While viewing the cityscape from the Giralda belfry with the Seville Cathedral in the foreground, it is a good time for a brief history lesson about Seville. According to legend, its founder was Hercules, the Greek gatekeeper of Olympus. The first settlers were Phoenician (800 to 539 BC) followed by the Romans who called their city Hispalis (means built on posts). The Vandals, Suebi and Visigoths followed in quick succession. A lasting legacy of culture and architecture was left behind by the Moors during their occupation from 712 until 1248. That was the year King Ferdinand III of Castile conquered the city as part of the Spanish Reconquista to reclaim the Iberian Peninsula for Christianity. Then Seville became a world leader during the Golden Age while colonizing the Americas. But the Great Plague of 1649 reversed their fortunes by killing half of the Sevillians. Not long after the expansion for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 came the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939). This led to Francisco Franco’s dictatorship until 1975. When Spain became a parliamentary monarchy in 1978, Seville became the capital of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia.
