Seville is the heart and soul of Spain.
You will find in Seville all that a traveler can hope for: Pedestrian shopping streets
and quiet alleys; flower-scented gardens, an ancient palace and immense cathedral, hundreds
of historic sites; three thousand years of conflict and peace; thrilling evening entertainment;
excellent museums; great food and drink, especially the tapas; and rewarding nearby attractions
-- the list goes on until you run out of time.
Seville’s city center is divided in various parts: there’s Macarena in the north; El
Arenal on the west side; the central shopping zone; and most exciting of all—Santa Cruz
with the narrow pedestrian streets and lots of shopping and eating.
There are other districts or barrio in the city after all Seville is the fourth-largest
city in Spain with the metropolitan population of about 1.5 million, but for the visitor
that central area is your main destination.
Seville’s historic center is quite large—about a mile wide by 1.5 miles long, riddled with
countless little alleys and important landmarks.
You can discover it on foot if you are selective and seek out the particular attractions that
most appeal to your interests.
We suggest here an organized plan for doing just that, but it’s sometimes better to
push the plan aside and just wander: certain neighborhoods, especially Santa Cruz, are
perfect for the aimless stroll, and the downtown pedestrian zone of Seville is a shopper’s
paradise.
We’ll show you more of this downtown shopping area in another segment.
For now we’ll focus more on the Old Town.
More visitors flock to Spain than to any other nation in the world except France, because
it has so many wonderful places to enjoy.
Among its many attractions, the golden city of Seville, in the heart of southern Spain,
in Andalucia, ranks as one of the country’s top destinations for the sheer beauty and
pleasure it offers.
Three thousand years of civilization produced a rich concentration of historic landmarks
and fascinating neighborhoods which can be easily explored on foot in the city center.
Here we show big walking route, it's a couple of miles.
It'll take you right through the center including shopping areas, Cathedral, Alcazar and the
old quarter of Santa Cruz where we're going to focus our attention for this segment.
So let's take a little walking tour in Santa Cruz.
An excellent central location to start your first walking tour is between the Cathedral
and Alcazar palace in the Plaza del Triunfo.
Many of the town’s main attractions can be easily reached from this central space,
making it convenient for you to pick a direction, any direction, and go -- but with such an
abundance of choices it can be a little tricky to decide where best to begin.
Which way to turn depends on your priorities and the time of day, but no matter; there
will be time in the next few days to fit everything in.
Walking is always the best way to see a place and especially when it's so pedestrian-friendly
like Seville with so many lanes that are dedicated just to the pedestrian and other narrow lanes
where you have very little traffic.
You always want to use that walker's rule of thumb, that when you get to an intersection,
look around and see which way looks most interesting.
That's if you have the time to wander.
And it can lead you from one place to the next with great satisfaction.
On the other hand if you're in a hurry, you want to follow a little bit more of a specific
plan and stick to it and perhaps follow a map.
Be advised many of these little streets in Santa Cruz and the little plazas have been
discovered by the tourists, so depending on when you're here the main lanes might get
a little crowded but there's always the lovely side lanes that you can find for a more peaceful
and tranquil atmosphere.
So just follow your nose when you're wandering around in Santa Cruz district, and we will
give you some tips here on how to navigate and what to see.
Most shops and churches close for siesta from about 1:00 – 4:00pm, so you might spend
this time on a stroll in the quiet back streets of that picturesque district, Santa Cruz.
It was first created as the Jewish quarter nearly 2,000 years ago.
You’ll probably pass through this picturesque and centrally-located square, Plaza de la
Virgen de los Reyes, surrounded by the Cathedral, Archbishop’s Palace and Encarnacion Convent,
and a monumental fountain in the center, with horse carriages patiently lined up along the
edge.
It is possible to take a horse and buggy ride for an overview of the sights, with the driver
telling you about the highlights as you pass by, or join a walking tour with a local escort.
But you can very easily walk the streets of the Old Town on your own as we suggest here
and enjoy the sights for yourself.
This largely pedestrian “barrio” is a charming tangle of narrow, crooked lanes lined
with beautiful homes from the 17th century, enhanced with delicate, iron balconies, potted
flowers, wooden shutters and hidden courtyards.
Among Europe’s best neighborhoods for strolling, the main part of this warren is only about
six blocks in each direction, enabling you to wander freely and discover it in a couple
of hours.
Santa Cruz is so magical you should return in the warm atmosphere of early evening to
appreciate the soft lighting, and settle into a quaint little tavern for dinner.
Once is just not enough for a special district like this, which also has several small hotels
that make ideal places to stay.
Hidden courtyards, curved lanes, covered passages and five-way intersections are some of the
fun elements of this pedestrian puzzle of Santa Cruz which you are now entering.
It helps to have a map, which you might want to purchase and one of the souvenir shops
– get a big one if you can find it.
It helps to have a map, which you might want to purchase at one of the souvenir shops – get
a big one if you can find it.
Fortunately all of the streets in the city are very well marked.
Nearly every corner has got a street name up on the building so you can easily see where
you are and get your bearings.
But it’s also fun to just get lost and wander.
The main thing is to enjoy each step and keep your eyes open to absorb the beauties all
around.
Of course you’ll be getting hungry and tempted as you walk around passing these tapa bars.
Seville is famous for the wonderful foods in the bars and Bodega Santa Cruz is one of
the better ones.
According to Trip Advisor it's number 21 out of nearly 2000 restaurants in Seville.
It had for example 900 reviews and 800 of those were either excellent or very good,
so you can count on this Bodega Santa Cruz for a real atmospheric bite.
You’re going to find these tapa bars are very friendly places where everybody's talking
to each other, to the bartender, and their protocol is simple, you just point to the
food you want.
And it's very inexpensive, typically about €2 for a dish, and the beer or wine to wash
it down is equally inexpensive and delicious.
On the other hand some of the more touristic restaurants in the Santa Cruz area might not
be so good, so you’ve got to be careful where you sit down to eat.
Walking along we continue our look at this fascinating neighborhood.
Of course Trip Advisor has lots of information about Seville, with sightseeing tips and restaurants
and hotels and such, and regarding this Santa Cruz district they’ve actually got 2,500
comments and reviews, with 95% of those either excellent or very good, ranking this neighborhood
in the top-5 things to do in their list of 360 activities in Seville.
To summarize what those comments say, as you might expect, similar to what we’ve said
already, it’s is a maze of tangled lanes with plenty of restaurants of varying quality,
including some very good ones if you are careful in your selection.
And the shops are fun with decent prices but geared mostly to the tourists.
Shops selling traditional ceramics always seem to be a big hit with travellers.
Come back in the evening for a more quiet and alluring atmosphere.
Like a film set, a dream for photographers and those who enjoy the views.
Bars, bars and more bars, most of them serving tapas.
Barrio Santa Cruz, is not only the primary tourist neighborhood of Seville, but also
has a dramatic history as the former Jewish quarter of the medieval city.
Santa Cruz became Seville's old judería (Jewish quarter): when Ferdinand III of Castile conquered
the city from Muslim rule in mid-13th century, he concentrated the city's Jewish population
at that time, which was second in size only to that of Toledo—into this one single neighborhood.
And the in 1492 the Jews were expelled because of the Alhambra Decree which evicted all the
Jews from Spain, and so the neighborhood went downhill.
In the 18th century, the neighborhood underwent a major process of urban renewal, and so a
lot of the buildings that we see here today are from that time period, about 200-300 years
ago.
In recent decades it has been transformed into the tourist center that we see now.
The Callejón del Agua, an alley parallel to the city walls, was once the route along
which water was brought to the royal Alcázar of Seville.
It’s inevitable that you will run into some lovely street musicians as you walk around.
Scattered through the neighborhood are several plazas including the Plaza de los Venerables,
which is full of bars and terraces.
The Plaza de Santa Cruz, the namesake of the neighborhood, once the site of the Iglesia
de Santa Cruz (the Church of the Holy Cross), constructed over the ruins of a synagogue,
and incorporated the floor of that synagogue.
During the Napoleonic Wars the church was demolished and the floor remained as the site
of the present plaza.
The Murillo Gardens are right next to Santa Cruz and there are several other small garden
plazas within this historic area.
When you see all the kids getting out of school, walking home with their parents, you realize
that Santa Cruz is also a residential area.
It's not just for tourists.
Many of the upper floors are apartments for locals.
And there are some inexpensive backpacker hotels tucked away.
After so much walking and it's nice to sit down and relax.
We'll see more of Seville in other segments.