Of Seville’s architectural highlights, perhaps the Giralda is the most notorious. A display of beauty that rises Almohad and Renaissance, crowned by the bronze weathervane that gives it its name. No wonder it has served as inspiration, even copy for other buildings. Thus, the Giralda has replicas all over the world and one of the most surreal is in a shopping center in Kansas City, in the United States.
The city of Seville and Kansas City have been twinned for more than half a century. A relationship that went through its best moments during the decade of the 50’s and 60’s and that explains the existence of this place on the other side of the Atlantic.
And the fact is that this historic jewel of Seville -by the way, its original color is not the one it has today.-, continues to arouse such interest that there are more than a few who have reversed it.
Although Kansas City is not the capital of Missouri, it is the most populated city in the state and one of the few destinations in the world with a unique replica of the Giralda among its attractions.
Of another paste is the example of the Koutoubia, almost sister of the Giralda and erected a few decades earlier. In this case, both architectural prodigies are similar because they drink from the knowledge, techniques and criteria of the Almohads.
A Giralda in the world’s first shopping mall.
Far from the historical richness shared by both minarets, Kansas City’s Giralda was built on a pure architectural whim and is part of the Country Club Plaza, considered the world’s first shopping mall.
The developer of this space, J. C. Nichols, entrusted the architectural task to Edward Buehler Delk, who traveled through Spain and South America in search of ideas for erecting this complex. The result, of clear Hispanic inspiration, is crowned by this reproduction of the Giralda, which was completed by his son in 1967.
It is not, however, the only nod to Seville that this American city discovers. He also reconstructed the Plaza Virgen de los Reyes and its fountain, designed by Bernhard Zuckerman, in the style of the one that awaits at the foot of the Cathedral of Seville.
On the other hand, Seville also showed its close relationship with the city, giving its name to one of the main thoroughfares of the city.
In addition, Kansas City Avenue itself boasts the equestrian monument El Explorador, the work of sculptor Cyrus Edwin Dallin, which depicts an Indian on horseback. A gift from the city to Seville in the context of the 1992 Universal Exposition.