From the second half of the 12th century, Seville was ruled by the Almohads, a Berber political and religious dynasty originating from the mountains of Morocco. To make themselves more popular among the locals these Berber rulers constructed in the years between 1184 and 1198 a new grand mosque, the largest the city had seen so far. It was later converted into a cathedral but the current bell tower still stands as a reminder of the building’s Islamic past, which was styled after the Kutubiyya Mosque in Marrakech, though the Sevillian tower was in fact a bit higher than its Morrocan twin. All this reminds us of a time when North Africa and Seville were tightly linked, culturally, politically and economically.