It was the construction of the tobacco factory and the student chapel.

THE history of this small temple Located at one end of the main building, it is closely linked to that of the tobacco factory itself, from its original construction more than two and a half centuries ago as the headquarters of the tobacco factory until the arrival of the University of Seville and, with it, the student brotherhood, as reflected in the intervention project.

The tobacco factory was built for productive and defensive purposes due to the importance of state tobacco monopoly in 18th century Spain. Its dimensions met the space requirements of installations and machinery, with measurements of 7×7 Castilian varas per module which allowed accommodating a cavalry-propelled mill.

The building was built very close to the Tagarete stream, which ran parallel to the main facade, so it had to be channeled through a vaulted underground arrangement which also served to have a defensive gap on the other three facades. The low bearing capacity of the land was resolved with a unique foundation system using recently discovered inverted arches.

The building was constructed with two floors and a repetitive spatial structure of hollow vaults, each of them supported by four pillars of sandstone. The foundation was made on inverted arches to avoid earthquakes. The facades were also built with this stone from the quarries of El Puerto de Santa María, while the interior plants and vaults are mainly made of brick. The work was completed in last third of the 18th centurymade largely by the Dutch military engineer Sebastián Van Der Borch.

The tobacco factory was designed and built as a vast, massive and dark fortress. The factory itself was located on the ground floor, while the upper floor served as a drying room and warehouse. It also had an administrative and representative space in the bays of its main facade, with a much more elaborate architecture than the rest of the construction.

The university chapel

Construction of the current university chapel begins in the middle of the 18th centurywith the aim that the tobacco factory would have a space where workers could attend mass without having to leave their posts. This is reflected by Sebastián Van der Borch himself, to whom the authorship of the chapel is attributed, in a letter dated February 19, 1757. The sculptor Vicente Catalán Bengoechea is the architect of the stone facade. The chapel was completed in 1763 and its cult was dedicated to San Fernando, San Carlos Borromeo and the Virgin.

The urban transformations experienced by the environment in which it is located have caused the San Fernando street has gained importance as a gateway and commercial hub to the Seville capital. For all these reasons, the road wideningwhich meant, among other things, the demolition of the houses and garages adjoining the chapel, which regained its original L-shaped structure, composed of its single central nave and the adjoining warehouse on the Epistle side.

Headquarters of two brotherhoods

The chapel remained for a month and a half without contact with the brotherhoods and brotherhoods of Seville, until 1904, the brotherhood which would henceforth be known under the name of that of Las Cigarreras has moved to this new headquarters of the church of the Third. It was then that the warehouse was integrated as a side nave, opening a new door on its facade. The company left San Fernando Street in 1965 to move to the new cigar factory premises on the other side of the river.

At this time took place last and most important reform of the chapel, which coincided with the transfer of the University of Seville to the premises of the old tobacco factory, where it is located today. THE student fraternity Until that moment, it was located in its founding seat, the Church of the Annunciation, annexed to the old seat of the university. In 1956, after the rector reported the ruined situation of the said temple, Antonio Delgado Roig and Alberto Balbontín were charged with reforming this chapel, developing two projects.

One of these projects practically proposed the construction of a new chapel, with a dome higher than the current lantern and occupying the entire moat area with three new altars, an access gate to San Fernando Street and another to the University Market. The other, which was finally retained due to an unfavorable report from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts on the first proposal, was simpler and based on raise a third ship on the north side of the chapel.

The work completed in 1966, delayed by a series of problems detected by the brotherhood and transmitted to the rector a year previously: that the side naves were not high enough to climb and shelter the steps; that due to a construction problem, the arches which give access to the side naves had been blocked although they were not planned in the works project (the space was designed in an open plan); that the open door in the nave of the Epistle was too small to pass through; and that the door projected into the evangelical nave was walled up.

For this reason, it was proposed to open a new nave after the transept with its door corresponding to the dimensions necessary for the exit of the brotherhood. Its cover was also designed as a reproduction of the Annunciationformer headquarters of the university corporation. Although in 1971 the University accepted the proposal that the penitential station take place from the main building, as is still the case, in the early years the procession started with its steps from the chapel, which experienced no change since then. The next chapter in its story will open in 2026.