Now the University of Seville, the old Royal Tobacco Factory was the third largest building in Spain when it was built in the 18th century. It is said to be the inspiration for the novel and opera, Carmen. We were allowed to wander the main foyers. There was a photographic display of the factory in its heyday.
Next, we went to see the old Casa de la Moneda (Mint), but it was under MAJOR reconstruction. Basically, only the building facade was still remaining.
From there, we went to the Archives of the Indies; which was unexpectedly quite interesting. All of the documents relating to the Spanish colonies of the Indies were collected in this building (over 80 million of them) – it was a big building. There was a fair-sized sample exhibit of documents - original maps and logs; some composed by the likes of Cortés, Columbus and Magellan. There were also model ships and dioramas of island fortresses. The last section of the exhibit was about pirates (the original ones – fiction and non-fiction). The kids really liked that part.
Before lunch we tried to go to the Royal Shipyard, but it was closed. We found out after lunch that it was, in fact, closed for good. So, we ended up visiting the Hospital de la Caridad, located next to it. It is still a functioning convalescence hospital, but they let tourists view the chapel, which contains some very startling artwork by Juan de Valdés Leal.
The rest of our afternoon was spent meandering down colourful alleyways glancing in gift shops.
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