Iglesia del Salvador: A Church on the First Great Mosque
Why is it significant?
Step back towards the far side of Plaza del Salvador, between the café tables, and take in the huge pink-and-cream Baroque front of the church. After the cathedral, this is the largest church in Seville, and it stands on one of the oldest sacred sites in the city.
Key Facts
| Place | Iglesia del Salvador: A Church on the First Great Mosque |
|---|---|
| Address | Plaza del Salvador 3, 41004 Sevilla, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 37.38990, -5.99260 |
| Part of Walk | From Baroque Domes to Las Setas: Seville's Architecture Between Sierpes and Casa de Pilatos |
| Generated | Generated |
Step back towards the far side of Plaza del Salvador, between the café tables, and take in the huge pink-and-cream Baroque front of the church. After the cathedral, this is the largest church in Seville, and it stands on one of the oldest sacred sites in the city.
In the ninth century, a judge named Ibn Adabbas built the first great mosque of Seville right here. For three hundred years it was the heart of the Muslim city, until the Almohads built a bigger mosque near the river, the one whose minaret became the Giralda. After 1248 the old mosque became a church dedicated to the Saviour, El Salvador, and it kept much of its Islamic structure for centuries.
By the late seventeenth century it was falling down, and Seville decided to start again. Building began in 1674, there were collapses and changes of architect, and Leonardo de Figueroa finally saw it through, completing it early in the next century. Inside, the space is vast and bright, and the high altar is a gilded mountain of carved wood, angels and clouds, one of the most spectacular altarpieces in Spain.
But the mosque never quite left. Walk around to the courtyard on the north side, the old ablutions court, and you will see arches resting on ancient columns, some with Roman and Visigothic capitals reused by the mosque builders. The lower part of the bell tower is the base of the old minaret. Roman, Visigothic, Islamic and Christian Seville, all in one patio.
Behind the church lies a tiny square long known as Plaza del Pan, the bread square, where bakers sold loaves from little shops built right into the church walls. Inside, in a side chapel, waits Jesús de la Pasión, carved by the great sculptor Juan Martínez Montañés in the early seventeenth century. From the Plaza del Pan, follow Calle Alcaicería and the lanes east for a minute or two, to a quiet Gothic church named after a saint of Seville.