SEVILLE, anciently HisrAms, a large city of Spain, in Andalusia. It is situated on a beautiful and exten sive plain on the banks of the Gaudalquivir. The city is of a circular form, and is surrounded by an old and high wall, consisting of indurated .cement, about five or six feet in circumference, flanked with 176 turrets, and entered by 12 gates. The interior of the city is chiefly built in the Moorish style, the streets being so narrow that a person extending his arms can touch the houses on either side. The streets are crooked and ill paved, though the houses are tolerably well built. Many of the houses have large courts with a fountain in the centre, and are surround ed with galleries, in which the families live in summer when they do not spread tents in the courts. The houses, though highly embellished in the interior, have a very mean aspect when seen from the streets.
Seville contains many fine public buildings, 30 churches, 84 convents, and 24 hospitals, besides the edifices for civil and commercial purposes. The ca thedral is a magnificent pile of Gothic building, erected in 1401. Its tower, 250 feet high, is deemed the finest in Spain. It was built in 1563, and is of such easy ascent, and so wide, that two horsemen may ride up abreast. On the top of it is the Giralda, a brazen image, which, with its palm branch, weighs about tons, yet moves with the slightest change of wind. The cathedral is 420 feet long by 263 wide, and its height is 126 feet. It is lighted by 80 windows with painted glass, executed by Arnao of Flanders. It contained 82 altars. The treasures of this church were, before the revolution, of considerable value; but we fear that its fine pictures, its extensive library, and its decorations of gold, silver, and precious stones, have been plundered by its merciless invaders. The organ has 50 pipes more than the famous one at Hacrlem, and it is filled with air by a man walking backwards and forwards on an inclined plane. When the different pair of bellows are thus filled they sup ply the full organ 15 minutes.
Many of the monasteries in Seville are distinguish ed for their architectural beauty; that which belongs to the Franciscans is on the most extensive scale; of its 15 cloisters many are spacious and elegant, with apartments for 200 monks. The convent of Buena
vista, on the opposite side of the Guadalquivir, com mands a view of the mountains of Benda 70 miles dis tant, and of the Sierra Morena equally remote. The hospital of La Sangre, intended for female patients, is much admired for its front, which has sculptured upon it three fine figures of Faith, IIope, and Charity. The wards are spacious, and the whole establishment is remarkable for its neatness.
The principal secular buildings are the Alcazar or royal palace, built by the Moors, the Lonja or Ex change, the Roman aqueduct, the Torre del Ore, and the l'laza de Toros. The Alcazar, erected by the Moors, and extended by several Christian princes, is a spacious building, having a mean external appear ance. Its interior contains various courts, with gal leries, fountains, and baths. The garden, decorated with fountains and evergreens, has its walks paved with marble, and is said to have undergone no change since the time of the Moors. A collection of Roman antiquities brought from the ancient town of Italica in the neighbourhood, occupies one of the saloons. The Lonja or Exchange, designated by Ilerera in 1568, is an edifice of the Tuscan order, finely situated in the centre of a square. It is a quadrangle of 200 feet, having round it a corridor or spacious gallery, decorated with Ionic, and supported with the same number of Doric columns. Though built for an ex change, it has been used as a repository of the old official correspondence with America, which contains collections of letters from Cortez, Pizarro, and other Spanish generals. The aqueduct, or Canos de Car mone, built in the time of the Romans, brings water to the city from a distance of eight miles, and has 410 arches. According to Mr. Swinburne, it is ugly and crooked, the arches are unequal, and the archi tecture neglected. The conduit is so leaky that a rivulet is formed by the waste water, and yet the sup ply is so copious as to afford water to several mills, and give almost every house in town the benefit of it. There is still preserved here a large house, the resi dence of a Moorish chief, in perfect preservation. The walls are adorned with a sort of network, and the on plaster is without a Ilaw, though above five centuries old.