Whose Army is it Anyway?: A Short History of Sevilla

Situated near the coast of southern Spain, Sevilla has been one of the most historically important Mediterranean cities since ancient times, and I'm not just saying that because I'm going there.  Sevilla has a complex, multicultural history, so I thought I'd do a short rundown of the historical highlights.

Popular mythology tells us that what is now the city of Sevilla was first founded by the legendary figure Hercules, who placed six columns to mark the spot.  There is a statue of him in Sevilla, so this story must be true.

Hercules and Julius in Sevilla

The first inhabitants of the area of Sevilla were the Tartessians, an ancient Iberian people. TarTESSians. Get it?  I thought that was cool too.  Apparently their city may have been lost to flooding, and is thought by some to have been the origin of the Atlantis legend.  Who knew Sevilla was the seat of so many of our modern myths?  

Now we move on to more traceable history.  The Romans arrived, Julius Caesar did his thang, and the area became a Roman colony.  The Romans built Hispalis, which was the foundation of the modern city of Sevilla.  Even today, the names Hispalis and Sevilla are often interchangeable (e.g. if you google Hispalis, entries about modern Sevilla will appear. Fun fact. Although I guess that's dependent on what you think of as fun.)  The city was built at the point on the Guadalquivir River where large sea-going boats could go no further upriver.  Smart, Romans.  

Between 500-700 CE (ish) the Germanic Visigoths invaded/ruled Hispalis for a while. No, they were not all moody teenagers dressed in black.

some fighting was involved

Next came the Muslim conquest of southern Spain, when the area was known as al-Andalus.  The Roman Hispalis was changed to the Arabic version Išbīliya, which later became Sevilla. Culture flourished, beautiful buildings were erected and minorities (Christians, Jews) were protected and treated with a respect uncommon in the medieval world.  Or the modern world for that matter.

In 1248 Spanish Christians took over Sevilla as part of the Reconquista.  The region later became a hotbed of trade between Spain and the Americas, and Sevilla's river port saw countless emigrants leave for the New World.  Columbus was bopping around the region at this point too.

In the more modern age, Sevilla changed with the times along with the rest of Spain, industrialization, lots of different artistic periods, Spanish Civil War, etc.  All of these recent events are more familiar.  What makes Sevilla, and other European cities, so fascinating to me is the far more ancient history that we don't come into contact with as often here in America.