Seville

Legend makes Hercules the founder of Seville, but the city's real core dates from the 8th century BC, when it stood on an island in the Guadalquivir; Phoenicians and Tartessians called it Hisbaal. Roman Hispalis became one of the great market and industrial centres of Hispania, beside the residential Roman city of Italica. After Vandals and Visigoths, Muslim forces took the city in the early 8th century. As Ishbiliya it was sacked by Vikings in 844, became the capital of a powerful taifa kingdom under the Abbadid dynasty after 1023 and fell to the Almoravids in 1091 and the Almohads in 1147, who rebuilt it and raised the Great Mosque and its minaret, the Giralda.

Ferdinand III of Castile took Seville in November 1248 after a fifteen-month siege. In 1391 the city was the starting point of anti-Jewish massacres that spread across Spain, and in 1478 the first tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition was set up here. From 1503 the Casa de Contratación made Seville the only port licensed for trade with the Americas, and it became one of the largest cities in Western Europe. Silting of the river, the loss of the trade monopoly to Cádiz and the plague of 1649, which killed almost half the population, brought a long decline.

The 19th century brought the Triana bridge, railways and the demolition of part of the city walls. The Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 gave the city María Luisa Park and the Plaza de España. Seville fell quickly to Franco's side in 1936, followed by fierce reprisals. It became the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia, and Expo '92 brought new bridges, an enlarged airport and the redevelopment of La Cartuja.

Seville's year turns on two festivals. In Holy Week, brotherhoods carry their floats from parish churches to the cathedral and back, accompanied by hooded nazarenos and traditional music; the images, some centuries old, are objects of deep devotion, among them the Virgin of Hope of Macarena and the Virgin of Hope of Triana. Two weeks later the April Fair fills the fairground in Los Remedios with marquees where families, clubs and businesses dance sevillanas, drink and socialise for six days.

Triana is considered a birthplace of flamenco, which grew there as the expression of the poor and marginalised, with Seville's Romani community central to its development. The city has more flamenco artists than anywhere else in Spain, and since 1980 it has hosted the Bienal de Flamenco, a festival lasting several weeks every other year. More operas are set in Seville than in any other city in Europe — some 150 — among them Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Mozart's Don Giovanni and Bizet's Carmen.

Football divides the city between Sevilla FC, founded in 1890 and winner of a record seven UEFA Cups and Europa Leagues, and Real Betis, whose motto, "Long live Betis even when they lose", reflects a turbulent history. Bullfighting continues at the Maestranza, where the April Fair bullfights are the high point of the season.

Seville had about 687,000 inhabitants in 2024, with about 1.5 million in the metropolitan area, making it the largest city in Andalusia and the fifth-largest in Spain; about one in ten residents was born abroad. The municipality is divided into 11 districts and 108 neighbourhoods, from the old town and Triana to newer districts such as Nervión, Sevilla Este and El Porvenir, which have seen recent economic growth.

The city produces about a quarter of Andalusia's economic output. Services dominate, but industry still holds a considerable place, and the Cartuja 93 technology park employs some 15,000 people. Tourism runs all year: more than 2.5 million visitors stayed overnight in 2018, the third most in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona. Bicycle use multiplied tenfold between 2006 and 2011, and the metro carried more than 22 million passengers in 2024.

Heat shapes the rhythm of life. On around 60 days a year the temperature passes 35°C. The bitter oranges that line the streets are harvested for export to Britain for marmalade, and since 2021 the water company has tested using fermenting fruit to make electricity.

Tapas are central to the city's social life: people move from one bar to the next, ordering small dishes whose name, "lids", probably comes from plates once used to cover drinks. Local specialities include fried and grilled seafood — squid, choco (cuttlefish), swordfish, marinated dogfish and ortiguillas — stewed and grilled meats, spinach with chickpeas, jamón ibérico, lamb kidneys in sherry sauce, snails and caldo de puchero, a broth. Gazpacho, a cold soup of raw blended vegetables, is another local speciality.

The serranito is Seville's own fast food: a warm sandwich of grilled pork loin or chicken with cured ham, fried green pepper and tomato, first made in the city's bars in the 1970s and often sold at fairs. Andalusian cooking as a whole is known for fried fish, pescaíto frito, and for the sherry wines of Jerez.

Sweets follow the calendar. Pestiños, pieces of dough deep-fried in olive oil and glazed with honey, and torrijas, fried slices of bread with honey, are Holy Week treats; polvorones and mantecados belong to Christmas. Roscos fritos are sugar-coated fried rings, and the yemas de San Leandro provide the city's convents with a source of income.