Royal Shipyards of Seville

[3] The first record of shipyards in the city dates back to the 1st century BC, when the civil war between Pompey and Julius Caesar took place:[4] [Marcus Terentius Varro] practiced a recruitment throughout the Province [of Hispania Ulterior] and his two full legions added thirty auxiliary cohorts.

This attack motivated Caliph Abd ar-Rahman II to reinforce the wall of Isbylia (Seville, as it had been called then) and to create a permanent war fleet.

To this end, he ordered the construction of shipyards in Seville:[5] [...] that a shipyard be built in Seville, and that ships be built; the factory was prepared reculting seamen from the Spanish coasts, who gave good soil and provided instruments or machines to throw burning bitumen.About 200 years later, in 1184 CE, the caliph Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur ordered the governor of the city, Abu Dawud Yalul ben Yildasan, to manufacture a large fleet and build shipyards to deal with the Christian kingdoms.

[8] He died in 1252 CE, but his son, Alfonso X of Castile "the Wise", agreed with the usefulness of creating a fleet and ordered the construction of the shipyards to continue.

In the neighborhood of El Arenal, 17 naves made from brick were erected perpendicular to the Guadalquivir and in front of the Almohad walls of the city, covering about 15,000 square meters.

Mudéjar (Muslims still living on the peninsula after the Reconquista) built the entire structure in a brick factory, and their work shows the influence of Almohad art in medieval constructions in Seville.

[10] The commissars and their heirs had to take care of and repair their own galleys, always use the ships in the name of the king, and under deference to the Major Admiral of Castile (a position created by Alfonso in 1254 CE).

The Castilian kings used them during struggles for control of the Strait of Gibraltar against the Muslims, and in raids against England during the Hundred Years' War.

For a fleet's construction and armament, a labor force of between 400 and 500 artisans was temporarily mobilized, who, in exchange for working for the Crown for half the usual salary, enjoyed great fiscal privileges throughout the year.

The position of warden used to fall to a nobleman who, at times, delegated the exercise of his work to a trusted agent instead of completing it himself.

Later, in 1493 CE, the Catholic Monarchs approved to have a fish market move from the Plaza de San Francisco square to the first nave (the one closest to the Postigo del Aceite gate).

For the Crown, it was also more economically advantageous to rent out private sailing vessels than to build and maintain permanent fleets of galleys.

[1] Although the workload decreased, the number of artisans officially linked to the shipyard did not fall, provoking frequent protests by the Council of Seville about the injustice represented by the tax exemptions of the francs and other protected occupations.

The first major architectural intervention took place in the year 1641 CE, with the construction of Hospital de la Caridad and its church, occupying five of the naves, whose arches can still be glimpsed today.

In 1782 CE, the Maestranzas of Cádiz and Málaga merged into the one in Seville, leaving it as the sole supplier for all of Andalusia and Extremadura and, one year later, also for the Indias.

[18][19] At the end of 2012, La Caixa announced that it would build the Caixaforum in another part of the city, which sparked a conflict with the Junta de Andalucía.

[20] The Shipyards of Seville were used as the setting for the series Game of Thrones to recreate the crypts of the Red Fortress.