Seville Sightseeing

The cathedral and the Alcazar are clearly Seville’s most spectacular buildings but the city is graced with many other notable architectural masterpieces. Some are old, some are distinctive and all are worth a short piece of your time.

Archives of the Indies.
This is now housed in a dignified Renaissance building adjacent to the cathedral. You will not miss the building but may be uncertain as to its use. The archive includes drawings, documents, plans of South American towns and much more. The building dates from the 14th-century.

City Hall.
This stretches between Plaza Nueva and Plaza de San Francisco in the heart of the commercial district. The two facades are quite different. The original Diego de Riano building from the 16th-century can be seen on the Plaza de San Francisco while the other side shows a 19th-century plasteresque front.

The Bullring.
This deep ochre painted building was built in the 1760s and is still used today, mainly on Sundays. It is one of the oldest and prettiest bullrings in Spain. There is an adjacent museum with English-speaking guides which opens daily. The statue of the matador outside the building is a highlight.

University of Seville.
Since the 1950s the University has occupied the old Royal Tobacco Factory building on Calle San Fernando. The factory was built in the 1750s and is said to have employed some 3000 female cigar makers at its peak including the mythical Carmen in Bizet’s opera. You are welcome to wander around the lower floors and courtyards.

Torre de Oro.
The Tower of Gold is on the banks of the Guadalquiver River close to the city centre. The twelve-sided tower was built by the Moors in 1220 as part of the city’s protection system. It is believed a chain was stretched across the river from here to another tower on the opposite bank. It now houses a small navel museum.

Hospital de los Venerables.
This interesting Baroque building in Santa Cruz was once a retirement home for priests. It is now often used for art exhibitions and there is a 20-minute guided tour to show you the building’s highlights. The outstanding room is the chapel where there are frescos by Juan Leal and an imposing pipe organ. Other areas of interest are the azulejo patio and the upstairs gallery.

Museum of Fine Arts.
This excellent collection is housed in the former convent of La Merced Calzada in El Porvenir within walking distance of the city centre. Most of the building dates from the 17th-century while the art work, including works by Leal, El Greco and Murillo spans several centuries.

In 1929 Seville hosted the Spanish-American Exhibition. A number of buildings were built for the exhibition in the Maria Luisa Park, among them the Plaza designed by Anibal Gonzalez.
He mixed a style inspired by the Renaissance with typical elements from the city: exposed brick, ceramics and wrought iron.

The Plaza de España is one of Seville’s's most easily recognised buildings but I must confess I had not heard of it until we arrived in Seville. We walked here from downtown Seville one afternoon. You pass the University of Seville which was once the tobacco factory where the mythical Carmen worked as a cigar roller, then into the Parque de Maria Luisa. On the Park's edge was built the current Plaza de España to showcase Spain's industry and technology exhibits. The Plaza and Park are among the most pleasant - and impressive - public spaces in Spain. They are an ideal place to spend the middle part of the day, just ten minutes' walk to the east of the cathedral.

The Plaza is a huge half-circle with a diameter of 200 metres with buildings continually running around the edge accessible over the moat by numerous beautiful bridges. In the centre is a large fountain. The building has two spectacular towers which act as a frame. Between the two towers runs a network of galleries with an arcade of semicircular arches leading to exits in different parts of the square. Today the plaza mainly consists of Government buildings, but the beauty remains. A popular way to view the building is by renting out a rowing boat and drifting around the moat. At the base of the walls of the Plaza are many tiled alcoves, each representing a different province of Spain.


The Plaza has been used in several movies including ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ where it substituted for Cairo and as a setting for Naboo in ‘Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones.

The Park also encompasses the Plaza de America at its south end. Here you will find the fine Renaissance-style Museum of Archaeology with its marble statues from Roman excavations and the Museum of Folklore. The Plaza is a blaze of colour with deep-orange sand, flowers and fountains tiled in yellow, blue and ochre.

As you walk back to town, see the Island of Ducks, the statue of El Cid and the impressive villas which were originally Fair pavilions but are now mainly schools or consulates.

For something completely different, I strongly recommend an exploration of this lovely neighbourhood. This was originally Seville’s old Jewish Quarter and was much favoured by the city’s nobles in the 17th century. Even today some of the white and ochre houses still rank amongst Seville’s most expensive properties.

There are several points of interest here but for me the highlight is just walking the twisting cobble alleyways and sitting in the delightful squares. Ochre-framed windows hide behind solid rectangular grills while at night wrought-iron lanterns cast shadows on the whitewashed walls. You can sit outside a bar, enjoy some tapas and watch the world go by, or wander through centuries-old gardens and relax on beautiful tiled benches.

Wandering around the small squares lined with orange trees (especially Plazas Doña Elvira and Santa Cruz), getting lost in the maze of improbably narrow alleys, where the ancient houses lean so far towards each other that they almost seem to touch, and admiring the leafy patios of private mansions through their iron gates, will be one of the best experiences of your visit to Seville. We found it incredibly picturesque and full of history, with many old palaces, churches and hidden passageways and frankly it was very difficult to leave. If you too find it difficult there are a couple of hotels here including the Hosteria del Laurel (see my Seville Eating and Sleeping journal).

Don't miss Callejon del Agua, a narrow, shaded lane which follows the Alcázar’s garden walls and is named after a watercourse which ran along here. At the end of it is Plaza Alfaro, said to be inspiration for the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. Stop at the outdoor cafe and enjoy the burst of colour from the bougainvillea. Next to this is the delightful Plaza Santa Cruz, with rose beds bordered by hedges and an intricate 17th-century wrought iron cross in the centre, which commemorates the church destroyed by the French in 1810. Throughout this area you are likely to stumble on guitar players either practicing or playing together with friends. Some will be looking for a tip but others completely ignore the passing crowd.

