Toro del Oro - Seville

It is a watchtower on the left bank of the Guadalquivir, in the city of Seville, next to the Real Maestranza arena.

When the Almohads chose Seville as their capital, they built two buildings: the Torre del Oro and the Giralda.

It is 36 meters high. It closed the passage to the Arenal through a section of wall that connected it to the Torre de la Plata , which was part of the walls of Seville that defended the Alcázar. It is a tower consisting of three parts . The first part, which is dodecagonal, was built between 1220 and 1221 by order of the Almohad governor of Seville, Abù l-Ulà.

It seems that it owes its name "Torre del Oro" (Tower of Gold) to the golden reflections produced by the tiles that covered it at the time.

The second body , also dodecagonal, was built by order of Pedro I the Cruel in the 14th century . The upper cylindrical body, topped by a dome, was built in 1760 by the military engineer Sebastián Van der Borcht. It was declared a historical-artistic monument in 1931.

It also served as a prison, chapel, warehouse and now as a maritime museum (Museo Naval de Sevilla).

Willem Vandenameele