OSUNA, a town of Spain, in the province of Seville, distant 48 miles by road and 57 by rail east-south-east from that city, is built in a semicircular form on the slope of a hill, at the edge of a fertile plain watered by the Salado, a sub-tributary of the Guadalquivir. On the top of the hill, which commands an extensive view, stands the collegiate church, a mixed Gothic and Cinquecento building, containing several good specimens of Ribera, which, however, as well as the sculptures over the portal, suffered considerably during the occupation of the place by Soult. The vaults, which are supported by Moorish arches, contain the tombs of the Giron family, by one of whom, Don Juan Tellez, the church was founded in 1534. The university of Osuna, founded also by him in 1549, was suppressed in 1820; but the large building is still used as a secondary school. A great number of the inhabitants of Osuna are engaged in agriculture, and the making of esparto mats employs many of the poorer people. Earthenware, bricks, oil, soap, linen, hats, are also manufactured; and barley, oil, and wheat are sent in large quantities to Seville and Malaga. The population of the ayuntamiento in 1877 was 17,211.

Osuna, the Urso of Hirtius, where the Pompeians made their last stand, was afterwards called by the Romans Gemina Urbanorum, from the fact, it is said, that two urban legions were simultaneously quartered there. The place was taken from the Moors in 1239, and given by Alphonso the Wise to the knights of Calatrava in 1264. Don Pedro Giron appropriated it to himself in 1445. One of his descendants founded the university, and another, Don Pedro Tellez, was made duke of Osuna by Philip II. (1562).