Since 711 and for nearly 500 years, Seville has been one of the main cities of al-Andalus, the medieval Islamic kingdom of Spain, a wealthy land-based economy that thrived at the junction between Africa, Europe and Asia. With their trade and agriculture flourishing, the subsequent emirs and caliphs who ruled al-Andalus vehemently supported science and the arts and fostered significant cultural changes and developments. But, in 1248, it was time for power to change hands and Seville was conquered by the Christian king of Castile Fernando III. And so, the once imposing old mosques were converted into churches. The so-called Church of the Saviour was, in fact, the first main mosque of the city. It was named after the qadi, as the local governor was called at the time, Umar Ibn Adabbas who had supervised its construction between the years 829 and 830. The current Church was inaugurated in 1671 by José Granados, the master of the Granada Cathedral, and was completed at the beginning of the eighteenth century by Leonardo de Figueroa. The latter was a proponent of a colourful architectural idiom that redefined the Sevillian ecclesiastical baroque.