www.mgaylard.co.uk - Seville

The Archivo General de Indias, housed in the ancient merchants' exchange of Seville, Spain, the Casa Lonja de Mercaderes, is the repository of extremely valuable archival documents illustrating the history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and Asia. The building itself, an unusually serene and Italianate example of Spanish Renaissance architecture, was designed by Juan de Herrera. This structure and its contents were registered in 1987 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site together with the adjoining Seville Cathedral and the Alcázar of Seville.

The origin of the structure dates to 1572 when Philip II commissioned the building from Juan de Herrera, the architect of the Escorial to house the Consulado de mercaderes of Seville.[1]: 128 Until then, the merchants of Seville had been in the habit of retreating to the cool recesses of the cathedral to transact business.

On 12 March 1784, Juan Bautista Muñoz, a historian who was attempting to write a history of the New World, wrote to José de Gálvez, the Minister of the Indies, suggesting the idea of creating a centralized archive for documents relating to the Americas. José de Gálvez had already been considering the idea for a decade and wrote him back on 24 April, encouraging him to look in Seville and Cadiz for potential buildings that could house the archive.[1]: 128 On 24 May, Muñoz toured the former Lonja with Féliz Carazas and Lucas Cintora. He wrote to Galvez on 8 June, enthused about selecting this structure due to the fact that it was a solid structure made entirely of stone and containing sufficient space. He indicated that they would merely need to remove the recent partitions of the upper floor and restore the building to its original state.

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Setas de Sevilla ("Mushrooms of Seville") or Las Setas ("The Mushrooms"), initially titled Metropol Parasol, is a large, predominantly wood structure located at La Encarnación square in the old quarter of Seville, Spain. It accommodates a traditional market, restaurants, a performance square, archaeological museum — and 'rooftop' terrace with a panoramic view of Seville's old city.

Initially beset with technical problems as well as budget and schedule overruns, the parasols are constructed of 3,500 cubic meters of micro-laminated Finnish pine and are marketed as the world's largest wood structure.

The structure consists of six parasols loosely resembling large mushrooms, inspired by the vaults of the Cathedral of Seville and the ficus trees in the nearby Plaza de Cristo de Burgos. The Setas are organized in four levels. The underground level (Level 0) accommodates the Antiquarium, where Roman and Moorish remains discovered on site are displayed in a museum.[4] Level 1 (street level) is the Central Market. The roof of Level 1 is the surface of the open-air public plaza, shaded by the wooden parasols above and designed for public events. Levels 2 and 3 are the two stages of the panoramic terraces (including a restaurant), offering a view of the city centre.

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Palacio de las Dueñas (occasionally, Casa Palacio de las Dueñas) is a palace in Seville, Spain, currently belonging to the House of Alba. It was built in the late 15th century in the Renaissance style with Gothic and Moorish influences. The palace is one of the major historic homes of great architectural and artistic heritage in the city. The poet Antonio Machado was born here, as were Carlos Falcó, 5th Marquess of Griñón and the Marquess of Castel-Moncayo. On October 5, 2011 Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba married her third husband here. The palace became a national monument on June 3, 1931.

The palace was constructed in the late 15th century, a time associated with a robust economy in the area, which included the construction of the Alcazar Real and the Casa de Pilatos. It was built by the Pineda family, Lords of Casabermeja. In 1496, Pedro Pineda, Mayor of the city and his wife, Doña Maria de Monsalve, sold their home to Doña Catalina de Ribera, widow of Governor Don Pedro Enriquez, to raise ransom money to retrieve Don Juan de Pineda, taken prisoner by the Moors. Thereafter, a series of expansions occurred, later forming a Renaissance palace under the auspices of Fernando Enrique de Ribera y Quinones and especially his widow Doña Inés Portocarrero y Cardenas (great-great-grandmother of Ana de Velasco y Girón).

The palace consists of a series of courtyards and buildings. The style ranges from Gothic, to Moorish to the Renaissance, with local influences in the bricks, shingles, tiles, whitewashed walls and pottery. Its mixed style resembles that of Casa de Pilatos and Casa de los Pinelo.

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La Casa de Pilatos (Pilate's House) is an Andalusian palace in Seville, Spain, which serves as the permanent residence of the Dukes of Medinaceli. It is an example of an Italian Renaissance building with Mudéjar elements and decorations. It is considered the prototype of the Andalusian palace.

The construction of this palace, which is adorned with precious azulejo tiles and well-kept gardens, was begun in 1483 by Pedro Enríquez de Quiñones, Adelantado Mayor of Andalucía, and his wife Catalina de Rivera, founder of the Casa de Alcalá, and completed by Pedro's son Fadrique Enríquez de Rivera (first Marquis of Tarifa), whose pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1519 led to the building being given the name "Pilate's House".

On 20 October 1520, Don Fadrique returned from a trip through Europe and the Holy Land. During Lent in 1521, he inaugurated the observance in Seville of the Holy Via Crucis (Holy Way of the Cross). The route began in the Chapel of the Flagellations of his palace and ended at a pillar located not far from the Templete, or Cruz del Campo (The Cross of the Field,) located outside the city walls. This route ran the same distance of 1321 paces supposed to have separated the praetorium of Pontius Pilate from Calvary. The Marquis's palace, the Palacio de San Andrés, was then still partly under construction; it later became known as the Casa de Pilatos through its association with the Vía Crucis, and was much altered over the next few centuries. Popular imagination has since mistakenly identified the palace as a copy of the house of Pilate; thus the rooms have been named along the theme of the Passion of Christ: "Hall of the Praetorian", "Chapel of the Flagellations", etc. It was declared a National Monument in 1931. The oldest documentation of the name Casa de Pilatos is from 1754.

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