed palace of Pilate in Jerusalem; the museum, with masterpieces by Murillo, Zurbaran, Pacheco, Valdés Leal, Herrera, and other artists of the Seville school, as well as by Velasquez (also a native of Seville); the charity hospital, with fine pictures by Murillo and Valdés Leal; the exchange, built by Herrera in 1585, sheltering the valuable archives of the Americas; the university, which was founded in 1254, though the present buildings were erected in 1567; the palace (1697) of the archbishop; the Palace of San Telmo, founded as a naval college by Columbus' son, but now a palace of the Duke of Montpensier; the bull-ring, which can accommodate 18,000 spectators, being exceeded in size by that of Madrid only; and numerous churches.
There is considerable manufacturing industry, especially in the production of cigars (a royal factory employing 4000 work-people), iron, machinery, pottery, cannon, silks, cottons, and various minor commodities. An average of 1295 vessels of 327,650 tons burden enter the port every year, and of this total fully one-third is Spanish and about one-fifth British. The imports, which consist principally of chemicals, timber, textiles, petroleum, machinery, coal, metals, spirits, fish, haberdashery, tinplate, and furniture, average £1,152,900 per annum in value; the first two items make up nearly one-half of the total. The exports, consisting chiefly of lead, quicksilver, wine, copper, oranges, olives and olive-oil, and corks, range from £708,900 (1889) to £1,043,973 (1888). Pop. (1878) 133,938; (1887) 143,182. This city was the Roman Hispalis, a place of trade in those days. Here two provincial synods of the church were held, in 590 and 619, and a Spanish council in 782. From 712 to 1248 the city (Ishbiliā) was an important Moorish town, usually the seat of an emir, in more or less close dependence on the califs of Cordova. When Ferdinand III. of Castile captured it (1248) about 300,000 Moors abandoned the place, and it was a century or two before it began to recover. Its second period of prosperity gradually closed in as Cadiz rose into importance. Seville was the seat of the Spanish government in 1808-10, and suffered severely from Soult's troops in 1810.—The province has an area of 5428 sq. m. and a pop. (1887) of 543,944.