Overview to Seville: Travel Guide and Tourist Information

  Seville's Plaza de Espana

Seville is like no other city in Spain. With its grand Moorish remains, its crumbling palaces and rundown streets lined with orange trees, it is, as it always has been, a city with a certain air: an air of grandness, timeless beauty and, most of all, romance.

Many travelers don’t get too far from the glorious Barrio de Santa Cruz. And it’s not hard to see why: a tangled web of streets and small squares, patios and babbling fountains, Santa Cruz feels like the very essence of Andalucia.

Nearby sit a spectacular trio of sights: the vast Gothic cathedral with its iconic tower, the Giralda, the sprawling Moorish palace, the Alcazar, and the Fabrica de Tabacos (which inspired Merimet’s story, and later Bizet’s opera – Carmen).

Santa Cruz is undoubtedly achingly beautiful. But the city boasts one of the largest old centers in Europe and hidden delights (and too many sights to mention) lurk around every corner, right the way across it.

Each area is subtly different from the last, with its own distinct feel. The Alfalfa is where the slightly gentrified feel of Santa Cruz begins to give way to a real, living and breathing city. Cafés, bars, shops and all manner of bustling life spread out from the Plaza Alfalfa (which sits on the site of the Roman forum).

The Arenal (to the south of the Avenida de la Constitucion) is well worth a wander through; in addition to the usual fascinating streets and houses, it holds the remarkable Bull Ring, la Maestranza and, sitting proudly on the river, the stunning Torre del Oro.

Then, to the west, there’s the Macarena, held in by the well-preserved remains of the Moorish walls. The area, and on into Santa Catalina to the northeast, with its beautiful old convents and rundown charms, boasts hours of exploration.

To the south of the lively Alameda (the city’s bohemian quarter) lies the district of San Lorenzo. Here, the pleasant Plaza de San Lorenzo is the center of one of the most impressive of the city’s glorious Semana Santa processions.

Elsewhere in the city, to the south of the river, lies Triana, another of the city’s proper residential neighborhoods. On summer evenings, there are few more impressive places to have a drink than Calle Betis, gazing out towards the Giralda.

As the port for the treasures of the Americas, in the 16th and 17th centuries Seville was the center of the world. Now, it retains something of that grandness, distant and faded, but still tangible… Seville’s not only unlike any other city in Spain, it’s unlike any other city anywhere.

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