Murillo, one of Spain's most important painters, was born in Plaza Santa Cruz and you can visit his house in Calle Santa Teresa where there's a small museum. In Plaza Refinadores, a small square between Plaza Santa Cruz and Calle Santa María La Blanca, there's a statue of Don Juan Tenorio, one of Seville's most famous literary characters. More guitar players can be found in plaza de Dona Elvira with its fountain and painted tile benches. You have not felt the soul of Seville until you have spent at least an hour or two here amid the flower-filled patios, mansions and palaces, whitewashed houses, geraniums and orange trees, taverns and pavement cafés. If you get slightly lost while you wander around consider it a bonus and be glad about it.

There are, predictably, many tourist shops selling typical tourist fare such as inferior quality azulejos (tiles), flamenco dress-style aprons and T-shirts with slogans. But there are also some individual, interesting artisan stores.

This palace/fortress was built over many centuries but it is often credited to Pedro I. In the 14th-century this Christian King built his own palace on the site of Seville’s former Moorish alcazar (fortress) and much of it remains today. It appears that Pedro was not a particularly likeable man as he had a dozen friends and relatives murdered in his efforts to remain king.

Pedro’s palace was designed and built by Moorish workers bought in from Granada and this gives it a very Moorish appearance. It now serves as the official Seville residence of Spain’s king and queen when they are in town. Much of it is open to the public and it has become Seville’s most popular tourist site. Whatever else Pedro may have done, posterity owes him a big thank you for building such a fine palace here.

You enter the Alcazar through the Lion Gate from Plaza Triunfo. You are now in the Courtyard of the Lion and adjacent to the oldest parts of the building. Go left into the 14th-century Hall of Justice then into the intimate Courtyard of Plaster. This was actually part of the original 12th-century Almohad Alcazar. If you now walk through the large Patio de la Monteria you enter the heart of the palace and the wonderful Patio of the Maidens, surrounded by beautiful arches and exquisite plasterwork. Just a few years ago, archaeologists uncovered its original sunken garden which was covered in the 16th-century.

Opening off here is the Hall of the Ambassadors with its exquisite cedar cupola. This is probably the most sumptuous hall in the palace and was once Pedro’s throne room. The wooden balconies were added for the wedding of Carlos V to Isabel of Portugal in 1526. The King’s quarters are off the north side of the Patio. Within here there is more stunning plaster and tile work. The small Patio of the Dolls has delicate Granada-style decoration. If you go upstairs from the Patio of the Maidens you reach the much-remodelled rooms of Alfonso X’s 13th-century Gothic palace. This is where, a century or so later, Pedro installed his mistress.

There are many other places worth seeing. The Hall of the Vault is adorned with beautiful 1570s tiling. The Tapestry Room has a collection of huge 18th-century tapestries. Don’t miss the gardens. You can see down into some of them from the palace buildings but you need to walk through them to enjoy the scents, sounds and beauty. You can wander among terraces and ornamental baths and in the centre of one of the green oases is an orange tree supposedly planted in the time of Pedro I.

From the gardens you can leave the Alcazar through a 17th-century entrance hall. You need to allow a couple of hours to really enjoy this palace. There is much to see and it is worth taking the guided tour through the royal chambers which are now occasionally used by King Juan Carlos I and his family.

Tickets cost five Euros. Opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 9.30am to 7pm and Sundays from 9.30am to 5pm.

You can’t miss Seville’s cathedral when you are in the city. It is in the centre of the action and rivals St Peter’s in Rome and St. Paul’s in London for size. It is always difficult for me to date old buildings but it helps to know that this is the largest Gothic building in the world. It was, in fact, built in the 15th-century on the site of the great mosque begun by Yusuf II in 1171. Fortunately the minaret and the outer court of the mosque were retained and you still see these today.

The exterior of the building is not as impressive as some other cathedrals but if you walk around the building the size will certainly impress. It is built in pure Gothic style with flying buttresses and rose windows. When you first enter the cathedral, it can also be somewhat disappointing. The interior is very dimly lit and the five naves and numerous side chapels are shrouded in gloom. Sheer size and grandeur are, obvious characteristics, but as you grow used to the gloom, two other qualities stand out with equal force - the rhythmic balance and interplay between the parts, and an impressive overall simplicity and restraint in decoration.

In the central portion of the nave rises the Capilla Mayor, dominated by a vast Gothic altarpiece comprised of 40 or so carved scenes from the life of Christ. The lifetime's work of a single craftsman, Pierre Dancart, this is the ultimate masterpiece of the cathedral - the largest and richest altarpiece in the world and one of the finest examples of Gothic woodcarving anywhere.

Alongside this room is the grandiose Sacrista Mayor which houses the treasury. Amid a confused collection of gold and silver (much of it from the ‘New World’) are the keys presented to Fernando by the Moorish and Jewish communities on the surrender of the city. In the Sacristy of the Chalices there are wood carvings and paintings by Goya and others.

Don’t miss the memorial to Christopher Columbus on the southern side of the cathedral. No one knows for certain where he was buried but it is said some of his remains are here. Columbus’s son is also interned in the cathedral.

Most people miss the Royal Chapel which is reserved for prayer and concealed behind a huge curtain but you can get in here if you are quiet and properly dressed. There is a separate door marked Entrada Para Culto – entrance for worship. Along the sides are various tombs of Royal members and other dignitaries.

Now go out into the Courtyard of Orange Trees on the northern side of the cathedral. This was part of the original mosque and the fountain in the centre was used for washing before entering the mosque. It is worth climbing to the top of the Giralda. This was once the minaret of the mosque but it had a lantern and belfry added in 1566 and a bronze statue of Faith which turned as a weathervane. From the top there is a view over the entire city.