"We will build such a temple here that anyone who sees it will think we are madmen! - was pronounced by a Seville priest on the eve of the construction of the cathedral in the 15th century on the site of a former mosque.
Since then, for five centuries, the Seville Cathedral has remained the biggest Gothic temple in the world and one of the most important religious buildings of the Catholic Church. The entire area of the Cathedral is more than 23,000 square metres!
The Seville Cathedral impresses not only with its gigantic proportions but also with its interior decoration. With over 800 paintings, some by such great artists as Goya, Murillo and Zurbarán, hundreds of sculptures and several thousand pieces of religious art, it is one of the biggest museums of the Catholic Church.
One of the main jewels of the cathedral is the largest altarpiece decoration in the Christian world, impressive in its variety and richness of shapes of the gilded carved figures. The tomb of Christopher Columbus is also situated here, the tomb of the great navigator whose voyage changed the course of world history and predetermined the dominance of Spain in the world for the next centuries.
The Royal tomb houses the remains of three Castilian monarchs, whose reigns were closely linked to those of the city; Ferdinand Saint, Alfonso the Wise and Pedro the Cruel. A real symbol of Seville, the Giralda tower is 104 metres high and used to be the tallest building in Europe. Climbing the winding ramps of the former minaret offers the best views of Seville.