The Giralda and the Cathedral

Look up: this is the Giralda, the cathedral's bell tower and the great symbol of Seville. What you are seeing is two towers in one, built nearly four centuries apart.

1An Almohad minaret

The lower brick section is the old minaret of the great Almohad mosque, built between 1184 and 1198 and a close relative of the Koutoubia in Marrakech and the Hassan Tower in Rabat. Notice the panels of interlaced diamonds, a decoration known as sebka. Inside there are no stairs but 35 ramps, wide enough to ride up on horseback. The minaret was once topped by four great gilded spheres, which came crashing down in the earthquake of 1356.

2A Renaissance crown

Between 1558 and 1568, Hernán Ruiz the Younger added the belfry. At the very top he placed a bronze statue that turns with the wind and represents Faith: the Giraldillo, cast by Bartolomé Morel. From that turning weathervane, «giralda» in Spanish, the whole tower took its name. Including it, the Giralda stands close to 95 metres tall.

Tradition credits the cathedral chapter with a phrase from 1401: «let us build a church so beautiful that those who see it finished will think us mad».

The minutes of that year actually speak of a church «so fine that there be no other its equal». The Gothic cathedral, begun around 1433, is the largest in the world by floor area according to Guinness World Records.

3What to look for

• The sebka panels on the Almohad section.
• The Giraldillo at the very top.
• The change in colour between the Almohad brick and the belfry.