Seville Cathedral & Giralda
The world's largest Gothic cathedral, crowned by a Moorish tower that defines Seville's skyline.
Seville Cathedral is a jaw-dropping monument built on the site of a great mosque, constructed between 1401 and 1528 after the Reconquista reclaimed the city from Moorish rule. It holds the title of the world's largest Gothic cathedral by volume — bigger than St. Peter's in Rome — and contains the tomb of Christopher Columbus, whose remains were brought here after a long and complicated journey through Havana. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, sharing that designation with the adjacent Alcázar palace and the historic Archive of the Indies next door.
Inside, the scale is genuinely overwhelming — five vast naves, golden altarpieces, dim religious light filtering through stained glass, and everywhere a sense of accumulated centuries. The centrepiece is the Retablo Mayor, an enormous gilded altarpiece considered one of the finest examples of Gothic woodcarving in the world. Columbus's tomb, held aloft by four sculpted pallbearers representing the kingdoms of Castile, León, Aragón, and Navarre, sits in the south transept. Then there is the Giralda, the cathedral's bell tower — originally the minaret of the Almohad mosque, converted for Christian use in the 16th century and topped with a bronze weathervane ('giraldillo') that gives it its name. You reach the top not by stairs but by a series of 35 gently sloping ramps, originally designed so that guards could ride horses up on horseback. The views from the top over the old city are the best in Seville.
Buy your tickets in advance online — this is not optional advice, it is a practical necessity, especially from spring through autumn when queues for on-the-day tickets can stretch for hours. The cathedral complex also includes the Patio de los Naranjos, a serene orange-tree courtyard that was the original ablutions space of the mosque, and the Chapter House with its Murillo ceiling painting. Arrive early in the morning to experience the space with fewer visitors and in better light. The cathedral sits right at the heart of the Barrio Santa Cruz and is the gravitational centre of Seville's old city — everything radiates out from here.