★★★★★ Rated 4.5 out of 5
We started our trip to Seville with a self-guided walking tour of the city and deliberately saved Seville Cathedral, the Giralda and the Royal Palace for a dedicated day of sightseeing, alongside the old town of Barrio Santa Cruz and its former Jewish Quarter.
Visiting these UNESCO World Heritage Sites was a real highlight of our Seville city break with friends. Here are some ideas for a day exploring Santa Cruz.
Book a guided tour that covers the Real Alcázar and the Cathedral together, climb the Giralda for the views, then spend the rest of the day wandering the narrow lanes of Barrio Santa Cruz, finishing with a flamenco show and tapas.
One morning during our stay, we went on the hunt for one of the convents where you can buy biscuits from the resident nuns. It’s a short walk from Santa Cruz, so it’s easy to add to a day here. The guidebook warned us that it can be tricky to get the right day and time, as the selling times aren’t fixed, but early morning is advised.
We headed to the Monasterio de San Leandro, on Plaza de San Ildefonso a short walk north of Santa Cruz, and first wandered into the church, without realising that the convent entrance was behind us across the road, hidden behind builders’ vans!
The main doors led through to a small courtyard with a wooden hatch in the far wall. The hatch held a revolving turntable, the torno. You put your money on it, spin it round and wait, hoping it will turn back with biscuits on. It did!
The biscuits arrived in a nice wooden box with lovely labelling. Inside we found sugar-coated treats, which were so sweet we needed a strong coffee to balance the sugar!
The Cathedral, the Alcázar (Royal Palace) and the Archivo de Indias together make up Seville’s UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We had booked the Seville: Alcázar, Cathedral & Giralda Skip-the-Line Tour through GetYourGuide and reported to the Archivo de Indias to meet our guide.
We didn’t go inside the Archivo de Indias on this trip, but it’s an important centre for the Age of Discovery, housing many documents relating to the expeditions to the Americas, with a free exhibition upstairs. Something for next time.
We entered the Alcázar of Seville through the Puerta del León (Lion’s Gate), an arch in the old city walls featuring a tiled lion and an inscription. The lion is a symbol of royalty and strength, perfect for a palace.
The Alcázar of Seville is a collection of buildings blending Spanish and Moorish architecture, in the style known as Mudéjar. The upper floors are still used by the Spanish royal family when they’re in the city, which is why it’s often called the oldest royal palace still in use in Europe, and why there are identity checks and bag searches on arrival.
The main areas of the Alcázar of Seville include:
Founded in 1503, this is where voyages to the Americas were organised in the Age of Discovery. In the Admiral’s Room, look for the painting of the Virgin of the Navigators, which is thought to include Christopher Columbus among the figures sheltering under her cloak.
Columbus died believing he had reached Asia (the ‘Indies’) rather than a new continent, which is why so many buildings here refer to the Indies.
King Pedro I built his royal residence in 1364 and wanted it to rival the Alhambra in Granada.
It blends Moorish and Christian architecture, with stunning lacy stonework above the entrance. The upper floor was added later in Renaissance style, so the buildings look less Moorish as you look up.
A wonderful outdoor space inside the Palace of Pedro I, with a central rectangular pool surrounded by arches, tiling and detailed plasterwork. The sunken gardens beside the pool were excavated and restored in the early 2000s.
An incredible square room topped with a dome, known as the half orange. The ceiling is covered in gold, with horseshoe arches below, and our guide pointed out a trio of small windows once used for spying. The room is full of Islamic architecture with Christian embellishments.
The space where the children of the palace once played. If you look carefully, you’ll spot small faces hidden in the stonework. Our guide said she’d found 16 so far.
Wandering around this part of the Alcázar was mesmerising. There was so much detail in the architecture, almost too much to take in. The tiling and stonework are stunning.
Elsewhere in the Alcázar, you can visit the Gothic Palace, begun under Alfonso X in the 13th century. It has vaulted ceilings and ornate tiling, with Italian Renaissance designs rather than geometric Islamic patterns. It was badly damaged in the 1755 earthquake (the same one that destroyed Lisbon) and rebuilt.
The Gothic Palace’s great hall displays huge wall tapestries showing Emperor Charles V’s campaign in Tunis.
Outside, the gardens are very pretty indeed, with plenty of shady places to sit and contemplate life, peacocks wandering about and lovely views over the gardens from the raised walkway.
Before you enter the Cathedral and Giralda area, look out for the Roman columns lying outside, which came from nearby Italica, a town with very well preserved Roman ruins.
When you pass through the Cathedral gates, you enter the Patio de los Naranjos, a lovely large courtyard filled with orange trees. Look for the Moorish fountain where worshippers washed before prayer when this was the courtyard of the mosque.
