The Castle is located on a promontory which is high enough to completely dominate the surroundings, in the same place as previous human settlement was to be found in the Bronze Age.
It was built during the times of Muslim domination, in the 11th and 12th centuries, although after the Reconquest by Ferdinand III is when it acquired its definitive layout. Important development was still taking place right up to the late 15th and early 16th century.
In 1924 it was declared a Monument of Historical and Artistic Interest, and in 1985 it was classified as a Place of Cultural Interest.
http://www.andalucia.org/

Alcalá de Guadaíra Castle 

Account

by category

Login

Name

by region

Title

Name in English

The Alcázar of Seville (pronounced [alˈkaθaɾ]; Spanish: Reales Alcázares de Sevilla or "Royal Alcazars of Seville") is a royal palace in Seville, Spain, built for the Christian king Peter of Castile. It was built by Castilian Christians on the site of an Abbadid Muslim residential fortress destroyed after the Christian conquest of Seville. Although some elements of other civilizations remains. The palace, a preeminent example of Mudéjar architecture in the Iberian Peninsula, is renowned as one of the most beautiful. The upper levels of the Alcázar are still used by the royal family as their official residence in Seville, and are administered by the Patrimonio Nacional. It is the oldest royal palace still in use in Europe, and was registered in 1987 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, along with the adjoining Seville Cathedral and the General Archive of the Indies.
Etymology
The term Alcázar comes from the Arabic al-qaṣr, ("the castle" or "the palace", اَلْقَصْر), itself derived from the Latin castrum ("castle").
History
The Real Alcázar is situated near the Cathedral and the General Archive of the Indies in one of Andalusia's most emblematic areas. This plot was occupied from the 8th century BC. In the 1st century AD the collegium (College of Olearians) was built. The early Visigothic Christian basilica of Saint Vincent was built on its ruins. For the construction of the Palace of Peter of Castile some shafts and capitals of this building were reused, the only Visigothic vestige that has survived to this day.[10] The tombstone of the bishop Honorato, which was probably in this church, is currently in the cathedral.
Seville was conquered by the Umayyad caliphate in the year 712. At that time the basilica was demolished to build the first military work. It seems that it was a quadrangular enclosure, fortified, and annexed to the walls. During the period of the first Taifa kingdoms, various constructions were carried out, such as stables and warehouses, which should not have altered the building as a whole. The citadel began to gain importance in the first half of the 12th century, under the Abbadid dynasty, when the space doubled due to the construction of a large palace called Al-Muwarak, under the current Patio de la Monteria, of which only some archaeological remains are preserved.
Under the Almohads, during the caliphate of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur, new buildings for the residence of the Caliph and his court were erected. With the exception of the walls, the previous buildings were demolished, and were carried out up to a total of twelve palaces. In the place where the Patio de la Montería is located, on the foundations of the Abbadid palace, a large building was built, which seems to be organized around a patio that followed the same scheme of the courtyard of the Aljafería of Zaragoza. Today, a sabat, or private passage, remains next to the south façade of the cathedral, which coincides with the Quibla wall of the mosque; this access allowed the caliph to reach the Macsura to avoid any danger. That palace had its royal room. A small courtyard, the Patio del Yeso, served as the residence of Pedro I in 1358 before the construction of his new palace; in spite of several restorations it is the most significant preserved space of the Almohad alcázar.
The rest of the architecture of the palace, which includes its most flamboyant parts, covers almost the whole set built by Alfonso X of Castile and Peter of Castile, with Mudéjar, Gothic and Mannerist halls and courtyards.
Some gardens have Renaissance statues. After damage by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, that façade of the Palacio Gótico overlooking the Patio del Crucero was completely renovated in Baroque style.
The palace was the birthplace of Infanta Maria Antonietta of Spain (1729-1785), daughter of Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese, when the king was in the city to oversee the signing of the Treaty of Seville (1729) which ended the Anglo-Spanish War (1727).
The Palace
Puerta del León
The main entrance to the Alcázar takes its name from the 19th century tile-work inlaid above it, a crowned lion holding a cross in its claws and bearing a Gothic script.
Patio de las Doncellas
The name, meaning "The Courtyard of the Maidens", refers to the legend that the Moors demanded 100 virgins every year as tribute from Christian kingdoms in Iberia.
The lower level of the Patio was built for King Peter of Castile and includes inscriptions describing Peter as a "sultan". Various lavish reception rooms are located on the sides of the Patio. In the center is a large, rectangular reflecting pool with sunken gardens on either side. For many years, the courtyard was entirely paved in marble with a fountain in the center. However, historical evidence showed the gardens and the reflecting pool were the original design and this arrangement was restored. However, soon after this restoration, the courtyard was temporarily paved with marble once again at the request of movie director Ridley Scott. Scott used the paved courtyard as the set for the court of the King of Jerusalem in his movie Kingdom of Heaven. The courtyard arrangement was converted once more after the movie's production.
The upper story of the Patio was an addition made by Charles V. The addition was designed by Luis de Vega in the style of the Italian Renaissance although he did include both Renaissance and mudéjar plaster work in the decorations. Construction of the addition began in 1540 and ended in 1572.
Los Baños de Doña María de Padilla
The "Baths of Lady María de Padilla" are rainwater tanks beneath the Patio del Crucero. The tanks are named after María de Padilla, the mistress of Peter the Cruel.
Salon de Embajadores
The Salon de Embajadores, meaning The Ambassadors Reception Room", was the main room that King Peter of Castile used for his stay at the Alcazar. This room was the most richly decorated within the entire Alcazar Palace, which was in keeping with its role of power. In 1526, Emperor Charles V and Isabella of Portugal celebrated their marriage in this room.
The Gardens
All the palaces of Al Andalus had garden orchards with fruit trees, horticultural produce and a wide variety of fragrant flowers. The garden-orchards not only supplied food for the palace residents but had the aesthetic function of bringing pleasure. Water was ever present in the form of irrigation channels, runnels, jets, ponds and pools.
The gardens adjoining the Alcázar of Seville have undergone many changes. In the 16th century during the reign of Philip III the Italian designer Vermondo Resta introduced the Italian Mannerist style. Resta was responsible for the Galeria de Grutesco (Grotto Gallery) transforming the old Muslim wall into a loggia from which to admire the view of the palace gardens.

