Archivo de Indias, Seville

Archivo de Indias is a historic documentary archive housed in a former merchant guild building. The building you see was designed by Juan de Herrera, and its restrained stone-and-stucco exterior encloses a large patio with arcades, recessed windows, pilasters, and a balustrade. Its clean surfaces leave the shadows cast by the mouldings to do much of the visual work.

The archive was created by Charles III and inaugurated in 1785. Its purpose was to bring together records concerning Spain’s overseas empire in the Americas and Asia. The collection now occupies about 9 kilometres of shelving and includes 43,000 volumes and some 80 million pages.

Among its remarkable holdings are Christopher Columbus’s journal, a papal document associated with the division of overseas territories, Cervantes’s request for an official post, and maps of cities in Spanish America. Before this became an archive, the building served Seville’s merchant guild. Construction began in 1584 using Herrera’s plans and continued until 1646.

In 1787, a grand marble staircase was added for the new archival function. The structure and its contents received World Heritage status in 1987, together with the cathedral and the Alcázar. What looks so measured from the outside therefore contains an immense paper record of imperial administration.