On what date was the first auto de fé execution in Seville held?

The first auto de fé execution in Seville was held on 6 February 1481.

This event occurred only a few months after the Spanish Inquisition’s first inquisitors began operating in Seville. The city became the institution’s first major base, partly because Dominican friar Alonso de Ojeda had raised alarms about alleged continued Jewish practices among some Christian converts.

An auto de fé, meaning “act of faith,” was primarily a public religious and judicial ceremony. It included a procession, prayers or Mass, a sermon, and the public reading of sentences. Execution was normally carried out afterward by secular authorities, so the ceremony and the burning were technically separate stages.

The Seville event marked the harsh beginning of the new tribunal’s campaign. Six people were burned alive after the ceremony. The date is sometimes confused with the 27 September 1480 appointment of the first inquisitors, or with later dates connected to the abolition of the Inquisition in 1834 and the expulsion of Jews in 1492.