Alcázar of Seville

The Walls of Seville (Spanish: Murallas de Sevilla) are a series of defensive walls surrounding the Old Town of Seville. The city has been surrounded by walls since the Roman period, and they were maintained and modified throughout the subsequent Visigoth, Islamic and finally Castilian periods. 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, four of which survive today: Puerta de la Macarena, Puerta de Córdoba, Postigo del Aceite and Postigo del Alcázar. The extant parts of the walls maintain an Almohad appearance, mixed with Classicist air resulting from restorations carried out in the 18th century.
History
Construction during the Roman Empire
The defensive walls were built in times of Julius Caesar, approximately between the years 68 and 65 BC, when he was quaestor of the city. This new fortification was aimed at replacing the old Carthaginian stockade of logs and mud. The walls were expanded and refined during the rule of his son Augustus due to the growth of the city; these were protected by cyclopean towers.
The remains of the materials this stage are only recognizable in the material reused in Caliphate period in the new Walls of the Alcázar of Seville.
Expansion in the Islamic period: 9th-12th centuries
During the Islamic rule, particularly in the year 844, the city was razed by the Vikings, and the walls were burned down. After that the emir Abderramán II, fourth Umayyad Emir of Córdoba (822–852) rebuilt the walls, which were again destroyed by his great grandson Abd-ar-Rahman III, eighth independent emir (912–929) and first Umayyad caliph of Córdoba (929–961).
In 1023, Abu al-Qasim first King Taifa of Seville (1023–1042), ordered the walls to be raised again to protect the city from Christian troops, and between the 11th century and 12th century a major expansion that doubled the walled enclosure took place. The defense of the city was extended, widened and strengthened, expanding the space protected by the walls in almost twice its old surface. His successors, aware of the progress achieved over the northern Christian kingdoms in the stage of the reconquista, devoted themselves to strengthening their defenses, resulting in the final enclosure of the walls.
The gates of al-Andalusian cities were not built with the road axis but were angled to make it as difficult as possible the siege. Thus, the attackers had to cross several gates and courtyards before entering the city. From the heights defenders fired arrows and poured boiling oil on the attackers.
The Walls after the reconquista: 13th-16th centuries
After the Christian reconquest of the city by Ferdinand III of Castile in 1248, the Crown of Castile kept the physiognomy of the walls that had been imposed by the Arabs during its construction, and as was usual in the Kingdom of Castile, the successive monarchs swore the privileges of the city at take possession of it in some of its gates, always those of greater social or strategic importance, as symbol of power. In the Puerta de la Macarena swore Isabella I of Castile (1477), Ferdinand II of Aragon (1508), Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and his fiancee Isabella of Portugal (1526), and finally Philip IV (1624), while the Puerta de Goles did Philip II (1570), why it was renamed Puerta Real.
During the reign of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor carried out a major refurbishment of the public or royal gates of the Walls to integrate them into the widening promoted by the monarch in the cities and towns, in order to facilitate the transit of such common carriages in the period. These renovations affected the Puerta de Carmona, that the Puerta de la Carne, the Puerta Real, the Puerta del Arenal, the Postigo del Aceite, where Benvenuto Tortello made works in 1572, and Postigo del Carbón, which was moved from the beginning from the calle Santander until the end of it, as happened with the Puerta de Triana, originally on calle Zaragoza, which was transferred in 1585 farther north, at the confluence of that calle with de San Pablo.
Last period before being partially torn down: 17th-19th centuries
