2 Days in Seville, Spain

The Royal Alcázars of Seville (in Spanish: Reales Alcázares de Sevilla) is a stunning royal palace with captivating gardens that is a must-see in Seville. Commonly known as the Alcázar of Seville, the place was built for the Christian king Peter of Castile on the site of an Abbadid Muslim alcazar, or residential fortress. The fortress was destroyed after the Christian conquest of Seville in 1248.

The palace is a preeminent example of the Mudéjar style in the Iberian Peninsula, combining Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance structural elements. The upper stories of the Alcázar are still occupied by the royal family when they visit Seville and are administered by the Patrimonio Nacional. It was registered in 1987 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, along with the adjoining Seville Cathedral and the General Archive of the Indies.

In 1962 the Alcázar was used as a set for Lawrence of Arabia.
Part of the fifth season of Game of Thrones was shot in several locations in the province of Seville, including the Alcázar.

Santa Cruz (Barrio Santa Cruz), is the primary tourist neighborhood of Seville, and the former Jewish quarter of the medieval city. Santa Cruz is bordered by the Jardines de Murillo, the Real Alcázar, Calle Mateos Gago, and Calle Santa María La Blanca/San José. The neighborhood is the location of many of Seville's oldest churches and is home to the Cathedral of Seville, including the converted minaret of the old Moorish mosque Giralda.

The labyrinth

The Barrio de Santa Cruz is a labyrinth of narrow streets and alleys dating back to the old judería. These narrow streets provide protection from the oppressive sun of the Sevillian summer. Scattered through the neighborhood are several plazas or squares. Among these are the aforementioned Plaza de Santa Cruz, the Plaza de los Venerables, the Plaza de las Cruces, the Plaza de Doña Elvira, and the Plaza de los Refinadores.

The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See (in Spanish: Catedral de Santa María de la Sede), better known as Seville Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral. It was registered in 1987 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, along with the adjoining Alcázar palace complex and the General Archive of the Indies. It is the fourth-largest church in the world (its size remains a matter of debate) as well as the largest Gothic church.

After its completion in the early 16th century, Seville Cathedral supplanted Hagia Sophia as the largest cathedral in the world, a title the Byzantine church had held for a thousand years. The Gothic section alone has a length of 126 m (413 ft), a width of 76 m (249 ft), and its maximum height in the center of the transept is 42 m (138 ft). The total height of the Giralda tower from the ground to the weather vane is 104.5 m (342 ft 10 in).


Seville Cathedral was the site of the baptism of Infante Juan of Aragon in 1478, the only son of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. Its royal chapel holds the remains of the city's conqueror, Ferdinand III of Castile, his son and heir, Alfonso the Wise, and their descendant, King Peter the Just. The funerary monuments for cardinals Juan de Cervantes and Pedro González de Mendoza are located among its chapels. Christopher Columbus and his son Diego are also buried in the cathedral.

The Archbishop's Palace is located on the northeastern side of the cathedral.

Originally, the Catedral site was a mosque, ordered by the Almohad caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf in 1172. Shortly after Seville's conquest by Ferdinand III, Yaqub Yusuf's mosque was converted into the city's cathedral. Its orientation was changed and its spaces were partitioned and adorned to suit Christian worship practices. The internal space was gradually divided into chapels by constructing walls in the bays along the northern and southern walls. Almost the entire eastern half of the cathedral was occupied by the royal chapel that would hold the bodies of Ferdinand, his wife, and Alfonso the Wise.

Seville Cathedral was built to demonstrate the city's wealth, as it had become a major trading center in the years after the Reconquista in 1248. In July 1401, city leaders decided to build a new cathedral to replace the grand mosque that served as the cathedral until then.

Construction continued until 1506. The clergy of the parish offered half their stipends to pay for architects, artists, stained glass artisans, masons, carvers, craftsmen and laborers, and other expenses.

The interior has the longest nave of any cathedral in Spain. The central nave rises to a height of 42 m (138 ft). In the main body of the cathedral, the most noticeable features are the great boxlike choir loft, which fills the central portion of the nave, and the vast Gothic retablo of carved scenes from the life of Christ. This altarpiece was the lifetime work of a single craftsman, Pierre Dancart.

The interior has the longest nave of any cathedral in Spain. The central nave rises to a height of 42 m (138 ft). In the main body of the cathedral, the most noticeable features are the great boxlike choir loft, which fills the central portion of the nave, and the vast Gothic retablo of carved scenes from the life of Christ. This altarpiece was the lifetime work of a single craftsman, Pierre Dancart.

