Life in Seville in 1519

The Patio de Banderas in the Alcázar (the oldest royal palace in the world that is still in use today) is one of Seville's most charming, exquisite places.

Surrounded by an exterior wall, with the port nearby and just a stone's throw from the cathedral with its Moorish tower, the square has been the backdrop to numerous spectacular events.

Shortly after the first circumnavigation of the globe, the Alcázar became the focal point of the processions celebrating the wedding of Charles V to Isabella of Portugal. The significance of this event was felt all over the world, making Seville the imperial capital for a while.

Workshops and smoky blacksmith's shops forging metals, tools, and coins occupied the space between the cathedral, the Lion Door (Puerta del León), and the interior walls of the Alcázar.

Just a few years later, the area was chosen to be the site of the great Merchants' Exchange. This market played a central role in the cosmopolitan, commercial city that Seville had become in the 16th century. The creation of the Merchants' Exchange also placated the Cathedral Chapter, whose members had long believed that the Patio de los Naranjos (orange tree courtyard) and the cathedral were no place for business.

Later, the exchange building would become the General Archive of the Indies, which houses most of the documents relating to the first circumnavigation of the world.

Makers of buskins (open shoes that were tied with laces) began to set up in this street opposite the cathedral during the Middle Ages.

The cathedral tower can be made out in the distance. At that time, it did not yet have the topmost section that dates from the Renaissance, after which the tower was known as the Giralda.

It is said that, when they saw the plans for the cathedral, the canons believed that its splendor would make people think they had lost their minds.

Rather than a symptom of madness, however, Seville's cathedral was a demonstration of the power and wealth of the Sevillian Church in its golden age.

The result was the greatest gothic temple in the world. It was finished just as the Magellan-Elcano expedition was being planned.

Beneath the golden reflection of the most famous Albarrana tower in the world—the Torre del Oro, or tower of gold—ships about to set sail on expeditions were anchored in the port and loaded up with the help of an imposing crane.

Water, wine, ship's cookies, oil, fat, salted meats, candles, fish hooks, cheeses, animals, weapons, books, and personal items: everything that was needed by those who were about to take on the daunting challenge of crossing the oceans.

Shad, bleak, various types of sturgeon (what a shame they are no longer found in the river!) and other fish were sold in Triana, the nautical quarter of the city, in popular locations such as the small square in front of the neighborhood's mini-cathedral, the Church of Santa Ana.

It was home to pilots, ships' masters, sailors, caulkers, and shipwrights, as well as ceramicists, innkeepers, and a constant flow of people passing through.

They worshiped in various different chapels and in the parish, where Our Lady of Victory is still worshiped today. It was to this saint that the crew on board Magellan and Elcano's expedition prayed, before setting off on their journey around the world, and on their return.

Triana's riverbank was alive with the febrile energy of people repairing, readying, and loading the ships and preparing the fleets to set sail to foreign lands.

No other port could compare to Seville's Puerto de las Muelas.

Furniture, goods of all kinds, exotic products from the Indies, slaves, maps, books, legacies, and even entire ships.

Anything could bought, sold, or auctioned on the steps of the cathedral, opposite the entrance to the Alcaicería de la Seda (silk bazaar).

The riverbank that ran between the walls and the river became a hive of frenetic human activity.

Mountains of goods were spread over the sand, waiting to be loaded up and taken to faraway lands.

From the days of the Almohads, a wooden bridge, held in place with tethered barges, connected the city with the nautical quarter of Triana.

The huge floods and swellings of the Guadalquivir—which had not yet been tamed—meant that a steadier, more permanent method of crossing was not possible.

The bridge was also the crossing place of the tragic figures wearing the San Benito, a scapular-like garment worn by those branded heretics by the Spanish Inquisition in the Castle of St. George (Castillo de San Jorge). They crossed wooden platform of the creaking pontoon bridge, often for the last time.