Periodo Visigodo

Spali, the visigoth Seville.

In the year 411 A.D. the silingo vandals seize the province of Bética. Hispalis is taken by the vandal Gunderico in 426 A.D. The vandals enter Seville causing remarkable destruction in the rich urban city created by the romans during their seven centuries of permanence. The vandals settle in provisional camps called Vandalen Haus, which gave the name Vandalaus, then Andalaus and finally Andalusia. 

These peoples did not leave the region until 429 A.D. However they did not take long in being replaced by the Suevos, lead by Réquila. The city was able to recover from these invasions until the arrival of the visigiths in the middle of the VIth century. Hispalis from that time was called Spali. 

A greater repercussion occured in the visigoth period when Spali was chosen by Amalarico as the capital of the visigoth empire was remained so until Atanagildo came into power who then settled in Toledo. The confrontations over power and religion between the Arrianos and Christians continue for years. Towards the year 573 A.D. the Christian Prince Hermenegildo rebels against his father Leovigildo, an arriano, a rebellion that brought about Hermenegildo’s defeat and death in 583 A.D. and the city’s take over by Leovigildo.  

From this moment the splendor of the city in a cultural sense was maintained mainly thanks to the Bishop San Leandro, who impulsed national unity by obtaining the conversion of the Monarch Recaredo in the III Council of Toledo in 589 A.D. ; and also the Bishop San Isidoro, (author of The Etimologias, a great encyclopedia which reflected the knowledge of its time which had an enormous influence on european culture).  

In this turbulent period of the city of Seville, notably outstanding is the Monarch Recaredo; during his reign the city enjoyed a splendid cultural bonanza. The city walls were enlarged, new districts were built, as well as new palaces and churches.