26 Best Things to Do in Seville

Seville is the cap­i­tal of Andalu­sia and a pop­u­lar resort town, famous for its mild Mediter­ranean cli­mate, beau­ti­ful orange groves, mag­nif­i­cent muse­ums and palaces.

What to do in Seville

The set­tle­ment on the site of mod­ern Seville arose in the era of the Phoeni­cians. Dur­ing Roman times, the vil­lage turned into a major port city. After the decline of the empire, it was cap­tured by the Arabs. Mus­lim rule end­ed in 1248, when the Span­ish king Fer­di­nand III of Castile took pos­ses­sion of Seville.

The past left a seri­ous imprint on the appear­ance of the city and brought bright ori­en­tal notes to its appear­ance. Tourists from all over the world come to admire the labyrinth of nar­row streets, beau­ti­ful squares, mar­ble palaces, Moor­ish fortress­es.

Seville attracts not only his­tor­i­cal sights. There are reg­u­lar­ly col­or­ful fes­ti­vals based on local tra­di­tions and cul­ture:

• Once a year, a fiery fla­men­co fes­ti­val starts. For a whole month, qual­i­fy­ing com­pe­ti­tions are held at the main con­cert venues, at the end of which the jury deter­mines the win­ner.
• One of the main events in Seville and through­out Spain is Holy Week, accom­pa­nied by prayers and solemn pro­ces­sions.
• The fair begins imme­di­ate­ly after Holy Week. In the cen­tral squares, in parks, tents are set up where they sell farm prod­ucts, sou­venirs, pot­tery, and arti­sans’ goods. The women wear fla­men­co dress­es, the men the best cos­tumes and par­ty all day long.
• In July, the fes­ti­val ded­i­cat­ed to St. An and St. James invites guests. Cel­e­bra­tions include sports com­pe­ti­tions, con­certs, the­atri­cal per­for­mances, out­door pic­nics, dances.

In addi­tion to tra­di­tion­al bars, night­clubs and dis­cos, Seville offers oth­er enter­tain­ment. Fans of col­or­ful spec­ta­cles go to the Maes­tran­za are­na to watch bull­fight­ing. Active peo­ple explore the sur­round­ings, ride bicy­cles in parks, and go boat­ing on the Guadalquivir Riv­er. Thrill-seek­ers book an excit­ing flight in a hot air bal­loon.

Alcazar gar­dens, an aquar­i­um with marine life, parks with trop­i­cal plants are ide­al for chil­dren’s recre­ation. You can hide from the intense heat in the Zona Este Cen­tro de Ocio shop­ping cen­ter. Shops, cin­e­mas, cafes work there, allow­ing you to have fun while pass­ing the time.

Interesting places

Casco Antiguo

The dis­trict of Cas­co Antiguo, stretch­ing along the banks of the Guadalquivir Riv­er, is the his­tor­i­cal heart of the city. It is home to three UNESCO World Her­itage Sites: the Alcazar, the Cathe­dral and the Gen­er­al Archives of India.

The cen­tral streets are built up with old man­sions, in which banks, shops, and restau­rants are open. Tourists come here to admire the beau­ti­ful archi­tec­ture, taste nation­al cui­sine, buy sou­venirs and take mem­o­rable pho­tos.

Triana

Tri­ana is a penin­su­la on the west coast of the Guadalquivir. It is con­nect­ed to the main part of Seville by the Puente de Tri­ana bridge. Next to it, the Moor­ish Revival chapel of El Car­men was built. Walk­ing around the area, you can see the Goth­ic church of San­ta Anna, Altozano Square with a mon­u­ment to the bull­fight­er Juan Bel­monte, the Muse­um of the Inqui­si­tion.

Tri­ana is the venue for city fes­ti­vals and fairs. There is a flea mar­ket near the bridge. In large pavil­ions there are food stalls, tents with things, restau­rants and cafes.

