Few monuments identify Seville as instantly as the Giralda. Before becoming the bell tower of the Cathedral, however, it was the great minaret of the Almohad mosque: an extraordinary medieval construction that survived conquest, earthquakes and centuries of transformation to become the most recognisable symbol of the city.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE GIRALDA
The story of Seville's great Almohad tower.
When the Almohads established their power in Seville during the 12th century, the city became one of the great political centres of their western empire. The old congregational mosque located in the area of today's Church of El Salvador was no longer sufficient for the growing city, and a new monumental mosque was planned close to the Alcázar.
In 1172, the Almohad caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf ordered the construction of the new Great Mosque of Seville. Its enormous prayer hall and courtyard occupied much of the area where Seville Cathedral and the Patio de los Naranjos stand today. The mosque soon became one of the principal monuments of Almohad Ishbiliya.
The great minaret came slightly later. In 1184, work began on the tower that would eventually become the Giralda. Its first architect was Ahmad ibn Baso, an important Almohad master builder. Deep foundations were created using, among other materials, reused stone from earlier Roman and medieval buildings.
After a period in which construction was interrupted, work resumed under the new caliph Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur. The master builder Ali al-Ghumari continued the tower largely in brick, giving the upper sections the characteristic decoration of arches and sebka patterns that still distinguish the Almohad structure today.
Inside the tower, conventional flights of stairs were replaced by a system of broad ramps winding around a central core. Their unusual width and gentle slope were sufficient to allow a horse to ascend. Later tradition transformed this architectural feature into the picturesque story of religious officials riding to the upper part of the minaret to perform the call to prayer.
The minaret was completed in 1198 and crowned by a spectacular yamur composed of four gilded bronze spheres. Their installation has traditionally been associated with the Almohad triumph over Alfonso VIII of Castile at the Battle of Alarcos in 1195. Seen above medieval Seville, the enormous shining spheres must have made the tower an extraordinary landmark.
When Ferdinand III conquered Seville in 1248, the mosque was converted into a Christian cathedral and its minaret was preserved as a bell tower. A famous later tradition claims that the Muslim defenders wished to destroy the tower before surrendering the city, but the future Alfonso X the Wise threatened severe punishment if even a single brick were damaged.
The tower nevertheless suffered a major transformation after an earthquake in 1356 brought down the original Almohad yamur. Different Christian structures subsequently occupied its summit until the 16th century, when Seville decided to crown the former minaret with a monumental Renaissance bell tower.
The architect Hernán Ruiz II designed the Renaissance addition that transformed the silhouette of the tower. In 1568, the work was crowned by a monumental bronze weathervane cast by Bartolomé Morel, representing the victorious Christian Faith. The rotating figure became known as the Giraldillo, and its name eventually became inseparable from the tower itself: the Giralda.
What stands today is therefore the result of two great periods of Sevillian history. Beneath is the monumental Almohad minaret of the 12th century; above rises the Renaissance transformation of the 16th century. Together they created a monument that has become not only the great tower of the Cathedral, but one of the defining symbols of Seville.
BETWEEN HISTORY AND LEGEND
What archaeology and historical documentation tell us about the Giralda.
The chronology of the Almohad complex is now considerably clearer than it was when many older histories of Seville were written. Abu Yaqub Yusuf ordered the construction of the Great Mosque in 1172, while construction of its minaret began in 1184. After an interruption, work resumed around 1188–1189, and the tower was completed and inaugurated with its four gilded spheres in 1198.
The names of Ahmad ibn Baso and Ali al-Ghumari are genuinely associated with the construction of the minaret. Archaeological research has also confirmed the reuse of ancient stone in its foundations, including Roman material. This practice was common in medieval construction and does not require assuming that entire ancient monuments were deliberately destroyed solely to provide material for the Giralda.
The Giralda is closely related to other great works of Almohad architecture, particularly the Kutubiyya minaret in Marrakesh and the unfinished Hassan Tower in Rabat. They are not identical towers built from the same plans, but neither is their resemblance accidental: they belong to the same architectural tradition, and modern scholarship recognises important artistic connections between them.
The internal ramps are also an authentic feature of the Almohad tower, and the Cathedral confirms that their size permitted access on horseback. What cannot be demonstrated with the same certainty is the traditional explanation that they were specifically designed so that an elderly muezzin could always ride to the summit.
The four spheres that crowned the Almohad minaret were not destroyed in 1335 or 1393, dates that appear in older versions of the story. The Cathedral's present chronology identifies the earthquake of 1356 as the event that brought down the yamur. A Christian bell structure subsequently replaced it.
The dramatic episode in which Alfonso X supposedly threatened to execute the Muslim inhabitants of Seville if they damaged the tower belongs to the traditional story of the Christian conquest. The Giralda was indeed preserved after 1248, but the precise words attributed to the future king should not be treated as a securely documented contemporary quotation.
The Renaissance transformation is much better documented. Hernán Ruiz II redesigned the upper part of the tower during the 16th century, and the monumental bronze figure created by Bartolomé Morel was installed in 1568. The Giraldillo represents the victorious Faith and gave the monument the silhouette that identifies it today.
Finally, the traditional claim that Muslims did not call Seville Ishbiliya is incorrect. Ishbiliya was the Arabic form of the city's name and is extensively documented in medieval Arabic usage. Hims al-Andalus was also used as another name for Seville, recalling the Syrian city of Hims, but it did not simply replace Ishbiliya throughout the Islamic period.
The Giralda therefore needs very little legendary embellishment. Its real history already tells an exceptional story: an Almohad minaret begun in the 12th century, preserved after the Christian conquest, transformed by earthquakes and crowned in the Renaissance, yet still standing more than eight centuries later as the great architectural symbol of Seville.
PODCAST VERSION
Listen to the original version of this Sevillian tradition.
SOURCE AND ADAPTATION
Adapted for Sevilla Ciudad Mágica from the Sevillian tradition collected by José María de Mena in Tradiciones y Leyendas Sevillanas.
Seville is not only discovered through its monuments and streets.
Its legends are also part of its history and cultural memory.
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