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This Braun & Hogenberg view, drawn by Georg Hoefnagel in 1565, presents a striking 3 part view Los Palacios y Villafranca, Las Alcantarillas, and Las Cabezas de San Juan in Andalusia, Spain, three towns along the historic road from Seville to Jerez de la Frontera.
The top section of the view illustrates Los Palacios, a small town situated south of Seville along the ancient trade and travel route leading to Cádiz and Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Braun’s commentary describes the challenging conditions of the dusty summer roads, comparing them to the treacherous navigation of the sea, emphasizing the harsh Andalusian climate. The town is depicted with fortifications, a prominent church, and a Moorish castle, originally conquered by Ferdinand III of Castile in the mid-13th century. Later, Peter I of Castile ("the Cruel") rebuilt a fortress over the Moorish ruins, solidifying the town’s strategic importance. The figures in the foreground, Hoefnagel and Maleparte, add a personal element to the scene, traversing the hilly landscape on horseback, reinforcing the travelogue nature of Hoefnagel’s sketches.
The middle section focuses on Las Alcantarillas, a location marked by its Roman bridge, built to facilitate the crossing of the marshy Guadalquivir floodplain. The bridge stands prominently at the center of the composition, its arched stone structure a testament to Roman engineering. To the left, the ruins of a Moorish Mosque or ancient temple, referred to by Braun as "always closed," highlight the layered cultural history of the region, transitioning from Roman to Moorish to Christian rule. To the right, a small inn stands against an open landscape, with travelers and mounted figures making their way along the road. The background features a large lake, once a defining geographical feature of the region, reinforcing the marshy nature of the terrain. The name "Las Alcantarillas" derives from the Arabic "al-Qantara," meaning "bridge," further reflecting the area’s Moorish past.
The bottom section provides an expansive, panoramic depiction of Las Cabezas de San Juan, a town located on a hill near Lebrija, forming a key strategic location between Seville and Jerez de la Frontera. The townscape is set against a rugged mountainous backdrop, with the Sierras de Ronda depicted at left, though in reality, these mountains are much further south. Braun’s text notes that the site was once a larger city, as evidenced by its ruined walls, possibly dating back to the Iberian period. The scene’s foreground is particularly noteworthy, as Hoefnagel has included himself, seated on a rock, sketching the very scene before him—a rare instance of artistic self-representation in early modern cartography.
This view exemplifies 16th-century topographical illustration, merging realistic geographic depictions with artistic embellishments and historical context. The inclusion of travelers, townspeople, and mounted figures imbues the scene with a sense of movement and lived experience, while the ruins and fortifications allude to the region’s rich and contested history, from its Moorish occupation to its Christian reconquest.
Civitates Orbis Terrarum: The Greatest City Book
Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg began the process of creating a comprehensive atlas of the cities of the world in 1572. Their book, Civitates Orbis Terrarum, was originally intended as a companion to Abraham Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first true atlas.
The great atlas was edited by Georg Braun, with Franz Hogenberg engraving many of the views. When the project was finished, the series would contain over 546 views (sometimes with multiple views on a single plate).
Civitates Orbis Terrarum includes the work of over 100 artists and topographers, perhaps most notable among them was the superlative talent of Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600). He provided original drawings of Spanish and Italian towns, as well as reworking and improving the town drawings of other artists. After Joris's death, his son Jakob continued the project.
The Civitates provides an incredibly comprehensive view of urban life in the late 16th century. Many of the views in these volumes are the earliest of their respective towns -- either absolutely, or they are predated only by impossible rarities, as in the case of London. Cities portrayed range from the great capitals of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas to small Swiss hamlets and other tiny villages. As such, this singular and indispensable source for understanding the early modern world.
The work was published in six volumes, each of which contained approximately sixty plates. The subject matter of each plate varied widely, it could provide a single view of a city, two views of the same city, or views of up to nine different cities. The range of designs is extensive, and it is interesting to compare the variety between views of the same city by two different authors.
Georg Braun (1541-1622) was born and died in Cologne. His primary vocation was as Catholic cleric; he spent thirty-seven years as canon and dean at the church St. Maria ad Gradus, in Cologne. Braun was the chief editor of the Civitates orbis terrarum, the greatest book of town views ever published. His job entailed hiring artists, acquiring source material for the maps and views, and writing the text. In this role, he was assisted by Abraham Ortelius. Braun lived into his 80s, and he was the only member of the original team to witness the publication of the sixth volume in 1617.
Frans Hogenberg (ca. 1540-ca. 1590) was a Flemish and German engraver and mapmaker who also painted. He was born in Mechelen, south of Antwerp, the son of wood engraver and etcher Nicolas Hogenberg. Together with his father, brother (Remigius), uncle, and cousins, Frans was one member of a prominent artistic family in the Netherlands.
During the 1550s, Frans worked in Antwerp with the famous mapmaker Abraham Ortelius. There, he engraved the maps for Ortelius’ groundbreaking first atlas, published in Antwerp in 1570, along with Johannes van Deotecum and Ambrosius and Ferdinand Arsenius. It is suspected he engraved the title page as well. Later, Ortelius supported Hogenberg with information for a different project, the Civitates orbis terrarium (edited by Georg Braun, engraved by Hogenberg, published in six volumes, Cologne, 1572-1617). Hogenberg engraved the majority of the work’s 546 prospects and views.
It is possible that Frans spent some time in England while fleeing from religious persecution, but he was living and working in Cologne by 1580. That is the city where he died around 1590. In addition to his maps, he is known for his historical allegories and portraits. His brother, Remigius, also went on to some fame as an engraver, and he died around the same time as his brother.
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