General Archive of the Indies

The General Archive of the Indies in Seville holds the largest documentary collection in the world on the history of Latin America and the Philippines: more than 80 million handwritten pages, including Christopher Columbus's original diaries, Hernán Cortés's letters to Charles I, the Capitulations of Santa Fe with which the Catholic Monarchs financed the first voyage, and the original plans of hundreds of American cities. Created in 1785 by Charles III to centralise all the documentation of the Spanish Empire in America, the building that houses it is the former Merchants' Exchange (Lonja de Mercaderes), designed by Juan de Herrera in 1572 in the same sober, geometric style as the Monastery of El Escorial. It has been a World Heritage Site since 1987 and admission is completely free.