Torre del Oro

The Torre del Oro (Arabic: بُرْج الذَّهَب, romanized: burj aḏẖ-ḏẖahab, lit. 'Tower of Gold') is a dodecagonal military watchtower in Seville, southern Spain. It was erected by the Almohad Caliphate in order to control access to Seville via the Guadalquivir river.

Constructed in the first third of the 13th century, the tower served as a prison during the Middle Ages. Its name comes from the golden shine it projected on the river, due to its building materials (a mixture of mortar, lime and pressed hay).

Text adapted from “Torre del Oro” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Torre del Oro ranks #271 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #13 of the 602 mapped in Spain. Founded 1221, it is older than 75% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 861 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 12,441 times in the last 60 days, more than 94% of the atlas. 11 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Seville, 1 km away. It is one of the 125 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Andalusia. See how Spain compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