Tower of the Perdigones

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In Seville's San Gil district, next to the Barqueta bridge, the main access to Expo'92, the Tower of the Perdigones - Camera Obscura is one of the town's main industrial monuments. The tower was part of the old San Francisco de Paula factory, popularly known as the Perdigones (pellet) factory.

As its name suggests, the factory was one of the many foundries in the city and was dedicated to the manufacture of pellets (which were made in the tower), bullets and zinc sheets for the manufacture of zinc baths, which were famous at the time. Built in 1885, it was owned by Manuel Mata.

Pellets were produced by melting lead in a kiln and then using huge ladles to pour it onto screens of different sizes (according to size of the pellet). The windows that let in the air did the rest, with the pellets falling like rain due to the effects of gravity. It was restored with sponsorship from a famous store around the time of Expo'92. Further restoration work was paid for by the Council in August 2005.

Years before Expo'92, the land around the tower was a shanty town that could be found therein until 2001. After the restoration it became a large garden area with a large fountain and several offices, homes and teaching centres, such as the School of Dentistry, were built herein.

It was inaugurated as a camera obscura in 2007, an attraction that allows to see the town in movement from a height of 45 metres (almost half of the Giralda), projected thanks to an optical instrument that consists of a white screen, a mirror and a magnifying lens.

Labels

Foundry

Towers