Macarena

In the north­ern part of Seville, there is a large admin­is­tra­tive dis­trict of Macare­na, famous for its out­stand­ing sights. Tourists can explore the city gates, the defen­sive walls of Almo­had, the Par­lia­ment build­ing, the Pumare­jo Palace, the old mar­ket of Seville.

The main his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ment is the Basil­i­ca of Nues­tra Seño­ra de la Esper­an­za Macare­na. Its gate is the start­ing point of solemn pro­ces­sions dur­ing Holy Week.

Plaza of Spain

On the edge of the Maria Luisa Park there is the Plaza de España. It was built in 1928 for the World’s Fair and com­bines fea­tures of the Baroque, Renais­sance and Neo-Mudé­jar. The area is sur­round­ed by grace­ful build­ings and a water chan­nel.

The cen­tral com­po­si­tion is the pavil­ion of Span­ish indus­try. In its appear­ance, Moor­ish and Euro­pean archi­tec­tur­al styles are mixed. The bot­tom of the pavil­ion is dec­o­rat­ed with tiled alcove nich­es sym­bol­iz­ing the Span­ish provinces. In the mid­dle of the square is the Vicente Traver Foun­tain.

Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium

The foot­ball sta­di­um with almost 43 thou­sand seats was opened in 1955 and is the 9th largest in Spain. The huge com­plex is the train­ing ground for the Seville foot­ball team Sevil­la Fut­bol Club. Cit­i­zens are proud of their sta­di­um and con­sid­er it an impor­tant land­mark. This atti­tude is sup­port­ed by a local leg­end. It turns out that the Span­ish nation­al team has nev­er lost a game to inter­na­tion­al rivals in this are­na.

Architecture

Alcazar

The roy­al palace Alcazar was erect­ed for Peter of Castile on the site of a destroyed Mus­lim fortress. The archi­tec­tur­al com­plex of the XIV cen­tu­ry is a vivid exam­ple of the Mudé­jar style. The upper floors still remain the res­i­dence of the roy­al fam­i­ly, so the entrance there is lim­it­ed. The rest of the premis­es are avail­able for tourists.

The tour shows silk tapes­tries, fur­ni­ture, bronze lamps, a col­lec­tion of weapons, jew­el­ry. Vis­i­tors are attract­ed by the cer­e­mo­ni­al cham­bers, the Bed­room of the Moor­ish Kings, the Doll­house, the room of Jus­tice, the Goth­ic palace, and the chapels.

General Archive of the Indies

Dur­ing the colo­nial expan­sion, a two-sto­ry Renais­sance build­ing was built in Seville to house the Gen­er­al Archives of India. The palace, designed by Juan de Her­rera, has a stan­dard rec­tan­gu­lar shape and a cen­tral court­yard.

There is no catchy decor in the exter­nal dec­o­ra­tion. The walls are dec­o­rat­ed with flat pilasters, arched win­dows, and fig­ured cor­nices. The archive con­tains 80 mil­lion sheets of doc­u­ments pro­duced by the colo­nial admin­is­tra­tion of India, records of famous sailors and con­quis­ta­dors, as well as an auto­graph of the Span­ish writer Miguel de Cer­vantes.

Torre del Oro

A mil­i­tary tow­er on the banks of the Guadalquivir Riv­er was erect­ed by the Alfo­had Caliphate to pro­tect the city in the 13th cen­tu­ry. It has an unusu­al three-lev­el shape. Each tier is a dodecago­nal cylin­der of dif­fer­ent sizes, placed one on top of the oth­er. The walls are dec­o­rat­ed with Ara­bic pat­terns, orig­i­nal win­dows and ceram­ic tiles. Two hun­dred years ago, the top was crowned with a gild­ed dome.

The inte­ri­or is now a muse­um. The col­lec­tion includes mod­els of old ships, nav­i­ga­tion­al instru­ments, marine doc­u­men­ta­tion.

