Seville · ES
Sevilla: Cathedral & Santa Cruz Highlights
From the golden riverside tower to the world's largest Gothic cathedral, the Moorish Alcázar and the orange-scented lanes of the old Jewish quarter.
What's the walk about?
Welcome to Seville, the sun-baked, flamenco-stamping, orange-scented capital of Andalusia, where Moorish Spain and Christian Spain are woven together at every turn. On this gentle loop we begin beside the great river that once carried the treasure of the Americas, pass a hospital full of masterpieces, and stand before the largest Gothic cathedral on earth, its bell tower a Moorish minaret in disguise. We will slip into the dreamlike palace of the Alcázar, then lose ourselves in the whitewashed, flower-filled lanes of Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter. Bring a sense of romance and a tolerance for the sun, and let Seville cast its famous spell.
What you'll see
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1
Torre del Oro
Tower
A twelve-sided golden watchtower on the bank of the Guadalquivir, built by Seville's Moorish rulers in the thirteenth century to guard the river and now home to a small naval museum.
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2
Hospital de la Caridad
Almshouse
A beautiful Baroque charity hospital and church, founded by the reformed nobleman Miguel de Mañara and filled with dramatic masterpieces by Murillo and Valdés Leal on the theme of death and salvation.
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3
Catedral de Sevilla
Cathedral
The largest Gothic cathedral in the world, raised over a great Moorish mosque, holding the tomb of Christopher Columbus and crowned by the Giralda, a minaret turned bell tower.
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4
Plaza Virgen de los Reyes
Square
The most photographed square in Seville, framed by the Giralda, the cathedral and the Archbishop's Palace, with a graceful early-twentieth-century fountain and clip-clopping horse carriages.
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5
Plaza del Triunfo
Square
A stately square ringed by three UNESCO World Heritage monuments, the cathedral, the Alcázar and the Archive of the Indies, with a baroque monument marking the city's survival of a great earthquake.
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6
Archivo de Indias
Monument
A sober Renaissance merchants' exchange that now holds the vast General Archive of the Indies, millions of documents recording three centuries of Spain's empire in the Americas and the Philippines.
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7
Real Alcázar
Palace
A breathtaking royal palace behind red walls, the oldest in Europe still in use, where Christian kings built dazzling Moorish-style Mudéjar courts of carved stucco, tile and water amid lush gardens.
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8
Plaza de Santa Cruz
Square
A graceful, orange-shaded square at the heart of the old Jewish quarter, centred on an exquisite seventeenth-century wrought-iron cross and once the site of a church where the painter Murillo was buried.
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9
Plaza de Doña Elvira
Square
A tiny, impossibly pretty square in Santa Cruz, shaded by orange trees and ringed with colourful tiled benches, steeped in the romantic legend of Don Juan and his doomed love.
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10
Hospital de los Venerables
Historic Building
A serene seventeenth-century Baroque almshouse built for elderly and infirm priests, arranged around a beautiful sunken patio and now a cultural centre displaying a masterpiece by Velázquez.
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