Carmona

Carmona — originally called Carmo — has been occupied for more than 5,000 years. Its elevated position allowed inhabitants to watch over the surrounding plains of Los Alcores, La Vega, and Las Terrazas, making it a natural fortress. It was likely among the most fortified cities of the Tartessian kingdom, then settled by Phoenicians who worked precious metals there. The Carthaginians invaded next, and traces of that period survive in the Puerta de Sevilla.

Julius Caesar considered Carmona the strongest city in the entire province of Baetica and, in return for its support during his campaign in Hispania Ulterior, granted it the status of municipium and the right to mint its own coins. The city was accessible via the Via Augusta.

During the Spanish Civil War, after the July 1936 coup succeeded in Seville, Carmona's rebel forces carried out severe reprisals: in the first day alone twelve residents were killed, and over the following four months 201 men and 16 women were executed without trial.

Carmona holds a curious national record: Spain's oldest lottery office, licensed in 1763, is here. A local winner used his 1928 lottery prize of one million pesetas to build the Teatro Cerezo, completed in 1934.

The walled historic centre was declared a protected historic ensemble in 1963, along with individual monuments including the churches of San Pedro and Santiago, the Convento de la Concepción, and the remains of the Via Augusta and its Roman bridge.

The Roman necropolis is the centrepiece of an archaeological zone with its own museum. Its most significant tombs are those of Servilia and the Elephant. A Roman amphitheatre also survives, as do stretches of the Via Augusta and a small Roman bridge. The city walls themselves carry layers from every civilisation that occupied the town.

Military architecture includes the Alcázar del Rey Don Pedro, now a parador hotel; the Puerta de Sevilla, fortified to function as a small alcázar in its own right; the Puerta de Córdoba; and the Torre del Picacho.

Religious buildings are numerous: six convents (La Concepción, La Trinidad, Santa Ana, Las Descalzas, Madre de Dios, and Santa Clara), three hermitages, and seven parish churches including Santa María de la Asunción and San Pedro. Several noble town houses survive as well, among them the Palacio del Marqués de las Torres, which now houses the city museum.