SEVILLA PARA UN VISITANTE ESPECIAL

 

HISTORY OF SEVILLE

(Notes)

 

Among so many notes that have been published, through different investigations thanks to the internet, one day we will be able to have what will have to be the authentic History of the city of Seville from its early days.

 

I

 

12th century BC 5th century BC Approximate area of ​​extension and influence of the Tartessian civilization.

        Ispal (it was in the Semitic language of the Phoenicians), the first Seville, was located on the banks of the "Lacus Ligustinus", an ancient estuary formed by immense marshes that were crossed by numerous arms of the Guadalquivir river. It settled between a secondary branch of the river and the Tagarete stream, which ran to the east and emptied into the Guadalquivir to the south. It could have been built (largely by sticks and stakes - lake construction -), on the western edge of a Promontory, safe from floods, between heights 14 and 17, with the highest point around Aire Street. It occupied about 9 hectares, from the place of Los Reales Alcázares to the Plaza del Salvador, and from the Cathedral to Alfalfa. One of the arms of the Guadalquivir encircled it to the west, passing through the current Alameda de Hércules, Trajano street and Tetuán street, crossing the Plaza Nueva and joining the river again through the Puerta del Arenal.

It was born as a port city, as a bridge between the Guadalquivir Valley and the Eastern Mediterranean, just at the most advanced point where cargo ships could reach aided by the tide. It was, therefore, a city linked from its origins to the river and to land and river trade.

        Thus, as early as the 8th century BC. Carthage dominated the peninsula; In conflicts with Rome, the city was destroyed and burned in 216 BC.

Thanks to the victory of Rome in 206 BC, the construction of Itálica and the reconstruction of Seville began, which is called Híspalis. With them the process of Romanization of Baetica was unstoppable. The port of Híspalis channeled the potential of the entire region. With these activities, Híspalis went from a small Roman population to a majority that imposed their language and customs, becoming actively involved in the civil wars of Rome.

 

II

 

        Julius Caesar transformed Híspalis into an "oppidum" (high place, stronghold), widened its perimeter and ordered the erection of new walls. In 45 BC, it achieved the title of Colony and granted its inhabitants full Roman citizenship. With this, "Iulia Rómula Híspalis" will actually be a new foundation.

        Over the years, Híspalis will reaffirm its position at the crossroads of land and sea routes in front of Italica. In the city he enjoyed Shipyards, warehouses for oil and grain; amphorae and bricks were made in the pottery; imported Mediterranean products and in turn exported minerals and cereals. The Híspalis Empire would become the capital of the Baetica province and head of a Diocese (Headquarters) that grouped the six provinces of Hispania and North Africa. Its population reached 10,000 inhabitants.

        The perimeter of the city extended through the current streets of Mateos Gagos, Puerta de la Carne, Puerta del Osario, Santa Catalina, Encarnación, Cuna street, Plaza del Salvador and Cathedral, in an approximate area of ​​35 hectares. The “Cardo Máximo” (main street) could have been located in Abades streets, under which old sewers have been found; the "Maximum Decumano" (North-South facing street) followed the axis of the current Águilas street. Both crossed in a Forum (square) -in the Plaza de la Alfalfa- around which the most important public buildings were located; the Basilica was in the place of the Church of the Savior; the baths were next to the current Archbishop's Palace; In the highest part of the city -on Marmoles Street- the temple dedicated to Mars was located, where three of its six columns are visible, and in the area of ​​the Cathedral, at the foot of the arm of the river, was the Port Forum. Other large buildings, such as the theater, the amphitheater or the circus must have been outside the walls, between the Puerta and the Carmona road; and a long Aqueduct -lo Caños de Carmona- that supplied the city with water; Later it was rebuilt by the Almohads in 1172 and it supplied the city with water until 1912, although its first destination was to supply the reservoirs of the Buhaira Palace through a ditch; the brought began in Alcalá de Guadaira where it was underground. The driving was around 17 kilometers. In 1653, more than 100 wells with lids (Lumbreras) were discovered and counted, some made of stone and others of wood.

 

III

 

        Already in the 12th century, taking advantage of foundations and pillars from the Roman period, more than a kilometer of arches were built from the site of the old Cross of the Field, and that apparently, historians do not agree on this in that it was covered with a temple around 1380, 1482 or 1521.

        Through those arches that supported the aqueduct, it continued to bring water to the Carmona gate where the first of the many pillars and fountains that the city had in 1398 would have been built.

Subsequently, the following public supply places dependent on the municipal council were built: the fountain in the Plaza de San Francisco (1411), the Alfalfa pile (16th century), the font next to the Magdalena Church (16th century). XVI), the pillar in front of the San Benito Convent (1672), the Laguna fountain in the Encarnación (1720), the pillar of the Calzada neighborhood (1760), two pillars in the San Bernar-do neighborhood (century XVIII). There were also: the pillar of the Cuadra, which was converted into a fountain after the construction of the Real Audiencia, the Pila del Hierro, which was between Alemanes Street and Constitution Avenue, and which was eliminated at the end of the 16th century, the pillar next to the Church of San Juan de la Palma (1518), the pillar of Calle San Esteban (1518), and the fountain in the Plaza del Duque de Medinaceli (1758) today Plaza de Pilatos, through Impluvias (Cavity, generally rectangular, in the center of the atrium of Roman houses to receive rainwater from the surrounding roofs). Also ferris wheels and circular cisterns. It is possible that this aqueduct supplied the 17 public baths in the city, and that one of these was found in the courtyard of the Palace that was built by Pedro Enriquez de Quiñones and his second wife Catalina de Ribera in 1483.

        Today the palace is called Pilatos's (although its real name is Palacio de San Andrés), because Fadrique de Castilla, son of the foregoing, on returning from his trip to Jerusalem in 1519 realized that the distance existing between the House of the Prefect Pontius Pilatos and the place of Golgotha ​​(Calvary) there was the same distance as that of his Palace and the Humilladero (simple place of devotion located at the exit or entrance of the towns and cities, consisting of steps -well circular or polygonal-, in which a column topped by a cross was placed in order to promote piety of walkers, pilgrims and travelers), of the Cruz del Campo, today it is clothed by the Neighborhood of Santa Teresa.