The great city of the lower Guadalquivir, capital of Almohad al-Andalus and, after its conquest by Ferdinand III in 1248, one of the chief cities of the Crown of Castile.
Seville lies on the river Guadalquivir in the south-west of Iberia, far enough inland to be safe yet linked by the navigable river to the Atlantic. That position made it a great port and the largest city of al-Andalus under Muslim rule.
Under the Almohads in the 12th and 13th centuries it served as their capital in the peninsula, adorned with monuments such as the Giralda and the riverside Torre del Oro. Its conquest by Ferdinand III in 1248 was one of the decisive moments of the Reconquista.
The Almohads made Seville a showcase of their power, building the great mosque whose minaret survives as the Giralda and the twelve-sided Torre del Oro to guard the river. The city was a centre of trade, learning and administration for Muslim Iberia.
After 1248 Seville became a Castilian royal capital; its mosque became a cathedral, and Ferdinand III was buried there. In later centuries it grew again as the gateway to the Atlantic, but its medieval Almohad and Mudéjar fabric still shapes the old city.