The ancient auction house of the city, the place where merchants met to do business with the New World.

Together with the Alcazar and the Cathedral, they form a perfect symbiosis, in the sense that each one represents one of the three powers: The political (Alcazar), the religious (Cathedral) and the economical (the Auction House or archives of the Americas). All are situated in the same place, creating something unique to the world. It’s not a coincidence that this combination has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Commerce with America

It is not a coincidence that this building was built later than its comrades. In 1503, when Seville was already an important city on the map and was home to these two great buildings, the monarchs decided to establish the seat of commerce with the recently discovered New World here, giving them the monopoly. This means that all the riches that came from those lands arrived in Seville, and all the products being transported to sell there also departed from the same place. Therefore, throughout this period the city was filled with traders both Spanish and foreign, attracted by the riches of this new market, and this turned Seville into one of the most prosperous cities in the world. 

However, these merchants needed a meeting space. Until the 16^th century this place had been the so called ‘stands’ that is to say the steps of Alemanes street. In fact, whenever it rained they didn’t have any problems with continuing their business inside the Cathedral. This didn’t amuse the clergy, who asked for a space for the merchants to be constructed so that they wouldn’t trespass on their own.

For this reason the auction house was built.  It was designed by the same architect who did the ‘Escorial’, Juan de Herrera, something that its straight features and symmetry hint at. In the interior you can see the clear renaissance patios and wander through the upper galleries. On one of its sides, there is a stone cross; this is called the cross of oaths, where the traders closed their deals, to give it a sacred air that would stop them from breaking their promises.

The general Archives of the Americas

Notwithstanding, when trade with America moved to Cadiz in the 18^th century, so did the merchants, and the Auction house was abandoned. It was used as a tenement house until, years later, in 1785, in was converted into what it is now: the General Archives of the Americas, that’s to say the official archive of all the documents related with America, and with Spanish colonial America. 

This too was a response to a requirement. The Age of Enlightenment was coming and it was necessary to start to write an authoritative history. For this, King Carlos III gave the order to bring all the documents related to the work the Spanish people in the Americas to one place, to write a true story in response to the badly written foreign texts which had addressed the subject of the Spanish American Conquest, with an end to morally discredit it. 

Today, inside -or better said under- its walls they have preserved thousands of original documents from this period, that researchers use every day to continue their honourable work: continuing to write history.

Images socurce: 6 – 10 (section 2).