The Palacio de San Telmo features a massive, ornately carved stone portal that pushes out from the long, mustard-colored facade like a stage set. Built in the late seventeenth century, it began as a school for orphans of mariners, funded…
Golden Age Riverfront Walk
Trace the incredible wealth of Spain's Golden Age along the Guadalquivir River, where treasure fleets unloaded tons of American silver. We will walk past historic shipyards, medieval watchtowers, and the grand structures that made Seville the ultimate global gateway to the New World.
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1. Palacio de San Telmo
2. Plaza de la Contratación
The Plaza de la Contratación features a heavy iron gate and thick, windowless walls that look out over the narrow streets of the Santa Cruz quarter. This is the site of the Casa de Contratación, or the House of Trade, founded in fifteen oh…
3. Archivo de Indias
The Archivo de Indias is a massive, two-story stone building topped with a flat roof and a decorative stone balustrade. Originally commissioned by King Philip the Second as a merchant exchange, the structure forced the city's traders out…
4. Torre de la Plata
The Torre de la Plata is an octagonal tower built of limestone and brick, standing apart from the main city walls of Seville. It dates to the thirteenth century, constructed by the Almohads to defend the river access to the city. Its name,…
5. Torre del Oro
The Torre del Oro stands as a twelve-sided tower of golden-hued stone anchored directly on the bank of the Guadalquivir River. It served as a strategic military outpost for the Almohad Caliphate in the thirteenth century, part of a…
6. Hospital de la Caridad
The Hospital de la Caridad wears a plain, ochre-colored facade that hides a dark, high-contrast interior. It serves as a home for the elderly, just as it did when Miguel de Mañara founded it in the seventeenth century. Mañara was a wealthy…
7. Las Atarazanas (medieval shipyard)
Seventeen wide, vaulted stone naves stretch back from the street, built low to the ground to shield galley ships from the heat and sun. King Alfonso the Tenth commissioned these shipyards in twelve fifty-two to maintain his fleet for the…
8. Arco del Postigo
The Arco del Postigo is a simple stone archway tucked into the thick, whitewashed defensive walls of old Seville. It served as a vital gate for sailors and merchants moving goods from the nearby Guadalquivir River into the heart of the…