The builders preserved some elements from the ancient mosque. The mosque's sahn, that is, the courtyard for ablutions for the faithful to conduct their ritual cleansing before entering the prayer hall is known today as the Patio de los Naranjos. It contains a fountain and orange trees. However, the most well-known is its minaret, which was converted into a bell tower known as La Giralda, and is now the city's most well-known symbol.

The Giralda (in Spanish: La Giralda) is the bell tower of Seville Cathedral. It was built as the minaret for the Great Mosque of Seville in al-Andalus, Moorish Spain, during the reign of the Almohad dynasty, with a Renaissance-style belfry added by the Catholics after the expulsion of the Muslims from the area. The Giralda was registered in 1987 as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, along with the Alcázar and the General Archive of the Indies. The tower is 104.1 m (342 ft) in height and remains one of the most important symbols of the city, as it has been since the Middle Ages.

A charming colorful square, and a lovely hidden gem. Although the place is in a central location, near the Catedral, it is a bit hard to find. However, it has a beauty that is worth the stroll. Surrounded by restaurants and shops, Plaza del Cabildo is another magnificent evidence of the Andalusian grace.

The Torre del Oro ('Tower of Gold') is a dodecagonal military watchtower in Seville, southern Spain. It was erected by the Almohad Caliphate in order to control access to Seville via the Guadalquivir river.

Constructed in the first third of the 13th century, the tower served as a prison during the Middle Ages. Its name comes from the golden shine it projected on the river, due to its building materials (a mixture of mortar, lime, and pressed hay).

The tower is divided into three levels, the first level, dodecagonal, was built in 1220 by order of the Almohad governor of Seville, Abù l-Ulà; As for the second level, of only 8 meters, also dodecagonal, was built by Peter of Castile in the fourteenth century, a hypothesis that has been confirmed by archaeological studies; The third and uppermost being circular in shape was added after the previous third level, Almohad, was damaged by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. The rebuilding of the third level was made by Brusselian military engineer Sebastian Van der Borcht in 1760.

The Torre de la Plata, an octagonal tower, is located nearby and is believed to have been constructed during the same era.

The Parque de María Luisa (María Luisa Park) is a public park that stretches along the Guadalquivir River and serves as Seville's principal green area. The lovely park is full of monuments and museums, has a charming Lions fountain (Fuente de los Leones), and is very popular among locals and tourists.

Most of the grounds that were used for the park were formerly the gardens of the Palace of San Telmo. They were donated to the city of Seville in 1893 by Infanta Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier, for use as a public park.

Starting in 1911, Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier redesigned the gardens into their present shapes. In 1914 the architect Aníbal Gonzalez began construction for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929, which was held partly within the park.

The new buildings of the Plaza de España, a semi-circle on a plaza, were used as the offices of the fair. They have been used as settings for filmed scenes, including in Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

The Plaza de España ("Spain Square") is a plaza in the Parque de María Luisa (Maria Luisa Park) built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. It is a landmark example of Regionalism Architecture, mixing elements of the Baroque Revival, Renaissance Revival, and Moorish Revival (Neo-Mudéjar) styles of Spanish architecture.

The Alameda de Hércules (Hercules mall), or simply La Alameda, is a garden square. Built in 1574, it was originally a promenaded public garden, named after the eight rows of white poplar trees (álamos in Spanish) that fill its central part. Located in the northern half of the city's casco antiguo (historic center), between the Guadalquivir River and the Macarena neighbourhood, it was the oldest public garden in Spain and Europe.


Before its urban transformation, Alameda square was a fragment of the easternmost branch of the Guadalquivir River. It crossed the city center via Alameda towards Plaza Nueva, eventually ending in the El Arenal neighborhood. After it was cut off by a dam in 1383, the river basin turned into a swampy pond fed by the aquifer and frequent rises of the river.

In 1574, the Count of Barajas further drained the water, building irrigation channels and fountains, and planting lines of waterside white poplar trees. Four columns were placed to mark off a promenade through the trees. In the beginning, it was planned to take four columns from the remains of the Roman temple of Mármoles street, believed to be dedicated to Hercules. However, when moving the third column it fell apart, leaving the work temporarily unfinished. Consequently, the two columns at the southern end of the square are from the original Roman temple, whereas the northern columns are modern reproductions. As the culmination of this project, two sculptures were placed atop the two southern columns: Hercules (mythological founder of Seville) and Julius Caesar (referred to as the restorer of the city during Roman rule). In the second half of the eighteenth century, two additional statues of lions with shields, representing Seville and Spain, were placed on the northern columns.

Monuments and buildings

Apart from the Roman columns that head the promenade, some other notable features are located in La Alameda.

On its western side is found the Casa de las Sirenas (literally, "mermaid's house") a 19th-century French-inspiration palace that is used today as a civic center hosting expositions, workshops, classes, and cultural activities for the neighborhood.

