Torre del Oro

From Freepedia

Image:Sevilla2005July 081.jpg The Torre del Oro (Spanish for "Tower of the Gold") is a military watchtower built in Seville, Spain during the Almohad dynasty in order to control access to the city via the Guadalquivir river. The tower was built as part of the defensive works running from the Alcázar to the river. The tower may have received its name from the golden tiles which cover its dome and may have once adorned the rest of the tower.

Constructed in the first third of the 13th century, it has twelve sides, and from its base a chain would be stretched, underwater, across the river to another fort on the opposite shore, thereby preventing enemy ships from traveling upstream to the port of Seville. The Castilian naval force commanded by Ramón de Bonifaz broke this defense, helping Ferdinand III of Castile capture Seville in 1248. The final and highest addition to the tower was made by Sebastián Vander Borcht in 1760.

The tower served as a prison during the middle ages and as a secure enclosure for the protection, at times, of precious metals periodically brought by the fleet of the Indies, another possible origin for the tower's name.

Today the tower is a naval museum, containing engravings, letters, models, instruments, and historic documents. The museum outlines the naval history of Seville and the importance of its river.