History
Origins
The plot where the complex is currently located has not been the same throughout the history of the city, although during Roman times it is believed that it had uses related to port activity. One of the walls of the Casa de la Moneda corresponds to the city wall and, integrated into said wall and a few meters from the complex, is the Torre de la Plata , an Almohad tower in the Corral de las Herrerías, where the the Royal Smithies.
The plot underwent definitive walling during the 13th century and the history of this complex has also been linked to the Dar-al-Imara palace, a Muslim fortress-palace from 913 related in turn to an earlier Visigoth basilica and which represent the core of what later became the Alcázar of Seville, which is located about 500 meters from the current Casa de la Moneda. The Muslim palace of 913 was subsequently enlarged by Al Mutamid, in the area that corresponds to the one rebuilt by the Christian king Don Pedro, and with the subsequent creation of the Qasr al-Zahí, residence of the brother of the Caliph, located on the eastern margin of the Guadalquivir and that was either where the Torre del Oro or where the Plaza de la Contratación. The Muslim palaces or fortresses and the defensive purposes propitiated an intense wallingof those areas that is patent today. Also, during the Almohad era, a low wall was created to protect the area from floods. The area that today is the Casa de la Moneda used to house the Abu-Hafs Palace, with its corresponding gardens and orchards. This palace would possibly be destroyed during the siege of the city by Ferdinand III and became a ruined building, which was later used as orchards and the entire environment would be redeveloped in later centuries. Where that palace was located would also be the Atarazana de Caballeros.
The arrival of the Christians greatly revitalized the port from the second half of the 13th century. This also brought urban changes associated with the repopulation of the city by Castilians. The empty spaces were occupied with new buildings in an urban framework more regular than that of a Muslim city. The Shipyards were built in the area by Alfonso X in the 13th century or the College of Santa María de Jesús and the Customs House in the 16th century. But these buildings were not exactly in the Casa de la Moneda, but in its surroundings. The shipyards closest to the Casa de la Moneda would already be the customs house since the 14th century.
What we do know is that in the 13th century the Casa de la Moneda itself was a neighborhood of houses with a corral that had previously been a stable and was a royal heritage. A Roman aqueduct passed through this neighborhood, later adapted by the Muslims, with water. These are the Caños de Carmona , of which remains can still be found around the city, bound for the Alcázar. In this neighborhood, Alfonso X orders that Burgos pipiones and maravedís be manufactured.
This means that the guilds of blacksmiths and purse makers have their homes in the Casa de la Moneda and in the Corral de las Herrerías. In 1478 the Jews built a new neighborhood near this area, the Corral de Jerez, between Puerta de Jerez and the Casa de la Moneda, but they were expelled from Spain in 1492.
The Conquest of America
Large amounts of precious metals arrived in Spain from America and from 1500 to 1717 Seville had an exclusive monopoly on the merchandise that came from the New World. The amount of precious metals converted into coins was so great that hyperinflation crises were generated on many occasions.
A Royal Decree of March 1584 ordered the construction of a new mint for Seville. The works began in 1585. The person in charge of them was the architect Juan de Minjares. The works finished in November 1587.
In the centuries of full heyday, more than 200 employees worked who were in charge of feeding the furnaces and keeping the foundry running.
It was located at the entrance of the city, between the Torre del Oro and the Torre de la Plata , everything that arrived from the new America destined for the Casa de Contratación was supervised without problem .
It occupies an irregular surface, rather triangular in shape, and was built in the same place where the mint used to be since the 13th century . It underwent several reforms during its use as a Royal Factory, one in the 16th century and another in the 18th century , when the great doorway that forms the main access, the work of Sebastián Van der Borcht , was added, as well as another series of face reforms. to solve structural problems and leaks derived from the 1755 Lisbon earthquake .
Contemporary Age
It stopped working in the 19th century , its facilities were used as a residential complex, little by little it was abandoned and it deteriorated so that it was in a completely dilapidated state until its restoration was decided at the end of the 20th century , leaving a building similar to what it was in its heyday. Currently only the main portal remains to be restored, whose buildings were to be used as a hotel, however the project was suspended for carrying out property attacks.
Until the 2000s, the La Moneda bar was located at the main door. In the same compound as the mint is the Casa del Tesorero, which is currently an Italian restaurant, where during the adaptation works, what was baptized as the Torre del Bronce was discovered in 2012, the third defense of the city, and that was integrated into the same Casa de la Moneda.
The singer Francisco de Asís Palacios Ortega , artistically known as Paco Palacios "El Pali" and with the nickname "El Trovador de Sevilla" was born and lived on number 6 Guines Street on May 22, 1928.
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