Placed at the northern end, the chapel of Nuestra Señora del Carmen y Cruz del Rodeo is an important landmark in the neighborhood. It was an important source of inspiration for José Zorrilla's play Don Juan Tenorio, since here is the convent where the saintly Doña Inés was cloistered.

Also quite close to the Alameda on the street dedicated to the restorer of La Alameda, the Count of Barajas (Conde de Barajas), is the house where the romantic writer Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer was born.

Palacio de las Dueñas (occasionally, Casa Palacio de las Dueñas) is a palace in Seville, Spain, currently belonging to the House of Alba. It was built in the late 15th century in the Renaissance style with Gothic and Moorish influences. The palace is one of the major historic homes of great architectural and artistic heritage in the city. The poet Antonio Machado was born here, as were Carlos Falcó, 5th Marquess of Griñón and the Marquess of Castel-Moncayo. On October 5, 2011, Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba married her third husband here. The palace became a national monument on June 3, 1931.

The promoter of its opening to tourist visits (in 2016) was the current Duke of Alba, Carlos Fitz-James Stuart y Martínez de Irujo. Today is one of the most visited monuments in Seville.

Architecture

The palace consists of a series of courtyards and buildings. The style ranges from Gothic to Moorish to the Renaissance, with local influences in the bricks, shingles, tiles, whitewashed walls, and pottery. Its mixed style resembles that of Casa de Pilatos and Casa de los Pinelo.

Interior

The palace is fitted with long passageways. As in the Casa de Pilatos, the staircase of this palace was built beneath a vaulted roof. On the top floor is a room whose ceiling is of an octagonal shape and is decorated with gold alfarje.

Exterior

The entry door is of Mudéjar style. The palace was fitted with eleven patios, nine fountains, and over 100 marble columns. Of these, one patio remains, and it is surrounded by a gallery with columns. The Andalusian patio, like a similar one at Casa de Pilatos, dominates the exterior of the property. At the entrance to the palace, in the main archway, there is the shield of the Duchy of Alba in tiles, made by Triana of Seville in the 17th or 18th century. The gardens hold very important and unique species of plants (for example one of the oldest cycas revoluta in the world). Its fabulous bougainvillea facade is very spectacular and an icon of the Palace.

Grounds and chapel

The courtyard garden, divided into four parts in keeping with its traditional Islamic style, includes tiled paths and a centralized raised fountain. The palace garden's lemon trees and fountain are recurring symbols in Machado's poetry. Behind the garden is a courtyard surrounded by arches with columns of white marble. The arch situated west of the courtyard in the lower galleries gives access to the building that was used as chapel. The 15th-century chapel has fared badly during restorations. The altar contains several tiles with metallic reflections, typical of 16th-century Seville ceramics.

It is also said that Amerigo Vespucci married María Cerezo in this chapel at the beginning of the 16th century.

Collections

One of its main attractions is a large, decorative art collection that contains 1,425 artifacts. There is a large collection of Italian and Spanish paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Palacio de las Dueñas also has a significant collection of antique furniture, ceramics, and other artifacts. Decorative arts, sculptures of Ancient Rome and contemporary (Mariano Benlluire), Flemish tapestries of the 16th and 17th centuries (Willem de Pannemaker), mosaics, and many other pieces of art.

La Casa de Pilatos (Pilate's House) is an Andalusian palace, which serves as the permanent residence of the Dukes of Medinaceli. It is an example of an Italian Renaissance building with Mudéjar elements and decorations. It is considered the prototype of the Andalusian palace.

The Casa de Pilatos has around 150 different 1530s azulejo (Spanish glazed tile) designs made by the brothers Diego and Juan Pulido, one of the largest azulejo collections in the world.

The palace is accessed through a Renaissance-style marble gate, designed by the Genoese Antonio Maria Aprile in 1529, and surmounted by a Gothic crest, possibly brought from the palace that developers were building in Bornos. The gate leads to a typical Andalusian courtyard with a fountain, and surrounded by twenty-four busts of Spanish kings, Roman emperors and other relevant characters collected from the ruins of the Roman colony of Italica distributed along the lower galleries of the courtyard. The courtyard, in turn, leads to two gardens with plateresque adornments.

A staircase to the top floor is decorated with azulejo tiling and a ceiling of Mudéjar honeycomb, made by Cristobal Sanchez. The rooms on this floor include major paintings dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries, including the Pietà by Sebastiano del Piombo.

