Sightseeing of Seville, Spain

Barrio Santa Cruz
This romantic part of town, formerly the district of Moors and Jews, is located right in the historical center of Seville. You may have a walk through the narrow shady lanes, inbetween beautiful buildings with courtyards plenty of flowers, and visit some of the town's major monuments:
Cathedral and Archivo de Indias

The impressive cathedral with its tower, Giralda , Seville's landmark. The king's palace Alcazar in its typical Moorish style, surrounded by high walls. The Archivo de Indias , a Renaissance building which serves as an archive of all the documents related with the discovery of America. The Archiepiscopal Palais. All those buildings are located at one single large square.
More monuments worth visiting in this district are the churches Hospicio de los Venerables and Iglesia de Santa Maria la Blanca, the latter located at the edge of the beautiful park Jardines de Murillo. Walking from the Giralda towards the river you will find in Santander Street the Torre de la Plata , a tower which served as silver depot in the times of the Moorish domination. Just to its right there are the Hospital de la Caridad and the church Iglesia de la Caridad .


Park of Maria Luisa
This great park is named after Infanta Maria Luisa, who presented to the town half of the gardens of her Palace of San Telmo in 1893. In 1929 took place here an Ibero-American Exposition, and many interesting buildings were constructed.
Specially remarkable are the works of architect Hannibal Gonzalez, his great Plaza de España , Pabellón Mudejar , Pabellón Real and the Archaeological Museum, as well as many smaller buildings of latin-american style.


Along the River
If you walk from Plaza de España towards Guadalquivir river, you arrive first to a sort of "micro-castle", the so-called Costurero de la Reina ("the Queen's Sewing-Room"), at the edge of the gardens of San Telmo Palace. This palace is a very beautiful example of Baroco Sevillano, the regional baroque style. Directly behind it you'll find the Real Fábrica de Tabacos , the old tobacco factory (the most prominent worker of which was Carmen, the opera-figure), being today Seville's university.
The Torre de Oro , a Moorish tower located at the river, is another landmark of the city. Face to face to it there is the bullring, Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza (photo).
Crossing the river at the Bridge of Triana, you enter one of the most typical and traditional quarters of Seville, the Barrio de Triana.


Palaces
There are many beautiful palaces and manorial houses in Seville, many of them strongly influenced in their architecture by the Moorish past of the city. Most impressive is perhaps Casa Pilatos, built in 15th and 16th century. Should some taxi-driver tell you that this "House of Pilatus" was a holiday-house of the famous Pontius Pilatus, who used to come to Seville in Easter-week to watch the famous processions - don't believe him, better click here to know the truth.
Another building that is absolutely worth a visit is Palacio de las Dueñas (photo) , a palace belonging to the Dukes of Alba.


Churches and Monasteries
If you look over Seville from a viewpoint, you will see an incredible number of towers of the city's churches and monasteries.


The "New" Seville after 1992
The World Exposition EXPO'92 has brought many changes to Seville. No fewer than 70 kilometers of new streets were built, a new train station, Santa Justa, and the high-speed train AVE connects Seville with Madrid in less than 3 hours.
Also Guadalquivir river, which had been detoured around the city for centuries, was now brought back into its original river-bed. Some impressive new bridges, which are among the city's most important monuments of this century, have been constructed:
Puente del V Centenario, Pasarela de la Cartuja, Puente de las Delicias, Puente de Chapina, Puente de la Barqueta, and Puente del Alamillo.

Other buildings which were made for the EXPO '92 are the Maestranza Theater, face to face to the bullring, the Cartuja Auditorium and the Congress Palace with its huge golden cupola. The old train station of modernist style, Antigua Estación de Cordoba, was restored and serves today as an exhibition hall.


Isla de la Cartuja
The "Cartuja Island" was the exhibition ground of the EXPO, today you find here large gardens and an artificial lake. Many of the pavilions are still in use, and there are numerous performances here, such as concerts, theaters, etc.
The most interesting historical building at the territory is certainly the Cartuja Monastery (photo). Christopher Columbus was buried here. Lateron it was the seat of an important producer of traditional ceramics, while today, after having been restored, it serves as a museum.

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