Seville Cathedral, or the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See (Santa María de la Sede), is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and was finished in 1506. The inside is very impressive. Here are some of its key sights.
Seville Cathedral’s Royal Chapel is the resting place of Ferdinand III (who took Seville from the Moors), Alfonso X and Pedro I.
His remains were moved around over the centuries, arriving here from Havana in 1898. Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic also claims to hold his remains, although DNA studies have found the bones in Seville are his.
His impressive tomb is carried by four figures representing the kingdoms of Spain, near a giant painting of St Christopher, patron saint of travellers.
The main chapel has an ornate vaulted ceiling and a huge gilded altarpiece covered in carved biblical scenes.
A fabulous silver float carrying a statue of the Virgin Mary stands in the Cathedral and is used in the city’s processions during Holy Week (Semana Santa). It’s so heavy that it needs a large team of bearers from the religious brotherhoods to carry it.
The gorgeous bell tower, the Giralda, looks like the minaret of a mosque, because that’s exactly what it was before the Cathedral was built. It towers over one side of the Patio de los Naranjos and has a sister tower, the Koutoubia, in Marrakech. The name comes from the Giraldillo, the weathervane statue on top.
There are 24 bells at the top of the tower and superb city views. Interestingly, there are no stairs inside the Giralda for most of the climb, just more than 30 ramps, designed so that someone on horseback could ride all the way to the top!
Outside the Cathedral, the Giralda and the Alcázar, you can wander through Barrio Santa Cruz, one of the oldest parts of the city. The area became the Jewish Quarter after Ferdinand III of Castile took the city from the Moors in 1248. It was walled, with gates that were guarded, until the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492.
Today you’ll find a labyrinth of narrow cobbled streets, pretty squares and artisan pottery shops, with orange trees thrown in for good measure. There was a heavy scent of jasmine in the air as we strolled around. In Santa Cruz, look out for:
The lane along the city wall that runs beside the Alcázar gardens. It once carried water to the palace, and some of the most sought-after flats in Seville now look out from its upper floors over the royal gardens.
One of the narrowest streets in Seville, just over a metre wide at its tightest point.
Not much wider, so you might be able to kiss your neighbour across the street!
It connects Calle Judería with the rest of Santa Cruz.
Once called Calle de la Muerte (Death Street). Tiles on one of the houses carry a skull marking the spot where the head of Susona is said to have hung. Legend tells that Susona, the daughter of a Jewish merchant, fell for a Christian knight and told him of her father’s plot to rise up against the Inquisition.
The plot was stopped and everyone involved was executed. Susona felt so guilty that she asked for her head to be hung outside her house when she died. Gory!
One of the prettiest squares in the barrio, complete with colourful buildings, cafés and a fountain.
A great spot for tapas in the heart of Santa Cruz, overlooking the pretty Plaza de los Venerables. The Hospital de los Venerables, built as a home for elderly priests, is on the square and open to visit.
Before you leave the neighbourhood, pop into the Jardines de Murillo, named after the 17th century Sevillian painter, to see the impressive monument to Christopher Columbus. It’s two tall columns with a lion on top and the prow of a sailing ship halfway up. The gardens sit beside the walls of the Royal Palace.
Flamenco is thought to have been born in Triana, but the Museo del Baile Flamenco, founded by the dancer Cristina Hoyos, is here in Santa Cruz and well worth a visit. The museum holds regular flamenco shows, which are impressive and captivating.
If you book, arrive a good hour early to look around the exhibits before grabbing a glass of sangria for the show. The Puro Flamenco show with optional museum ticket can be booked in advance on GetYourGuide.
Sadly, no photos or videos are allowed during the performance, but it was incredible. Three men dressed in black sat on high stools singing, alongside a classical guitarist who played so hard that one of his guitar strings broke!
There were three dancers, two women and a man, who gave very intense and polished performances. Amazingly, they all kept rhythm and coordination using the guitar, hand clapping and foot stomping.
If you’re looking for tapas near the Museo del Baile Flamenco, you could try:
El Rinconcillo: The oldest bar in the city, trading since 1670. It's very popular, so either book a table or queue outside before it opens to get a spot at the bar.
Bar Estrella: With beautiful tiled rooms and a broad menu.
Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo: Military bands and pageantry on the Castle Esplanade.
There are plenty more places to try on our Seville tapas trail, so take your pick!
In closing
After a tour of Seville Cathedral, the Giralda and the Real Alcázar, you might be keen to take it easy, so just enjoy wandering slowly around Santa Cruz, stopping for coffees, resting on a bench in one of the gardens and soaking up the atmosphere and history.
If you're planning the rest of your trip, our self-guided Seville walking tour makes a great first day, and a morning at Triana Market is perfect if the weather turns.
It really is a lovely area, ready to be savoured, not rushed.
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