Discover Seville

A taste of Seville

Seville (Sevilla) is the spiritual capital of Andalusia and the most quintessentially Spanish city in Spain — a hot, dramatic, deeply atmospheric place wrapped around the Guadalquivir river in the country's south, with one of the largest preserved medieval centres in Europe, the world's largest Gothic cathedral, and a Moorish architectural legacy that shaped much of southern European Islamic art. The headline trio of UNESCO-listed sights is essential: the Seville Cathedral (built 1401-1506 on the foundations of the city's mosque after Castilian reconquest, with the medieval Giralda bell tower preserved from the original minaret — climb its 35 internal ramps for the panorama, and visit the dramatic tomb of Christopher Columbus inside the cathedral); the Real Alcázar, a stunning Mudejar palace (used as a Game of Thrones filming location), with extraordinary tilework and gardens; and the 16th-century Casa de la Contratación / Archive of the Indies (where all New World colonial paperwork was generated for 200 years). Don't miss the Plaza de España in the María Luisa Park (a vast 1929 semicircular pavilion of tile and brick), the curious historic Jewish quarter of Santa Cruz, an evening of flamenco in a Triana district tablao, the dramatic Metropol Parasol mushroom in the Plaza de la Encarnación, and a tapas crawl through the working centre. The Feria de Abril (late April) is the biggest annual festival in Spain.