The Archivo General de Indias is the world's principal repository of documentation relating to the Spanish colonial empire — some 43,000 files running to 80 million pages of manuscripts, charts, maps, and correspondence accumulated between 1492 and the early 20th century. The building is the Lonja de Mercaderes, a 16th-century merchants' exchange designed by Juan de Herrera in a restrained Herreran classicism of cut stone and measured proportions. Philip II converted it to an archive in 1785 to centralise the colonial documents then scattered across Simancas, Seville, and Cádiz. The interior — two floors of pale stone galleries around a central courtyard — is among the finest spaces in Seville: cool, silent, and exactly calibrated to its purpose. The documents include Columbus's diary of the first voyage, Magellan's contract for the circumnavigation, and the original plans for many of the cities of the Americas. The archive is open to researchers; the ground floor galleries are open to visitors. A UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside the Cathedral and the Alcázar.
Santa Cruz, Seville, Spain