Royal Tobacco Factory

In the cen­ter of Seville, there is an 18th-cen­tu­ry man­sion built for Spain’s first tobac­co fac­to­ry. The facade of the archi­tec­tur­al com­plex is dec­o­rat­ed with columns, mold­ings, a small bal­cony. There are mar­ble sculp­tures of angels on the roof.

This tobac­co fac­to­ry worked until the mid­dle of the last cen­tu­ry and was the leader in the pro­duc­tion of cig­ars in Europe. Now the build­ing belongs to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Seville — it hous­es the fac­ul­ties and the admin­is­tra­tion.

Metropol Parasol

The mod­ern wood and con­crete struc­ture at the Plaza de la Encar­nación was designed by Jür­gen May­er and com­mis­sioned in 2011. The orig­i­nal build­ing cov­ers an area of ​​150x75 meters, has a height of 28 meters and looks like six white mush­room-shaped umbrel­las.

The four-sto­ry build­ing hous­es com­pa­ny stores, a large mar­ket, and an archae­o­log­i­cal muse­um. On the roof of each lev­el there are ter­races over­look­ing the city.

Casa Consistorial de Sevilla

The town hall — Casa Con­sis­to­r­i­al — is the main archi­tec­tur­al ensem­ble of Nue­va Square. The appear­ance of the two-sto­ry man­sion com­bines the fea­tures of the Mudé­jar, Goth­ic and Renais­sance styles. The facade is dec­o­rat­ed with intri­cate orna­ments, heraldic sym­bols, images of Her­cules, Charles V and Julius Cae­sar.

Orga­nized tours are allowed inside the City Hall. The Main Stair­cas­es, cor­ri­dors with sculp­tures of Span­ish kings, the Judi­cial Cham­ber, the Colum­bus Hall, a gallery with por­traits of famous res­i­dents of Seville are avail­able for inspec­tion.

Palace of San Telmo

The con­struc­tion of the San Tel­mo Palace began in 1682 and con­tin­ued for sev­er­al years. The baroque man­sion was erect­ed accord­ing to a rec­tan­gu­lar scheme, includ­ing court­yards, a chapel, tow­ers, and a park area.

The main façade is a true work of art. It is dec­o­rat­ed with thin mar­ble columns, a bal­cony with atlantes, alle­gor­i­cal fig­ures of women, stat­ues of Peter Gon­za­lez and the patron saints of Seville.

Hospital de las Cinco Llagas

The Hos­pi­tal of the Five Holy Wounds, built in the 16th cen­tu­ry, has a square shape, a beau­ti­ful white facade and sev­er­al court­yards. In the main court­yard there is a church with an altar dec­o­rat­ed with paint­ings by Alon­so Vasquez.

The hos­pi­tal func­tioned as a hos­pi­tal until 1972. After clos­ing, the build­ing was aban­doned and fell into dis­re­pair. Now the house has been com­plete­ly restored and is used for meet­ings of the Andalu­sian Par­lia­ment.

Temples and monasteries

Cathedral

Under Mus­lim rule, the Almo­had Mosque stood in the cen­ter of Seville. After the cap­ture of the city by the Spaniards, it was con­vert­ed into a tem­ple, which was com­plete­ly rebuilt in the 15th cen­tu­ry. The Goth­ic Catholic Cathe­dral in Seville is the third largest in the world. It is 105 meters high, 135 meters long and 100 meters wide.

The out­er walls are dec­o­rat­ed with lush pat­terns, reliefs, stuc­co, stat­ues, arch­es and stained glass win­dows. Inside the cathe­dral is the tomb of Christo­pher Colum­bus. And the Giral­da bell tow­er, which is part of the tem­ple, was once the minaret of the Almo­had mosque. Now it is a vis­it­ing card of Seville, sym­bol­iz­ing the tri­umph of the Chris­t­ian faith.

