Tucked right between the Real Alcazar and the soaring Gothic Cathedral is a much less visited building called Archivo General de Indias. It’s like George Harrison standing between John and Paul–the enormity of the outer flanks may diminish the inner by comparison, but in both cases you’d be missing an opportunity for much beauty and wonder.

The building itself is remarkable, particularly on the inside. It’s a beautiful Renaissance castle originally built as a business center for Spain’s interests in the New World. It houses over 80 million documents and records from the earliest ventures until the empire eventually shrunk back to the Iberian peninsula. Documents like Queen Isabella’s original charter to Columbus. Magellan’s plan to sail around the world. Charters to Pizarro, Magellan, Cortez, Balboa, and Da Vaca. And the treaty between Portugal and Spain essentially dividing up the new world between them, never mind that there were flourishing civilizations already there. It’s may be difficult to understand the impact of seeing those documents (reproductions, but the originals are there in the archives) but it’s a profound experience.

Admission is free. Exhibit signage is in Spanish only, so it helps to be able to read the language, but much can be learned by making out some of the names on the documents. Highly recommended.