In the room to the left wing of the Tower the ceiling displays frescoes painted by Francisco Pacheco between 1603 and 1604 showing the apotheosis of Hercules, and in the room that follows the Tower is a small painting by Francisco Goya of a bullfight, then a still life by Giuseppe Recco in the dining room and a table representing Mary Magdalene painted in the sixteenth century; in the library are three works by painter Luca Giordano. As with most palaces of the period, the Casa de Pilatos also has a chapel, designed in a fusion of the Gothic and Mudéjar styles, with antique decor and numerous manuscripts. The Casa de Pilatos is considered one of the finest examples of Andalusian architecture of 16th-century Seville. The house is open to the public year-round.

Film location

Several films have been shot in the Casa de Pilatos, including four Hollywood blockbusters: Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, Ridley Scott's 1492: Conquest of Paradise in 1992, and Kingdom of Heaven in 2005. At the end of 2009, Tom Cruise filmed the movie Knight and Day with Cameron Diaz at the palace.

Setas de Sevilla (or Metropol Parasol) is an enormous wooden structure, designed by German architect Jürgen Mayer-Hermann. It was inspired by the Cathedral of Seville and is in the form of giant mushrooms. Therefore, it is known to locals as 'las setas' (the mushrooms). The structure covers the Central Market and the Antiquarium and the top level contains a restaurant and provides some of the best views of Seville.

The Museum of Fine Arts of Seville (Museo de Bellas Artes) is considered by some as the second most important fine arts museum in Spain after the Prado in Madrid. The museum building is a former mercy convent renewed in the 17th century and the 15 exhibition rooms show a comprehensive picture of Sevillian art from the Gothic period to the early trends of the 20th century.

The square just outside hosts an open-air art market on Sundays until around 13:30.

Triana is an enchanting neighborhood on the west bank of the Guadalquivir River. Popular among tourists, Triana has a traditional pottery and tile industry, a vibrant flamenco culture, its own festivals, and a magnificent Flea Market.

Triana is connected to Seville by the Isabel II bridge (popularly known as Puente de Triana) constructed between 1845 and 1852. It has on its west side a small Neo-Mudéjar chapel built in 1927; both together constitute the most recognized symbol of the neighborhood.

The Triana market, built in 2005 in the Moorish Revival style, is located on the southern side of the bridge. The foundations of the Castillo de San Jorge may be seen in the basement of this building, which is now home to educational exhibits relating to the history of the Inquisition.

The traditional gateway to Triana from the bridge is the Altozano square, with its monuments to the renowned bullfighter Juan Belmonte and the flamenco arts, executed in modern style. It continues into San Jacinto street, a pedestrian commercial street that crosses the historical quarter from east to west, named after the monumental San Jacinto church, built in 1676 by Matías de Figueroa for the Dominican order.

San Jorge and Castilla streets are the main axes on the north side of the neighbourhood. Landmarks in this area include the Callejón de la Inquisición (Inquisition alley), a narrow street leading to the river; the Moorish Revival building of the old Fábrica de Cerámica Santa Ana (Santa Ana pottery factory), part of which has now been converted into the Centro Ceramica Santa Ana, the museum of pottery; the Baroque Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de La O (Parish Church of Our Lady of the O), built between 1697 and 1702, and the El Cachorro Basilica, the seat of the Holy Week brotherhood with the same name.

To the south of Altozano square, Calle Pureza is the main street crossing the historical quarter. Here is found the Church of Santa Ana (Iglesia de Santa Ana), considered the Cathedral of Triana by popular sentiment. It was the first Catholic church built in Seville after Muslim rule ended in the city in 1248; its architecture combines early Gothic and Mudéjar styles. Other notable buildings in this street are the Capilla de los Marineros (Sailors' Chapel), the seat of the popular brotherhood known as La Esperanza de Triana (Our Lady of Hope of Triana), and the Casa de las Columnas (House of Columns), formerly occupied by the Universidad de Mareantes, an institution founded for the training of seamen bound for the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Calle Betis, the street which runs along the waterfront, offers a panoramic view of Seville proper, and has many of the city's most popular restaurants, bars and nightclubs.

Museums

A museum devoted to the Spanish Inquisition (Centro Temático del Castillo de San Jorge) is located in the remains of the Castillo San Jorge that served as headquarters of the “Tribuno del Santo Oficio o de la Santa Inquisicion” from 1481 to 1785.

Other museums in the area include the Centro Cerámica Santa Ana (opened 2014), which includes a section on Triana and its people and traditions, The Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC) in the former Monastery of Santa Maria de las Cuevas also known as the Monastery of the Cartuja and Pabellon de la Navegación (Pavilion of Navigation)

Triana Flea Market

Near Isabel II Bridge is Triana Market, a busy flea market with food stalls and small restaurants that offer tapas, as well as handmade local crafts. The market stalls are open from Monday to Saturday from 9 am to 3 pm.