The Magnificent Giralda, Seville

A definite must see, the Giralda bell tower with the magnificent ‘Catedral de Sevilla’ will take your breath away. There is much to see on the inside, having various museums and of course the Giralda bell tower which you can get all the way up to (no stairs!).

The Giralda was originally built as a minaret by Almohaden in 1184-1195. At that time, it was 76 m in height and crowned with four large golden (or copper) balls, which could be seen from 40 km distance. The Koutoubia Mosque tower in Marrakesh served as a model for the Giralda and its sister, the Hassan Tower in Rabat. The statue that was later build on top of the Giralda, is locally known as El Giraldillo, representing Faith.

Now 97.5 m tall, it stands between the ‘Catedral de Santa María’ in Seville and the ‘Patio de los Naranjos’. During the ‘Reconquista’, the recapture of Seville by the Christians in 1248, the adjacent mosque was rebuilt into a Cathedral after 1401. The Giralda was incorporated as a bell tower. It’s one of the most famous constructions in Andalusia and used to be the highest building in the province for centuries, which it still is in Seville itself. The bell tower used to be so important for the Muslims that, upon surrendering the city, they requested permission to break down the tower. 

The Spanish commander answered with just one sentence that has been kept in the Spanish history “If so much as 1 stone is taken away from the tower, they will all be killed”. Numerous architects were inspired by the Giralda and many replicas were made in the province of Seville, such as in Lebrija and Carmona, and others in the United States. Examples here are the Ferry Building in San Francisco and the Wrigley Building in Chicago.

Others are seen at the University of Puerto Rico’s Río Piedras campus. The Biltmore Hotel in Miami, Florida, was built in 1926 and also resembles the design of the Giralda. Stanford White designed two replicas, one in Kansas City and another one in the second Madison Square Garden in New York City, the latter now destroyed. The bell tower of the Railroad Depot in Minneapolis was also destroyed by wind in 1941.

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