Minarete de la Mezquita de Ibn Adabbas - Seville

The Mosque of Ibn Adabbas was the first aljama mosque that Seville had . It stood in the current church of El Salvador.

Presumably a Christian basilica was found there for the first time , which had previously been a Roman civil building , which was turned into a church after the imperial period.

It was Amir Abd al-Rahman II who ordered the construction of the mosque in the year 829 and appointed Umar Ibn Adabbas as its director, hence the name of the mosque. This mosque was the Great Mosque of Isbiliya until the 12th century, when the city, under the rule of the Almohads, became the capital and the need arose to build a new one, which is now the Cathedral of Seville, making it a small mosque Remained. The remains that have come down to us, which are also the only archaeological evidence of the religious architecture of this early Muslim period in the city, are limited to some parts of the sahn, or in other words, the ablutions courtyard, and also the lower part of the church's bell tower , which was once the minaret .

Once Seville was conquered, it was dedicated as a Christian collegiate church , preserving its original construction. After an earthquake in the 14th century and subsequent restoration, the shape began to deform, until the temple was demolished in 1671 to build the current Church of El Salvador.

What has been preserved from that time is the lower part of the minaret, with a square plan of 6 meters on each side, with smooth walls of large sandstone beams and the characteristic horseshoe arch.

According to legend, this minaret is cursed because the Muslims used stones from the tomb of San Isidoro in its construction, desecrating the resting place of the bishop of the city of Seville. In revenge, the bishop killed the muezzins who climbed the tower to call for prayer.

The second image attempts to recreate what the first Great Mosque of Seville would have looked like:

Willem Vandenameele