Seville

The Alcázar of Seville, whose present core was built starting in 1364 under the Christian king Pedro I of Castile, nicknamed the Cruel, who deliberately hired Mudéjar craftsmen — Muslims who remained in reconquered Christian territory — to build a palace in the pure Nasrid architectural style then fashionable at Granada's Alhambra, is today the finest example of Mudéjar architecture in the world still in active use, since its upper floors still serve as an official residence for the Spanish royal family during stays in Seville, making it the oldest royal palace still in use in Europe. Its rooms of colorful geometric azulejos, horseshoe arches and finely carved stucco muqarnas ceilings rival the refinement of the gardens stretching behind the palace, blending Italian Renaissance terraces, Moorish pavilions and Islamic-inspired pools across several hectares. Game of Thrones filmed the gardens of Dorne here, fueling a tourist popularity so intense that booking tickets online several weeks ahead is now essential.

5 minutes on foot from the Cathedral, right in the historic center — reachable on foot from Plaza Nueva or by tram T1, Archivo de Indias stop.

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Plaza de España, built between 1914 and 1928 under architect Aníbal González as the centerpiece of the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition celebrating the historic ties between Spain and its former American colonies, blends Renaissance, Mudéjar and Baroque elements in an eclectic 'regionalist' style within a strikingly cohesive monumental ensemble. Its immense semicircle nearly 200 meters in diameter, bordered by a 515-meter navigable canal crossed by four bridges symbolizing Spain's old Christian kingdoms, is lined along its façade with 52 hand-painted azulejo benches, each representing a Spanish province with its map, coat of arms and a local historic scene — a monumental undertaking that kept dozens of ceramicists busy for over a decade. The square, since a favorite film location — Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Lawrence of Arabia both shot iconic scenes here — adjoins the vast neighboring Parque de María Luisa, once the private garden of the Palace of San Telmo, given to the city in 1893.

Tram T1, Prado de San Sebastián stop, or bus C1/C2, Plaza de España stop.

Plaza España audio guide

The Torre del Oro, a twelve-sided watchtower built in 1220 by the Almohad dynasty on the banks of the Guadalquivir to control river access to the city and anchor a metal chain stretched to a since-vanished twin tower on the opposite bank, forming a defensive barrier that kept enemy ships from sailing upriver, owes its name either to the golden azulejos that once covered its façade and reflected the sun on the water, or, according to a more prosaic but equally popular theory, to its use as a storage site for the gold and treasure brought back from the New World in the era when Seville held the royal monopoly on trade with the Americas. Having served over the centuries as a chapel, prison and maritime customs office, it now houses a modest maritime museum tracing the history of Seville's river port, while the river before it, once busy with galleons laden with silver from Potosí, now carries only tourist cruise boats and rowing crews training at sunset.

Tram T1, Torre del Oro stop — on the riverbank, 10 minutes on foot from the Cathedral.

Guadalquivir river cruise from Torre del Oro

Triana, on the left bank of the Guadalquivir facing the historic center, likely takes its name from the Roman emperor Trajan, born in the neighboring province, and was for centuries home to sailors, Roma families and ceramic artisans, physically and socially distinct from the rest of the city — so much so that a local saying still holds that 'Triana is not Seville, Triana is Triana.' The undisputed historical birthplace of flamenco, home to several of the greatest cantaores of the 19th and 20th centuries, and of the hand-painted azulejo tradition kept alive for generations in family workshops along Calle Alfarería ('potters' street'), the neighborhood retains a working-class, festive character only partly eroded by recent gentrification. Triana's covered market, built on the site of the former Castillo de San Jorge where the Sevillian Inquisition tribunal once sat, and the tightly packed tapas bars along Callejón de la Inquisición keep an authentic neighborhood atmosphere far from the tourist bustle of the right bank.

Metro line 1, Plaza de Cuba station, or on foot via Puente de Triana (Puente de Isabel II) from the center.

Triana audio guide

Seville Cathedral, built between 1401 and 1519 on the site of the great Almohad mosque, which city authorities of the time decided to raze, reportedly declaring their intent to build 'a temple so great that those who see it finished will think we were mad,' is officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world by volume, surpassing even Notre-Dame de Paris and Milan Cathedral. In the south transept it houses the sumptuous mausoleum of Christopher Columbus, borne shoulder-high by four bronze heralds symbolizing the kingdoms of Castile, León, Aragon and Navarre — though controversy persists over whether his actual remains lie there, long disputed between Seville and Santo Domingo. The Giralda, the former minaret of the 12th-century Almohad mosque preserved and converted into a Christian bell tower after the Reconquest, is climbed not by stairs but by a gentle ramp originally designed to let the muezzin ride up on horseback, offering from its 104-meter summit one of the finest panoramas over the city.

