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History

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.

Monuments

Seville city's cathedral was built from 1401–1519 after the Reconquista on the former site of the city's mosque. It is amongst the largest of all medieval and Gothic cathedrals, in terms of both area and volume. The interior is the longest nave in Spain, and is lavishly decorated, with a large quantity of gold evident. The Cathedral reused some columns and elements from the mosque, and, most famously, the Giralda, originally a minaret, was converted into a bell tower. It is topped with a statue, known locally as El Giraldillo, representing Faith. The tower's interior was built with ramps rather than stairs, to allow the Muezzin and others to ride on horseback to the top.