Royal Alcazar of Seville
Mudejar royal palace and walled gardens, a UNESCO World Heritage Site still used by the Spanish royal family.
The Royal Alcazar grew from a fortress founded in 913 under the Umayyad governor of Seville and was rebuilt repeatedly by Abbadid, Almoravid and Almohad rulers. After the Christian conquest of 1248 the Castilian kings retained Muslim craftsmen, and between 1364 and 1366 Peter I raised the Mudejar palace that forms the heart of the site. Later Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque additions were grafted on, producing a layered complex that UNESCO inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1987 together with the cathedral and the Archivo de Indias.
Visitors follow a route through the Patio del Yeso, the Gothic Palace with its sixteenth-century tile panels, the Hall of Ambassadors under a gilded wooden dome, and the Patio de las Doncellas with its sunken garden and plasterwork arcades. Beyond the buildings lie terraced gardens with pools, hedged parterres, an artificial grotto gallery and the Mercury Pond. The upper storey remains an official residence of the Spanish royal family and is shown on a separate timed tour.
Highlights
- Patio de las Doncellas, the Mudejar courtyard of Peter I's palace
- Hall of Ambassadors beneath a gilded half-orange dome of 1427
- Terraced gardens with the Mercury Pond and grotto gallery
- Royal Apartments upstairs, visited on a separate timed tour
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