General Archive of the Indies, Seville at Spain is culture.

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Archives and libraries / Sevilla

General Archive of the Indies

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View of the exterior of the General Archive of the Indies. Seville © Turespaña
Vault inside the General Archive of the Indies. Seville © Turespaña

Temporary exhibitions

The Pacific. Spain and the adventure of the South Sea

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The General Archive of the Indies came into being in 1785 at the behest of King Charles III, for the purpose of collecting in a single place all the documents referring to the colonies in the Indies, which had until then been dispersed around the towns of Simancas, Cadiz and Seville.

It is housed in the emblematic building known as the Casa Lonja de Mercaderes in Seville, built by the architect Juan de Herrera. It contains over 43,000 documents, with some 80 million pages of original papers which occupy eight linear kilometres of shelving. These collections comprise an exceptional source which provides the opportunity to scrutinise over three centuries of the history of America (from Tierra de Fuego to the southern United States) and Asia (the Philippines).

Essential works

Temporary exhibitions

The Pacific. Spain and the adventure of the South Sea
The General Archive of the Indies in Seville hosts this exhibition to mark the fifth centenary of the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Núñez de Balboa. More info

Collections

The collections in the archive can be accessed through the Portal of Spanish Archives (PARES), created for the purpose of disseminating over the Internet the Spanish Historical Documents conserved in its network of centres.

Go to Spanish Archives Portal