Known as the Baños de García Jofre or Baños de Mateo Gago, the Baño Bar Giralda is a historic Islamic hammam at number 1 Calle Mateos Gago in central Seville, just steps from the base of the Giralda tower and the Cathedral. Dating from the medieval Almohad period, when Seville served as the capital of al-Andalus and one of the most populous cities in Europe, these baths once served a flourishing Muslim community in the shadow of what would become one of the world's great Christian cathedrals. The site encapsulates the palimpsest of Seville's history, where mosque, minaret, and hammam were succeeded by cathedral, tower, and tourist street.
Insider tip — The Giralda is Sevilla's defining monument — the Almohad minaret converted into the bell tower of Sevilla Cathedral, one of Spain's three great Gothic cathedrals. The Arab baths near the Giralda are an underground hammam remnant in the heart of Almohad Sevilla, where the medieval city reached its greatest sophistication before the Christian Reconquista of 1248 transformed the city's Islamic bathing culture into a Christian urban heritage of extraordinary religious and architectural complexity.
