Cathedral

Seville's cathedral, the third largest in the world, was built on the site of a Muslim mosque, beginning in the 15th century. The Giralda belltower is a renovated version of a minaret, which visitors today can climb. Rather than the typical European cathedral that is long and skinny, with a nave and apse and shaped like a cross, the Seville cathedral (because its footprint was partially dictated by the foundation of the mosque) is more square shaped. The result is that the cathedral feels utterly vast, but unlike any other.

Much debated is whether the mausoleum in the cathedral's center actually does hold the remains of Christopher Columbus. (Spaniards say yes, Italians say no). Nevertheless—and there have been DNA tests completed—the stone tomb is beautiful and dramatic, upheld by sculpted pallbearers that each represent one of Spain's empire's regions.

The centered choir and screens, which were originally built to separate the privileged from the peasants, help break up the soaring interior. Though monumental in size, the cathedral still manages to highlight its multiple stunning details, including 17^th-century Mexican and Argentinian silver accents, the 18^th-century culled Cuban mahogany that adorns the organ and stained glass windows from Flanders and Germany. Though the cathedral's construction began before the discovery of the New World, it was finished afterwards, in time to source raw materials from the unchartered lands. Other highlights are the Madonna of Antigua fresco painted on one of the mosque's original walls and the Murillo painting of St. Anthony.