| Walls of Seville | |
| Native Name: | Murallas de Sevilla |
| Native Language: | Spanish |
| Coordinates: | 37.402°N -5.9866°W |
| Location: | Sevilla, Spain |
| Designation1: | Spain |
| Designation1 Offname: | Murallas de Sevilla |
| Designation1 Type: | Non-movable |
| Designation1 Criteria: | Monument |
| Designation1 Date: | 1908 |
| Designation1 Number: | RI-51-0000093 |
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.
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.
In late 2021, for the first time, the remains of a section of the Roman wall of Seville were discovered. Today, these remnants are part of the dividing wall of a building facing Álvarez Quintero Street and another overlooking Plaza de San Francisco. The wall segment is 4.8 meters wide and has two different heights, dating back to around the 3rd century AD.[1]
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.[2]
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 fiancée Isabella of Portugal (1526), and finally Philip IV (1624), while the Puerta de Goles did Philip II (1570), why it was renamed Puerta Real.[3] [4]
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.
Eventually the military importance of the walls declined, and they were instead valued for the protection they offered against the flooding of the Guadalquivir river. They also had a commercial function, enabling the regulation of traffic passing in and out of the city. This facilitated the collection of taxes attendant on the movement of people and goods, notably the portazgo and the alcabala; it also became a sanitary barrier, used in the control of disease.
In the 18th century the gates were remodelled. The Puerta del Arenal was rebuilt, and a small chapel was opened on the right side of the Postigo del Aceite, where a baroque altarpiece with the image of the Immaculate Conception (patron of barrio del Arenal) was placed, designed by Pedro Roldán; finally the Puerta de San Fernando was raised to the height of the Royal Tobacco Factory.
In 1836, during the invasion of Andalusia by Carlist forces, a moat with a drawbridge was dug near the Puerta de la Macarena in order to strengthen it; at this point the Walls were still intact. From the 1868 revolution onwards, the walls were demolished, primarily due to the growth of the city; a stretch of the wall of the wall from the Macarena to the Puerta de Córdoba survived, including seven square towers and one octagonal one, as well as some sections in the Jardines del Valle and near the Alcazar. Furthermore, the towers Torre Abd el Aziz, Torre de la Plata, Torre del Oro and Torre Blanca, once part of the walled enclosure, remain.
The access to the city was mainly performed by the called postigos and gates, which were of two types: royals or public, and private. The gates had its layered access, as seen on the Puerta de Córdoba, and lacked decoration. Between gates (puertas) and postigos counted the city with 19 accesses: