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Alcazar
| Barrio Santa Cruz | Casa
de Pilatos | Cathedral | City
Walls & Gates | Giralda
Barrio Santa Cruz
By Fiona Watson
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| Outdoor cafes in Santa Cruz.
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This is the first barrio
(area or neighbourhood) tourists head for, and with good reason.
It is the most picturesque and delightful part of the city, with
narrow winding cobbled streets and whitewashed houses, where you
can sit outside a bar, enjoy some tapas
and watch the world go by, or wander through centuries-old gardens
and relax on beautiful tiled benches. The area is bordered by Calles
Mateas Gago, Santa Maria La Blanca/San José, the
Jardines de Murillo and the Alcázar
. It was formerly the Jewish quarter; some of the churches were
originally synagogues. The covered passageway heading off the Patio
de Banderas (part of the Alcázar) called the Judería
is worth visiting; enter the Patio from here and you'll get an unforgettable
view of the cathedral.
Wandering round the small squares lined with orange
trees (especially Plazas Doña Elvira and Santa Cruz), getting
lost in the maze of improbably narrow alleys, where the ancient
houses lean so far towards each other that they almost seem to touch,
and admiring the leafy patios of private mansions through their
iron gates, will be one of the best experiences of your visit to
Seville. It is incredibly picturesque and full of history and stories,
with many old palaces, churches and hidden passageways. There are,
predictably, many tourist shops selling typical tourist fare such
as inferior quality azulejos (tiles), flamenco dress-style aprons
and T-shirts with naff slogans. But there are also some individual,
interesting artesan stores - see shopping page.
Don't miss Callejon del Agua (Water Alley),
a narrow, shaded lane which follows the Alcázar garden walls
and is named after a watercourse which ran along the top of the
wall. At the end of it is Plaza Alfaro, inspiration for the
balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. Next to this is the delightful
Plaza Santa Cruz, with rose beds bordered by hedges and an intricate
17th-century wrought iron cross in the centre, La Cerrajería,
which commemorates the church destroyed by the French in 1810. Murillo,
one of Spain's most important painters, was born in Plaza Santa
Cruz and you can visit his house in Calle Santa Teresa where
there's a small museum. In Plaza Refinadores, a small square
between Plaza Santa Cruz and Calle Santa María La Blanca,
there's a statue of Don Juan Tenorio, one of Seville's most famous
literary characters.
The main sights in terms of buildings are the Cathedral
and Giralda, formerly a minaret (mosque's
tower), the Alcázar (royal fortified palace) and the baroque
Hospital of the Venerables (originally a home for retired
priests) whose chapel houses a fine collection of paintings as well
as murals by Valdés Leal. It also holds temporary exhibitions.
The Archivo de Indias, which houses all maps and documents
about Spain's conquest of the New World, is currently being restored
and is not open to the public.
For eating out, Mateas Gago is hard to beat,
in terms of quality and selection, with wall-to-wall tapas
joints from tiny hole-in-the-wall spit-and-sawdust joints to smart
restaurants.
One interesting fact about this area is that much
of it was nearly destroyed in the rash of development before the
1929 Expo; plans for a wide, modern avenue between Plaza de los
Reyes, in front of the Giralda, and the Jardines del Murillo were
shelved thanks to the intervention of various royalty including
King Alfonso XIII.
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