THE GIRALDA OF SEVILLE: ORIGIN AND HISTORY             

This is the tallest tower in the city of Seville at 97.5 meters tall and contains the bell tower of the Santa Maria cathedral.
This is not a homogeneous monument since it was built in two vastly different stages: The first two-thirds is the minaret of an ancient mosque, Almohade of the 12th century, which was ordered to be built by the caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf to commemorate his victory in the Battle of Alcaros. The last third was added in the 1500s, a Christian era, in order to carry out the functions of a belfry in a cathedral.
The architect Hernán Ruiz carried out construction. The tower was crowned with a weathervane, therefore giving it the name Giralda (coming from the Spanish term that which turns, or “la que gira”).
One of the oddities of the Giralda is the absence of stairs. It is accessed by way of a ramp that permitted the sultan to go up it on a horse.
The Giralda takes two different cultures from two vastly distinct time periods and unites them in a perfect harmony. It is because of that that in 1987 it was declared as a World Heritage Site.