Monastery of Santa Maria de las Cuevas

After dri­ving out the Mus­lims, the Chris­tians began to build Catholic church­es. Among the first to appear was the chapel of St. Mary, on the site of which a Fran­cis­can monastery was erect­ed in the 15th cen­tu­ry. The monastery of San­ta Maria de las Cuevas was the cen­ter of the reli­gious life of Andalu­sia, but ceased to exist, because dur­ing the Napoleon­ic inva­sion it was plun­dered and con­vert­ed into a bar­racks.

The com­plex was lat­er acquired by Charles Pick­man. The entre­pre­neur opened a ceram­ic fac­to­ry that exist­ed until 1984. The Monastery of San­ta Maria de las Cuevas has been declared a nation­al mon­u­ment. Now there is a cen­ter for con­tem­po­rary art on its ter­ri­to­ry.

Church of Santa Maria la Blanca

The church, built on the ruins of a Moor­ish mosque, is the pearl of the Jew­ish quar­ter of Seville. A strik­ing exam­ple of Andalu­sian Baroque attracts atten­tion with unusu­al arch­es, orig­i­nal columns, volu­mi­nous plas­ter, and Goth­ic ele­ments.

The inte­ri­or is dom­i­nat­ed by relief draw­ings, fres­coes, and sculp­tures by Muril­lo. The church of San­ta Maria la Blan­ca has sev­er­al chapels. The walls of each of them are dec­o­rat­ed with images of angels and paint­ings by Span­ish artists.

Church of Saint Luigi

At the turn of the 17th-18th cen­turies, a church appeared in the cen­ter of Seville, designed by Leonar­do de Figueroa, com­mis­sioned by the reli­gious order of the Soci­ety of Jesus. The rich­ly dec­o­rat­ed façade is flanked by two octag­o­nal tow­ers. The cen­tral dome is crowned with the shield of Spain and three archangels.

The inte­ri­ors are dec­o­rat­ed with columns, semi-columns, fres­coes. The altar is made of Venet­ian mir­rors that reflect the light and trans­mit it to dif­fer­ent parts of the church. When King Car­los III expelled the “Order of Jesus” from Spain, the tem­ple closed. Today the house belongs to the Provin­cial Coun­cil.

Museums

Art Museum

The muse­um is locat­ed in a beau­ti­ful build­ing, which is styl­ized as an old man­sion. The spa­cious halls dis­play works of art from dif­fer­ent eras. The col­lec­tion of the Gold­en Age, which includes works by famous mas­ters: Fran­cis­co de Her­rera, Muril­lo, Valdez Lila, Zur­baran, Fran­cis­co Goya, is pop­u­lar. Among the exhibits are pen­cil draw­ings, engrav­ings, wood­en and mar­ble stat­ues.

Archaeological Museum

There is an archae­o­log­i­cal muse­um in the pavil­ion on the Plaza de España. His main exhi­bi­tion is the trea­sure of El Caram­bo­lo, found near Seville in 1958. The trea­sure, dis­cov­ered by Span­ish builders in a ceram­ic ves­sel, con­sists of gold ingots and jew­el­ry. Accord­ing to sci­en­tists, they were hid­den in the VI cen­tu­ry BC. In addi­tion to trea­sures, vis­i­tors are shown archae­o­log­i­cal finds from the Roman era: sculp­tures, busts of emper­ors, frag­ments of columns.

Museum of Art and Traditions

In the Maria Luisa Park there is the Mudé­jar Pavil­ion, erect­ed for the 1914 Inter­na­tion­al Fair. Now it hous­es a muse­um of arts and tra­di­tions, con­sist­ing of tem­po­rary and per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tions.

Guests are pre­sent­ed with antique lace, embroi­dery, antique fur­ni­ture, Andalu­sian ceram­ics, glass pan­els depict­ing Span­ish cities, firearms of the last cen­tu­ry. The per­ma­nent col­lec­tion is based on items donat­ed to the muse­um by Díaz Velázquez.