Tram T1, Archivo de Indias stop, or a 10-minute walk from Plaza Nueva.

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The Barrio de Santa Cruz, the former juderia (Jewish quarter) of Seville where one of medieval Spain's most important Jewish communities thrived until the terrible pogrom of 1391 and the definitive expulsion of 1492, still bears in its irregular street layout of narrow lanes, shaded little squares and dead-end alleys the traces of the small communal-cell organization typical of medieval Iberian Jewish quarters. Today a white labyrinth lined with bitter orange trees and climbing jasmine, it owes its relative coolness in the height of the Andalusian summer to the deliberately narrow streets that limit direct sunlight, an architectural trick inherited from Moorish town planners. Its shaded little squares, flower-filled patios visible from the street through wrought-iron gates and opened up widely during May's Patio Festival, and tapas bars hidden down unsuspecting callejones make it the most romantic and most photographed neighborhood in the city, especially lively in the evening once the heat fades.

Tram T1, Archivo de Indias stop — right in the heart of the historic center, between the Cathedral and Parque de María Luisa.

Santa Cruz audio guide

Andalusian patios — inner courtyards arranged around a fountain or central well and open to the sky — carry on an architectural principle inherited directly from the Roman atrium house, later reinterpreted by Al-Andalus's Muslim town planners to create a cool microclimate at the heart of the home in the height of the Andalusian summer. The patio of Casa de Pilatos, a 16th-century palace blending Mudéjar, Gothic and Italian Renaissance styles brought back by its patron after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, is the city's most accomplished and best-documented example. Every May, during the popular Patio Festival competition, hundreds of private patios normally closed to the public open their doors for free in the Santa Cruz, San Bartolomé and Triana neighborhoods, revealing secret gardens filled with geraniums, jasmine and ferns tended, in some cases, by the same family for generations — the contest for the loveliest patio followed with real neighborhood passion and pride by Sevillians.

10 minutes on foot from the Cathedral, on the edge of the Barrio de Santa Cruz.

Seville patios tour

Las Setas ('the mushrooms,' the popular nickname for its undulating architecture of six enormous laminated-wood parasols), officially named Metropol Parasol, was completed in 2011 on Plaza de la Encarnación after a monumental six-year project that, during preliminary excavations, uncovered major Roman and Almohad remains now displayed in the underground Antiquarium archaeological museum built into the structure's base. Designed by German architect Jürgen Mayer, it holds the Guinness World Record for the largest wooden structure in the world, a deliberately provocative architectural choice in a city whose historic heritage is almost exclusively stone and brick, which sparked fierce local controversy at its unveiling but has since become one of the symbols of Seville's urban renewal. The panoramic walkway at the top, reached by elevator, offers a genuinely unique 360-degree view over the old town's rooftops, the Giralda and, on a clear day, all the way to the Sierra Morena — especially spectacular at sunset.

Metro line 1, Puerta de Jerez station, then 10 minutes on foot, or bus C5, Plaza de la Encarnación stop.

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La Macarena, a working-class district north of the historic center whose name, according to local tradition, may derive from a legendary Moorish princess or, more likely, an old Roman gate, stretches along the still partly-preserved 12th-century Almohad city wall running for several hundred meters, one of the few remaining visible stretches of Islamic-era fortifications in a major Spanish city. The Basilica of La Macarena, built in the 20th century to house the revered statue of the Virgin of Hope of Macarena, unofficial patron saint of bullfighters and the object of intensely devoted popular worship, sees its Holy Thursday night procession during Seville's Holy Week draw tens of thousands of the faithful in one of Andalusia's most moving displays of popular piety, with bullfighters traditionally paying their respects before each bullfighting season. Far from the mass tourism of the historic center, its neighborhood tapas bars charge noticeably lower prices with an authenticity Sevillians themselves appreciate.

Metro line 1, Puerta de la Barqueta station, or bus C3/C4, Basílica de la Macarena stop.

Macarena tour

Flamenco, a musical and dance art born in the 18th century in the Roma neighborhoods of Triana, La Macarena and Alameda de Hércules in Seville, shaped by the crossed influences of Roma, Andalusian, Jewish and Moorish traditions that coexisted in the region, has been recognized since 2010 by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Casa de la Memoria, an intimate tablao set in a former palace in the Barrio de Santa Cruz with capacity deliberately limited to around sixty spectators to preserve the intensity of the experience, hosts nightly performances without excessive electronic amplification, where cantaores (singers), bailaores (dancers) and guitarists respond to one another in the semi-structured improvisation typical of cante jondo, flamenco's deepest and most intense register. The duende — that near-mystical artistic trance sought by flamenco purists — is felt here far more authentically than in the big touristy shows of the city center.

5 minutes on foot from the Cathedral, in the Barrio de Santa Cruz — online booking strongly recommended, limited seats.

Book flamenco show