Seville: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Seville was Muslim for five hundred years, and when Castile took it in 1248 the kings did something unusual: instead of demolishing, they hired the same Muslim craftsmen and kept building in the same style. Pedro I rebuilt the Alcázar in the 1360s with Granadan workmen, and had his own palace inscribed in Arabic with "there is no victor but God" — in a Christian king’s throne room. That choice is why this city looks the way it does. Two hours, and book the Alcázar before you fly.
A short history of Seville
The Romans called it Hispalis, and the emperor Trajan was born in nearby Italica. In 712 the Muslims captured it, and in the 12th century they built the minaret that later became the Giralda bell tower. In 1248 Ferdinand III of Castile captured it. In 1391 anti-Jewish riots broke out in Seville and spread throughout Spain, and in 1481 the first auto-da-fé of the Inquisition was held here. In 1503 the city was given a monopoly on trade with the Americas, and all ships to the New World sailed from here, among them Magellan's expedition in 1519. The world exhibitions of 1929 and 1992 added the Plaza de España and new districts.
The ten best sights in Seville
1Real Alcázar€15, book weeks ahead, and the gardens are half the visit
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2Catedral de Sevilla
€12 with the Giralda, and it is the largest Gothic church on earth
3La GiraldaRamps, not stairs — it was built for a man on horseback
4Archivo de IndiasFree, and every document of the Spanish empire is in it
5Casa de Pilatos€12, a 16th-century palace, and far emptier than the Alcázar
6Palacio de las Dueñas€12, the Duchess of Alba’s house, and the courtyards are the point
7Museo de Bellas Artes€1.50 for non-EU, in a convent, and Murillo fills two rooms
8Hospital de los Venerables€10, a retired priests’ home, and a Velázquez in it
9Hospital de la Caridad€8, and two Valdés Leal paintings of death that stop people
10Basílica de la MacarenaFree, and the Virgin with the glass tears is the city’s own
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Seville →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Seville:
Free walking tours in Seville
A palace Christians kept Moorish
Seville was Muslim for five hundred years, and when Castile took it in 1248 the kings did something unusual: instead of demolishing, they hired the same Muslim craftsmen and kept building in the same style. Pedro I rebuilt the Alcázar in the 1360s with Granadan workmen, and had his own palace inscribed in Arabic with "there is no victor but God" — in a Christian king’s throne room. That choice is why this city looks the way it does. Two hours, and book the Alcázar before you fly.
- Real Alcázar · The oldest royal palace in Europe still in use — the Spanish royal family stay in the upper floor when they are in the city. Pedro I built the heart of it in 1364 in Mudéjar style, meaning Muslim craftsmen working for a Christian king, and the Arabic inscriptions praising God were left exactly as written.
- Catedral de Sevilla · The chapter decided in 1401 to build a church so large that "those who see it will think we were mad", and it is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world by volume. It stands on the footprint of the mosque; the orange-tree courtyard outside is the mosque’s own ablution court, unchanged.
- La Giralda · The bottom two thirds are the minaret of the mosque, finished in 1198; the bell stage on top was added in 1568. You climb thirty-five ramps rather than stairs, because the muezzin rode up on horseback five times a day.
- Archivo de Indias · For two hundred years every ship to and from the Americas had to clear through Seville, and every document that trade produced is in this one building — eighty million pages on nine kilometres of shelving, including Columbus’s own journal. It is free to walk into.
- Barrio Santa Cruz · The Jewish quarter until the massacre of 1391 and the expulsion that followed, and the lanes were kept deliberately narrow so that the buildings shade each other — a working piece of engineering in a city that reaches forty-six degrees.
- Torre del Oro · Built by the Almohads in 1220 as half of a pair, with a chain running across the river to the twin on the far bank to close the port. The gold in the name is not treasure but the tiles that once covered it and caught the light.