Eventually its military function ceased to matter, and began to prevail a protective value against the flooding of Guadalquivir river. It also had a commercial function, because its presence and insulation factor it made in a customs through which it channeled and regulated the access to the city, stipulated with the payment of tariff. Also this surveillance facilitated the collection of important taxes and tributes that applied to the transit of people and goods, among which highlighted the portazgo, the alcabala or gored of the Walls, special tribute existing in Castile for this type of construction; finally it became a sanitary barrier, allowing the disease control.
In the 18th century it turn out to bring remodeling in the access gates. Was rebuilt the Puerta del Arenal, was opened a small chapel on the right side of the Postigo del Aceite, where was placed a baroque altarpiece with the image of the Immaculate Conception (patron of barrio del Arenal), work by Pedro Roldán; finally it rise the Puerta de San Fernando to the height of the Royal Tobacco Factory.
In 1836, during the invasion of Andalusia by Carlist forces, was made a moat with drawbridge near the Puerta de la Macarena in order to strengthen the set; then the Walls were practically intact. From the 1868 revolution began to tear down much of them, primarily due to the growth of the city; escaped the demolition stretches from the Macarena, where still seven square towers and one octagonal, until the Puerta de Córdoba, as well as some sections in the Jardines del Valle and the sector of the Alcazar. Furthermore are conserved the towers Torre Abd el Aziz, Torre de la Plata, Torre del Oro and Torre Blanca, own of the defenses of the walled enclosure.
Preserved sections of the walls
Section from Puerta de la Macarena to the Puerta de Córdoba
This is the most extensive and best preserved section (with the exception of two postigo), includes the puertas de la Macarena and de Córdoba, the latter attached to the iglesia de San Hermenegildo, being this gate the best preserved of the Caliphate period; also it includes several towers, among which the Torre Blanca.
Section of the Jardines del Valle
It is the second section of greater length, was hidden from view in the inside of the Convento del Valle, belonging to the order of the Franciscans, which was conficated in the 19th century, being acquired by the Marquise of Villanueva who donated for the establishment of a school of religious of the sacred heart; that college disappeared in the middle of the 20th century, becoming some time later in the current Jardines del Valle (Gardens of the Valley).
Walls of the alcázar
It must distinguish three types of walls in the alcázar;
• Of ashlar, probably recovered from the early Roman walls, visible near puerta del León area.
• The areas of mud made by the Almohads, some visible, as in the calle Judería, and calle Agua and others that are not visible because these are hidden by buildings of Calle San Fernando -except in some that are public-. Parallel to the walls of the alcázar, was the walls of the city, whose remains were found during works of the Metro, leaving again buried.
• Other rear walls, which close the gardens of the alcázar regarding the jardines de Murillo (garcens of Murillo).
Curtain wall attached to the Torre Abd el Aziz
It is a small curtain wall, visible inside the shop of the building that stands next to the tower.
Postigo del Aceite
The third of the exterior gates of the walls that remains today.
Section in the Plaza del Cabildo
It is a small section of about 50 meters, visible from the plaza del cabildo, as well as from the back street, includes a tower.
Section attached to the Torre de la Plata
This section includes the startup of the Postigo del Carbón, and part of the walls that joined the Torre de la Plata with the Torre del Oro. In this area, were discovered in 2012 the remains of a new tower, dating from the late 11th or early 12th century.
Start of the Puerta Real
It is a small curtain wall at the confluence of the calles Alfonso XIII and Goles.

Walls of Seville

This is one of the elements that best represents the Carmona archaeological site.
Its origin dates back to the 9th century BC. The Carthaginians created the first layout, of heavy rectangular appearance, and made it their bastion against the Romans. The Romans reinforced and restored the structure with a set of gates which is still preserved. Many interventions were carried out from the 12th century onwards.https://www.spain.info