Palace of the Countess of Lebri

The cen­ter of Seville is dec­o­rat­ed with the palace of the Count­ess of Lebri of the 16th cen­tu­ry. Its inte­ri­or, dec­o­rat­ed in dif­fer­ent archi­tec­tur­al styles, is dis­tin­guished by Moor­ish arch­es, relief draw­ings, baroque columns. The manor house is lav­ish­ly fur­nished.

There is a muse­um in the inte­ri­or. It con­tains Roman mosaics with mytho­log­i­cal scenes, Gre­co-Roman busts, amphoras. Orig­i­nal paint­ings by Van Dyck, Muril­lo, Brueghel the Elder hang on the walls of the front rooms. There are 6 thou­sand books in the cas­tle library.

Castle of San Jorge

In the Tri­ana area, the medieval cas­tle of San Jorge used to rise, for many years it was used by the Span­ish Inqui­si­tion as a court and prison. In the 19th cen­tu­ry, the gloomy build­ing was destroyed. Only exten­sive base­ments remind­ed of reli­gious repres­sions.

Today, a muse­um of the Inqui­si­tion is open here. The per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tion tells about the Holy Office, its polit­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance and the per­se­cu­tion of non-Chris­tians and heretics. The muse­um presents archival doc­u­ments, instru­ments of tor­ture, books. Near San Jochre lies the alley of the Inqui­si­tion, along which peo­ple were led to the inquisi­to­r­i­al court.

Parks and entertainment

Marie Louise Garden

Along the Guadalquivir Riv­er lies the largest pub­lic park in Seville. Once the green area was part of the San Tel­mo Palace, but in 1893, Infan­ta Luisa Fer­nan­da, ordered to trans­fer it to the city.

The park, dec­o­rat­ed in the Moor­ish style, attracts with pic­turesque ponds, foun­tains, open­work gaze­bos. Among the trees there are mon­u­ments to Gus­ta­vo Adol­fo Beck­er, Miguel de Cer­vantes, Princess Luisa Fer­nande. The park has a botan­i­cal gar­den with orange trees, Mediter­ranean pines, palm trees, styl­ized flower beds, flower green­hous­es.

Alcazar Gardens

The Alcazar Palace is sur­round­ed by gar­dens, con­sid­ered a mas­ter­piece of park art. A large area is plant­ed with decid­u­ous, conif­er­ous trees and cut by smooth alleys. Irri­ga­tion chan­nels are laid near the paths, arti­fi­cial ponds and foun­tains are equipped.

There are gaze­bos next to the water. The park area is divid­ed into sec­tions. The most pop­u­lar are Mer­cury Pond, the Gar­den of Poets, the Ladies’ Park and the rose gar­den.

magic island

The theme park, launched in 1997 on Isla de la Car­tu­ja, cov­ers an area of ​​36 hectares. There are a vari­ety of attrac­tions for chil­dren and adults, allow­ing you to have fun all day long. Invert­ed roller coast­ers, water slides with a drop of 15 meters, and themed quests in an old tow­er occu­py a cen­tral place in the rat­ing of the water park.

For kids there are safe carousels, play­grounds, rest rooms. On the ter­ri­to­ry there is a large cin­e­ma and a con­cert venue.

Aquarium

In Seville, the best aquar­i­um in Andalu­sia awaits guests, intro­duc­ing guests to the flo­ra and fau­na of the seas and oceans. It holds 35 water tanks that com­fort­ably house 400 species of marine fish and ani­mals.

The aquar­i­ums accu­rate­ly recre­ate the ecosys­tem char­ac­ter­is­tic of dif­fer­ent zones of the earth:

• A large reser­voir of coral islands presents bright par­rot fish, poi­so­nous zebra lion­fish, mol­lusks.
• The fau­na of the Pacif­ic Ocean is illus­trat­ed by the giant octo­pus, Hum­boldt squid, sea urchins, sharks.
• Croc­o­diles, tur­tles, frogs, snakes live in a sep­a­rate tank.

The aquar­i­um is styl­ized as an African jun­gle. It has a cafe and gift shop.