Royal Tobacco Factory of Seville

The Royal Tobacco Factory is defined by the deep, moat-like canal that circles the entire stone structure. Built in the mid-eighteenth century, this was once the industrial powerhouse of Spain, producing nearly three quarters of the tobacco consumed in Europe. Thousands of women worked here, hand-rolling cigars in massive, echoing halls. In eighteen thirty, a clerk named Prosper Mérimée visited the factory, met a fiery worker, and turned his observation into the novella that became the opera Carmen.