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| Archive of the Indies | |
|---|---|
| Native name Archivo General de Indias (Spanish) | |
 TheArchivo de Indias, Seville | |
| Location | Seville,Andalusia,Spain |
| Coordinates | 37°23′02″N5°59′31″W / 37.384°N 5.992°W /37.384; -5.992 |
| Built | 16th century |
| Architect | Juan de Herrera Juan de Mijares |
| Architectural style(s) | Renaissance |
| Official name | Cathedral,Alcázar and Archivo de Indias in Seville |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | i, ii, iii, vi |
| Designated | 1987(118thsession) |
| Reference no. | 383 |
| Region | Europe |
  Location in Seville | |
TheArchivo General de Indias (Spanish pronunciation:[aɾˈtʃiβoxeneˈɾaldeˈindjas]; standard abbreviationAGI;lit. 'General Archive of the Indies'), often simply called theArchive of the Indies, was created byCarlos III and inaugurated in 1785.[1] It is housed in the formermerchant guild building inSeville,Spain, built in the late 16th century. It became the repository of archival materials documenting the history of theSpanish Empire in the Americas and Asia. The building was designed byJuan de Herrera; it is an Italianate example of SpanishRenaissance architecture. This structure and its contents were registered in 1987 byUNESCO as aWorld Heritage Site, together with the adjoiningSeville Cathedral and theAlcázar of Seville.
The origin of the structure dates to 1572 whenPhilip II commissioned the building design fromJuan de Herrera, the architect of theEscorial to house theConsulado de mercaderes of Seville.[2]: 128 Until then, the merchants of Seville had been in the habit of retreating to the cool recesses of the cathedral to transact business.
The building, known as theLonja, was begun in 1584 byJuan de Mijares, using Herrera's plans.[citation needed] The northern rooms of the ground floor were completed in 1598, as recorded by a dedicatory inscription over the central door of the northern façade, and the rest of the ground floor was completed the following year. Work then began on the next level but construction was paused in 1601 due to funding problems. Work resumed in 1609 but the building was not finished until 1646.[2]: 128 Work was directed until 1629 by the archbishop Juan de Zumárraga and finished byPedro Sanchez Falconete.[citation needed]
The building encloses a large central patio with ranges of two storeys, the windows set in slightly sunken panels between flatpilasters. Plain square tablets float in the space above each window. The building is surmounted by abalustrade, with rusticatedobelisks standing at the corners. There is no sculptural decoration, only the discreetly contrasting tonalities of stone and stucco, and the light shadows cast by the slight relief of the pilasters against their piers, by the cornices, and by the cornice strips that cap each window.
In the aftermath of a devastating plague in 1649, the building appears to have been abandoned by merchants by 1660. From 1660 to 1674, one of its rooms was used as a painting academy established byBartolomé Esteban Murillo. By the 18th century, the building's upper floor had been partitioned for use as apartments.[2]: 128
On 12 March 1784,Juan Bautista Muñoz, a historian who was attempting to write a history of theNew World, wrote toJosé de Gálvez, the Minister of the Indies, suggesting the idea of creating a centralized archive for documents relating to the Americas. José de Gálvez had already been considering the idea for a decade and wrote back on 24 April, encouraging him to look in Seville and Cadiz for potential buildings that could house the archive.[2]: 128 On 24 May, Muñoz toured the formerLonja with Féliz Carazas and Lucas Cintora. He wrote to Gálvez on 8 June, enthusiastic about selecting this structure since it was a solidly built made entirely of stone and contained sufficient space for a large number of documents. He indicated that they would merely need to remove the recent partitions of the upper floor and restore the building to its original state.[2]: 129–130
Gálvez communicated the idea to monarch Charles III, who on 27 June 1784 issued a letter instructing Muñoz to draft a proposal for the work needed to convert the building into the Archive of the Indies.[2]: 130 In February 1785, Charles III approved a decree for the creation of the archives according the proposed plans.[2]: viii The project was to bring together under a single roof all the documentation regarding the overseas empire, which until that time had been held among various repositories, including inSimancas,Cádiz and Seville.[3]
Responsibility for the project was delegated to José de Gálvez, Secretary for the Indies, who delegated historian Juan Bautista Muñoz for the plan's execution. Two basic motivations underlay the project. One was practical, the lack of space in theArchivo General de Simancas, the central repository of the Spanish Crown, There was also the expectation, in the spirit of theEnlightenment, that Spanish historians would take up the history of Spain's overseas empire.[citation needed] It was decided that, for the time being, documents evolved after 1760 would remain with their primary institutions.[citation needed]The first cartloads of the documents arrived in October 1785.
Some restructuring of theCasa Lonja to accommodate the materials was required, and a grand marble staircase was added in 1787 after the designs of Lucas Cintara.[citation needed]
The archives are rich with autograph material from the first of theConquistadores to the end of the 19th century. Here areMiguel de Cervantes' request for an official post, theBull of DemarcationInter caetera ofPope Alexander VI in which he divided the world between Spain and Portugal, the journal ofChristopher Columbus, maps and plans of Spanish American cities, in addition to the ordinary records that reveal the month-to-month workings of the whole vast bureaucatic machinery of the empire. These have been mined by historians in the last two centuries.
Today, the Archive of the Indies houses some nine kilometers of shelving, in 43,000 volumes and some 80 million pages, which were produced by the administrators in the Americas and the Philippines:
The structure underwent a thorough restoration in 2002–2004, without interrupting its function as a research library. As of 2005[update], its 15 million pages are in the process of being digitized. The digitized sources are accessible online[4]
For official site names, see each article or theList of World Heritage Sites in Spain. | ||
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