Tower of the San Marcos Church, Seville

The tower of the San Marco Church has given rise to some debate over its date of construction and its attribution. For many years, a number of scholars, including J. Gestoso, defended the argument that it had once been a fragile minaret built by the Almohads for a mosque that no longer exists. A. Morales and L. Torres Balbás have argued that it is a fine specimen of Mudejar work, inspired by Seville’s La Giralda and possibly built during the first half of the 14th century under the reign of Alfonso XI. During the 15th century, the tower is thought to have had a defensive crenellated top.

The Mudejar style of the edifice is enriched by a number of later styles and decoration, added after a series of fires: in 1470, during the 18th century, and those during the Spanish Civil War. The most in-depth study we have of this Sevillian tower is that of L. Torres Balbás who describes in meticulous detail each of its architectonic elements. The quadrangular tower, which is smaller than that of La Giralda, has a square central core with a spiral staircase. Each flight of stairs is topped by ribbed vaults. On the inside as well as on the exterior, the tower is built of exposed brick and its walls are about one meter thick, growing thicker in the upper regions. 

The disposition of the windows takes its model from the large Almohad tower, each side of the tower having a different window. They are placed at different heights to light up each landing. There are a total of eleven windows, each one unique, according to which side they are on.  The lower windows are almost devoid of decoration and narrower than the others. As one climbs the tower, the light increases and the ornamentation and materials grow richer. The two west-facing windows, like those on the other sides of the building, are geminate bay windows. Some of them, like the lowest on the north wall, were modified during the restoration carried out in 1916 and damaged. The geminate bay windows in their rectangular frames are topped with blind polylobate arches, similar to those on La Giralda.

A frieze in relief composed of two rows of brick encircles the upper portion of the clock tower; above it is a decorative band of blind arcades made of small pointed brick arches that hang over small tapering columns, with a network of rhomboids above them. Crowning the tower is a protruding stone cornice, supported by sculpted modillions with alternating human and animal heads. The skylight, which was added subsequently, has a semicircular opening on each side, framed by classical pilasters that terminate in a pyramidal arrow that dates from the 17th to 18th centuries. The original geometrical tile ornamentation is still visible on the western façade[1].

This tower is almost identical to the tower of La Giralda and has similar characteristics to other Almohad constructions, such as the Qutubiyya of Marrakesh. The tower of the San Marco Church is quite particular, however, and certain details make it a unique example of Sevillian Mudejar art, an art that has marked such constructions as the Omnium Sanctorum, also in Seville.