★★★★★ Rated 4.5 out of 5
We visited Seville in November and enjoyed glorious sunny weather for most of our city break, but sadly it rained on our last day. Seville is a wonderful city to enjoy outdoors, with bright yellow and white buildings, oranges in the trees and horse-drawn carriages.
There are also some great things to do if the weather takes a turn for the worse, starting with a trip to the wonderful Triana Market.
Get to Triana Market early for breakfast with the locals, book a cooking class at one of its stalls, browse the tile shops and the ceramics museum, then finish with a Triana tapas crawl.
The Barrio de Triana sits on the west bank of the Guadalquivir River, across the Triana Bridge (Puente de Isabel II), and is easy to reach from the rest of the city. It’s a working-class area of Seville with lots of character. We found it less touristy than other parts of the city, a bit like a Spanish equivalent of Trastevere in Rome.
The neighbourhood has lots of history and, thanks to its position on the river, it was home to many of the sailors who set off from Seville for the Americas.
Triana is known as the birthplace of flamenco and has produced some famous flamenco singers, guitarists and dancers over the years, as well as bullfighters. Funnily enough, we spotted one of the flamenco dancers from the show we’d watched at the Museo del Baile Flamenco just going about her business the day after.
The area has also long been a hub for potters and for making azulejos (painted ceramic tiles) and other pottery, so it’s a fascinating area to wander around and explore. However, when it’s raining…
This lively covered market reopened in its current building in 2001, replacing a much older market. It stands on the site of the Castle of San Jorge (Castillo de San Jorge), the headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition in Seville, and you can visit the castle’s interpretation centre right next to Triana Market.
Triana Market has dozens of stalls selling fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and crafts, as well as small places to eat. It’s a morning market, and locals come early to pick up fresh produce, so try to arrive early to catch the real buzz. Check the opening days before you go.
We arrived first thing to grab coffee and a pastry from one of the stalls. While eating breakfast with the locals and watching the world go by, we saw a local man buy a live langoustine and eat it while it was still moving. Not for the faint-hearted!
We had pre-booked the Seville: Paella & Tapas Cooking Class + Triana Market Tour at Taller Andaluz de Cocina, inside Triana Market, through GetYourGuide.
The cookery school takes up a few stalls, with the sides left open so people can watch the cooking as they pass by. We obviously hadn’t known it would rain when we booked, so the timing worked out rather well.
Our session started with a tour of the market by one of the team, to explore the ingredients we’d be using, such as saffron, pimentón (smoked paprika), olive oil and other local produce like Ibérico ham and sherry. The cookery school got us a discount on anything we wanted to buy.
Then we got to work on these dishes:
Salmorejo: A delicious cold, creamy tomato soup (which uses no cream!).
Espinacas con garbanzos: Spinach with chickpeas, made super tasty with pimentón and cumin.
Authentic paella: With no chorizo, fish or onion in sight.
Granita-style pudding: Lemon sorbet, mint and cava blitzed together. Delicious!
Our hosts offered us sangria while we worked, so we had to be careful not to overdo it, as those knives were very sharp!
I’d highly recommend this course and the cookery school. The leader was excellent, and we thoroughly enjoyed the shared cooking experience and learning how to make authentic Spanish dishes.
Behind Triana Market is a cluster of lovely tile shops to explore if you want to pick up some ceramics or tiles as souvenirs.
You’ll also find the Centro Cerámica Triana, a museum about the craft and the industrial processes used to make the tiles and ceramics. It’s housed in the old Cerámica Santa Ana factory, with exhibits over two floors. The featured photo is of its wonderful tiled façade!
Interestingly, many of the tiles you see throughout the city, including those at the stunning Plaza de España, were made here in Triana.
As sangria had been consumed during our cookery course, we decided to go back to the hotel for a siesta and prepare ourselves for a tapas crawl in the evening.
If you’d rather keep exploring the barrio (and it’s not raining), you could visit:
Founded in the 13th century and known as the ‘Cathedral of Triana’. Legend has it that babies baptised here will be blessed with a good flamenco voice!
The Sailors’ Chapel is home to the statue of the Virgin of Esperanza de Triana, carried across the river in procession during Semana Santa (Holy Week) in March or April.
You could start your tapas crawl on the colourful riverside street of Calle Betis, which runs along the Guadalquivir and is lined with restaurants and bars, some with live music. It promises great views in the evening, but sadly not for us because of the rain, so we’ll return another time!
We headed further into the barrio and made stops at:
A friendly bar for drinks.
On Calle Antillano Campos, known for its puntas de solomillo (grilled pork loin). Don’t miss the radishes, or the funny toilet in the corner of the room with a big window, so you could see in!
A lovely little tapas bar with delicious modern and traditional dishes and a very welcoming host.
There were others, but these were our favourites. There’s more on each of them in our Seville tapas trail.
As Triana is the home of flamenco, we really should have booked a flamenco show here, but we decided not to, as we’d been to one at the Museo del Baile Flamenco in Santa Cruz and it felt too soon to repeat the experience.
Teatro Flamenco Triana and Baraka Sala Flamenca come highly recommended if you want to end your day in Triana with a show.
In closing
A rainy day in Seville needn't be a write-off. Breakfast at Triana Market, cooking paella with sangria in hand and a tapas crawl through the barrio kept us busy and well fed from morning to night, in a part of the city that felt less touristy than the main sights across the river.
If the sun is shining, Triana is just as good for a wander. Pair it with our self-guided Seville walking tour, which looks across the river to Triana from the Torre del Oro.
With a bit of luck, you won't even notice the rain.
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