This building was constructed in 1307.
It was originally the house of the bastimento of the Master of the Order of Santiago.
Almona comes from the Arabic “dar al muna”, house of provisions.
Architecturally, it is a slightly trapezoidal ashlar building. It consists of two storeys, each of which is made up of a timber-framed nave, the lower one supported by pointed arches that start from the floor, as if they were interior buttresses. The roof of the upper part is gabled, supported by pillars aligned on the central axis of the nave. The front of the construction advances on the right-hand side along the façade line to serve as a seat for the ramp that gives access to the upper floor from the outside. The doors to both floors are superimposed in the centre of the façade; the ground floor has a low pointed arch, which rests on imposts consisting of a torus and a gable. The door of the upper nave, preceded by a porch supported by brick pillars, also has a pointed arch, more rounded than the lower one, on a quarter-round moulding. It has direct access via a ramp outside the façade and supported by the wall.
The building receives light through narrow arrow slits, some of which have been widened after the original building, which due to its characteristics, especially the proportion of the arches, could be dated to a fairly remote date, perhaps in the first half of the 14th century, according to experts.
To the left of the upper door there is a tombstone that is difficult to decipher and which seems to read: “…. A DIOS FUE ACABADA ESTA CASA A MANDO LABRARLA DONDE BOO D SOOMMM DE PAZ”.
This building is included in the Archaeological and Artistic Catalogue of Seville and its province, of the Directorate General of Fine Arts. It is the oldest building of the Order of Santiago that exists in Guadalcanal.
In the following video we take a virtual tour of the Almona building by “Conjuntos Históricos de Andalucía. Patrimonia Network”.