Everything the ships brought back
From 1503 to 1717 Seville held a legal monopoly on all trade with the Americas — every ounce of silver from Potosí, every cargo of cochineal and cacao, had to be unloaded here and taxed here. The city became the richest in Europe and then lost it all when the river silted up and the monopoly moved to Cádiz. What is left is a centre built on a century of gold and three hundred years of having nothing to do. Two and a half hours.
- Casa de Pilatos · A nobleman came back from Jerusalem in 1519 and built a house he said matched the measurements of Pontius Pilate’s. It is half Italian Renaissance and half Mudéjar in the same courtyard, which is what Spanish money looked like at that exact moment.
- Museo de Bellas Artes · Housed in a convent the state seized in 1835, and it holds the best Murillo collection anywhere. Murillo was born in Seville, painted street children and beggars as subjects worth a canvas, and died after falling from scaffolding in a church here.
- Hospital de la Caridad · Founded by a nobleman who, the story says, saw his own funeral in a vision and spent the rest of his life burying the poor. He commissioned two paintings of rotting corpses to hang where the brothers would see them every day, and they are still on that wall.
- Plaza de toros · Begun in 1749 and still not quite symmetrical, because it took a hundred and twenty years to finish and the builders kept changing. Bizet set the last act of Carmen outside this exact building, and the season still runs from April to September.
- Metropol Parasol · The city dug out this square in 2003 to build a car park and hit a Roman neighbourhood five metres down, so the car park was cancelled. What went up instead is the largest wooden structure in the world, and the Roman houses are in the basement.
- Plaza de España · Built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition, with forty-eight tiled alcoves, one for each Spanish province, each showing a scene from its history. The architect killed himself before it opened. Star Wars filmed the planet Naboo here.
The other bank
Triana is across the river and was a separate town until 1852 — a quarter of potters, sailors and gypsies that the rest of Seville looked down on and borrowed from. Flamenco came out of it: not a performance but something that happened in courtyards where Roma families lived twenty to a block, and the oldest form, the cante jondo, has no guitar at all. Columbus recruited his crews on this side. Two hours, flat, and start late in the afternoon.
- Puente de Triana · Finished in 1852 and the oldest iron bridge in Spain, copied from one in Paris that was demolished long ago — so the copy outlived the original. Before it there was a bridge of boats, chained together, that had crossed here since 1171.
- Mercado de Triana · The market stands on the foundations of the castle of San Jorge, which was the headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition for three hundred years. The cells are under the fish stalls and part of them is open, free, with the market going on overhead.
- Triana · The quarter made the tiles that cover Seville, from clay dug out of the riverbank here, and a few workshops still fire them. It was also where the sailors lived: Magellan’s crew and Columbus’s were recruited in these streets, and most of them did not come back.
- Calle Betis · Named for the Roman name of the river, Baetis, which is also where Andalusia’s name comes from by way of Arabic. The painted houses along it face the old city, and the terraces are the one place in Seville where you look at the whole skyline at once.
- Basílica de la Macarena · The wooden Virgin here has five glass tears on her face and is the one the city belongs to. At midnight on Holy Thursday she is carried out on the shoulders of forty men and the whole of Seville stands in the street for her until dawn.
- Alameda de Hércules · Laid out in 1574 by draining a marsh, which makes it the oldest public garden in Europe still in its original place. Two Roman columns stand at one end, moved here from a temple that had already been standing for fifteen hundred years.
Getting to Seville and getting around
- Sevilla Airport · The EA bus to the centre is €4 and takes 35 minutes
- Santa Justa · Madrid in 2:30 on the AVE, and Córdoba in 45 minutes
- Plaza de Armas · Buses to Portugal and the coast, in an 1901 iron station
- Puerta de Jerez · Where the metro and the tram meet, by the cathedral
Cheap eats in Seville
Eight counters where Seville eats standing. The tapa was a working lunch before it was a fashion, and the rule here is still that you stand at the bar, eat two or three things, pay about three euros each and move to the next place. Sitting at a table costs more for the same plate, and the bar will tell you so.
