Seville is the fourth largest city in Spain and one of the most romantic and lively metropolitan areas in the Iberian Peninsula.

Seville’s distinct personality is the result of the many cultures that have inhabited and ruled it for over 2000 years. Renaissance and Baroque styles are beautifully blended with the Moorish influenced architecture, a memory of the time when the Caliphate of Cordoba and the later Abadi Kingdom of Sevilla ruled the city. Although very little of Roman Seville is left for us to see, it is worth visiting the nearby roman ruins of Italica, once one of the great limes cities of the Roman Empire.

Following the reconquest by the Christian army Seville’s growth continued unabated. King Fernando III, King of Castilla and León moved his court to the Alcázar of Seville, the former Moorish palace. A royal residence, the Alcázar was built in a Moorish lush style and the huge gothic cathedral was built during the 15th century, but maintains the original minaret of the moorish mosque.

The golden age of Seville was during the establishment of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. Seville to this day boasts the only inland port in Spain with the Guadalquivir being navigable for 80km inland from the sea. The city was awarded the monopoly of trade with the Spanish territories of the New World, and with it gold and silver poured in from the Spanish Americas. Seville-minted silver and gold coins became the first universally accepted European currency.