Seville Cathedral

Seville Cathedral was built between 1402 and 1506 on the site of the city's former Great Mosque, with the stated ambition of its builders being to create a church so magnificent that future generations would think them mad for attempting it. At 11,520 square meters of floor space, it succeeded spectacularly, earning recognition as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and the third-largest church of any style after St. Peter's Basilica and the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida. The interior is breathtaking in its scale, with five soaring naves, 80 chapels, and a main altarpiece that is the largest in Christendom, a gilded masterwork containing 45 carved scenes from the life of Christ created over 44 years. The cathedral's sheer size creates an atmosphere of overwhelming grandeur that leaves even seasoned travelers searching for adequate words of description.

The Giralda, Seville's most recognizable landmark, began life in 1184 as the minaret of the Almohad mosque and was converted into the cathedral's bell tower after the Christian reconquest, with a Renaissance belfry added atop the Islamic base in the 16th century. The tower rises 104.5 meters and is unique among bell towers in that it can be ascended via 35 gently sloping ramps rather than stairs, originally designed so that the muezzin could ride a horse to the top for the call to prayer. The climb rewards visitors with stunning panoramic views over Seville's rooftops, the Guadalquivir River, and the surrounding Andalusian countryside, and the tower itself is a beautiful artifact of the cultural layering that defines Seville. The weathervane at the summit, representing Faith and known as the Giraldillo, is the symbol of the city and the largest bronze sculpture of the Renaissance.

The cathedral houses the ornate tomb of Christopher Columbus, an elaborate 19th-century monument in which his coffin is borne aloft by four allegorical figures representing the kingdoms of Castile, Leon, Aragon, and Navarre. DNA testing in 2006 confirmed that the remains are indeed those of Columbus, ending a long-standing dispute with the Dominican Republic which also claimed to possess the explorer's bones. Beyond the tomb, the cathedral contains an extraordinary collection of art including paintings by Murillo, Zurbaran, and Goya, as well as a treasury filled with jeweled monstrances, silver reliquaries, and the enormous Corpus Christi processional float. The Patio de los Naranjos, the orange tree courtyard that survives from the original mosque, provides a fragrant and peaceful respite from the cathedral's overwhelming interior.