Torre del Oro
Encyclopedia
The Torre del Oro is a dodecagonal military watchtower in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

, southern Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, built by the Almohad dynasty in order to control access to Seville via the Guadalquivir
Guadalquivir
The Guadalquivir is the fifth longest river in the Iberian peninsula and the second longest river to be its whole length in Spain. The Guadalquivir is 657 kilometers long and drains an area of about 58,000 square kilometers...

 river.

Constructed in the first third of the 13th century, the tower served as a prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

 during the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 and as a secure enclosure for the protection of precious metals periodically brought by the fleet of the Indies
Spanish treasure fleet
The Spanish treasure fleets was a convoy system adopted by the Spanish Empire from 1566 to 1790...

, another possible origin for the tower's name.

The tower is divided into three levels, with the third and uppermost being circular in shape and added in 1760.
This tower has a lesser-known half sister: the Torre de la Plata
Torre de la Plata
The Torre de la Plata is a octagonal military tower of the Almohad dynasty in Al-Andalus, in present day Seville, southern Spain.-History:...

, an octagonal tower.

Military function

It is one of two anchor points for a large chain that would have been able to block the river. The other anchor-point has since been demolished or disappeared, possibly from collapsing during the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake
1755 Lisbon earthquake
The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, was a megathrust earthquake that took place on Saturday 1 November 1755, at around 9:40 in the morning. The earthquake was followed by fires and a tsunami, which almost totally destroyed Lisbon in the Kingdom of Portugal, and...

. The chain was used in the city's defense against the Castilian fleet under Ramón de Bonifaz
Ramón de Bonifaz
Ramón de Bonifaz was a medieval Spanish naval leader best known for breaking a river barricade leading to the capture of Seville from the Moors....

 in 1248 Reconquista
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...

. Bonifaz broke the river defenses and isolate Seville from Triana. The besieged Muslim city soon surrendered to the Christian forces.

Historical role

At one point in the last two centuries the tower came under threat when the adjacent road needed widening, but faced by strong opposition from the locals the demolition idea was dropped. In 1868 it was put up for sale as scrap, but this too was vehemently rejected by the city's inhabitants.
Today the tower, having been restored, is a naval museum, containing engravings, letters, models, instruments, and historic documents. The museum outlines the naval history of Seville and the importance of its river.

External links

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