- El Rinconcillo · Tapas €3-4, standing, and it fills by nine
- Casa Morales · €3 a tapa, €2.50 a glass, and cash is faster
- Casa Moreno · Closed evenings and Sundays. Lunch only
- Bar Las Teresas · 1870, hams hanging from the ceiling, and in Santa Cruz
- Bodega Santa Cruz · €2.50 a tapa, standing in the street, and always packed
- Freiduría Puerta de la Carne · Fried fish in a paper cone, €6, and you take it to the park
- Mercado de Feria · The oldest market, from 1719, and a bar inside it
- Taberna Coloniales · Put your name on the list outside and wait on the square
Museums in Seville
- Real Alcázar · €15, book weeks ahead, and the gardens close at six
- Catedral de Sevilla · €12 with the tower, and free on Mondays late afternoon
- Museo de Bellas Artes · €1.50 for non-EU, in a convent, and almost always empty
- Casa de Pilatos · €12, and the upper floor is still a family home
- Palacio de las Dueñas · €12, and the courtyards are the reason
- Hospital de los Venerables · €10, a sunken courtyard, and one Velázquez
- Antiquarium · €2, Roman houses under the market, and mosaics in place
- Centro Andaluz de Arte · €3, in a monastery that later became a china factory
Nature and day trips near Seville
Seville reaches forty-six degrees in August and the whole city is designed around that — narrow lanes for shade, awnings strung over the shopping streets in summer, and parks that exist to be cool rather than pretty. All of these are free.
- Parque de María Luisa · Free, and the only real shade in August
- Jardines de Murillo · Free, former Alcázar orchards, and orange trees all through
- Guadalquivir · Rowing boats and kayaks from the Triana bank
- Parque del Alamillo · Free, 120 hectares, and almost no tourists reach it
- Itálica · €2, and free for EU citizens. Bus from Plaza de Armas
- Doñana · The largest wetland in Europe, and the Iberian lynx is in it
- Isla de la Cartuja · Free, the 1992 Expo site, and strange to walk through
- Carmona · 40 minutes by bus, a walled town, and a Roman necropolis
Things to do in Seville with kids
- Plaza de España · The plaza is free; the boats are €6
- Metropol Parasol · €15, a walkway on top of a wooden structure, and a lift up
- Parque de María Luisa · Free, parakeets, ducks, and bikes for hire at the gate
- Itálica · €2, a Roman amphitheatre you walk into, and room to run
- Torre del Oro · €3, a short climb, and a naval museum inside
- Mercado de Triana · The Inquisition cells under the fish stalls are free
Live music in Seville
Flamenco is from here, and there are two kinds of place to see it. A tablao is a professional show with a ticket and a time, and it is good. A peña is a club where members sing to each other and nobody is performing for you — harder to get into, and the real thing.
- Casa de la Memoria · €20, one hour, and it sells out — book the same morning
- La Carbonería · Free flamenco most nights in an old coal yard, and you pay for the drink
- Tablao El Arenal · €40 with a drink, and the cast is the best in the city
- Teatro de la Maestranza · From €20 in the upper tiers
- Sala Malandar · Small, loud, and the cheapest live music in the city
- Estadio Sánchez-Pizjuán · Sevilla FC, and the city has two first-division clubs
Nightlife in Seville
- Alameda de Hércules · Beer €2.50, and the square is busiest at one
- Calle Betis · The Triana riverfront, and students sit on the wall
- Calle Feria · Old bars, cheap wine, and the Thursday flea market by day
- Triana · Across the bridge, half the price, and the bars are older
- Macarena · Behind the old walls, and no tourist bar in it
- Plaza del Salvador · Everyone stands in the square with a glass from the bar
Frequently asked questions about Seville
What is there to see in Seville?
The top sights in Seville are Real Alcázar, Catedral de Sevilla and La Giralda. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Seville?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Seville without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Seville?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Seville, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: A palace Christians kept Moorish.
How do you get to Seville and get around?
The main ways are Sevilla Airport, Santa Justa and Plaza de Armas. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Seville, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Seville that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Seville for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.