Torre del Oro

Why go

The Torre del Oro is a medieval watchtower on the Guadalquivir in Seville. A Ministry of Defence leaflet on its museum describes it as a twelve-sided defensive albarrana tower of the 13th century, now 36 metres high, that guarded the river approach to the Puente de Barcas and was joined by wall sections to the Torre de la Plata and through them to the Alcázar; Seville Cathedral's timeline dates its building to 1220. The leaflet says it was declared a historic-artistic monument in 1931, that the Ministry of the Navy ordered a maritime museum installed in it in 1936, and that the museum opened in 1944; it describes two floors that can be visited and a panoramic terrace. It asks groups to request visits by fax or email. This record is the tower; the Museo Marítimo is its current use.