Lebrija

Lebrija, city, Sevilla provincia (province), in the Andalusia comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), southwestern Spain. It is located south of the city of Sevilla in the lower basin of the Guadalquivir River. Founded as Nebritza by the Phoenicians, it was called Nebrixa by the Romans, Nebrisa by the Arabs, and Nebrija, or Lebrija, by the Spaniards, who reconquered it in 1249. Lebrija was the birthplace of the humanist scholar Elio Antonio de Nebrija, author of the first Castilian grammar, and of Juan Díaz de Solís, the first European to explore the Río de la Plata in South America.

The city’s architecture reflects the Moorish influence in various Mozarabic temples, in the Church of Santa María de la Oliva (12th–16th century) with its early sculptures of Alonso Cano, and in the ruins of a Moorish castle. Lebrija serves as a market for local agricultural products (cereals, rice, cotton, foodstuffs, meats) and exports aluminum silicate from nearby mines. The city is surrounded by rice paddies and cotton fields. Pop. (2007 est.) mun., 25,614.