Seville Walking Tour: A Self-Guided Route Through Santa Cruz

Seville does not really do restraint. The city piles Moorish palaces on top of Roman foundations, wraps the whole thing in orange trees, and lets it simmer in the Andalusian sun. This self-guided Seville walking tour keeps to the old heart of it, the tight knot of streets around the cathedral where the city began, and it is one of the most rewarding self-guided walking tours you can do in a single easy morning. You will pass the largest Gothic cathedral on earth, slip into a royal palace still used by kings, and lose yourself on purpose in a quarter of whitewashed lanes barely wide enough for two. Just over three kilometers, flat the whole way, and shady when you need it to be.

Before you set off

Give yourself a morning, three hours at a gentle pace, more if you go inside the cathedral or the Alcazar, both of which deserve a proper hour of their own. Seville is a hot city for much of the year, so start early, carry water, and follow the local rhythm of ducking into the shade whenever the sun gets serious. The lanes of the old center are cobbled and often narrow, so wear shoes you can walk all day in. Almost everything on this route sits within a few hundred meters of everything else, which means you can wander off down any tempting side street and find your way back without much trouble, and in this part of Seville the side streets are half the pleasure. If you can, book the Alcazar and the cathedral online ahead of time, because the queues at both can swallow an hour on a busy day. And do stop for a coffee or a cold beer and a plate of something in one of the small squares along the way, since pausing often is exactly how Seville is meant to be walked.

Plaza Nueva

Start in Plaza Nueva, a wide, palm-lined square at the western edge of the old town, watched over by the grand facade of the city hall and a bronze king on horseback in the middle. It is a calm, open place to get your bearings before the streets tighten around you. Locals cut across it all day on their way to work and to the smart pedestrian shopping streets running north, and the benches under the trees make a good spot to sit for a minute and plan your morning. The square marks the line between the modern shopping city to the north and the tangled medieval core to the south, which is where you are heading. Have a slow look at the ornate stonework of the city hall on the eastern side, some of the finest Renaissance carving in the city. When you are ready, leave by the southeast corner and walk the couple of minutes toward the enormous shape already looming over the rooftops ahead, because you cannot miss where you are going next.

Seville Cathedral and La Giralda

You arrive at the foot of Seville Cathedral, and the scale of it is genuinely hard to take in. This is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, built on the footprint of the great mosque that stood here before, as if the city wanted to leave no doubt about who was in charge now. Inside, if you go in, lies the tomb of Christopher Columbus, held aloft by four stone kings, along with more gold than seems quite decent. But the real symbol of the city is the tower beside it, La Giralda, once the mosque's minaret and now the cathedral's bell tower. Its lower two thirds are Moorish brickwork of the twelfth century, delicate and patterned, and the top is a Christian belfry added later, a neat summary of the whole city in one building. You can climb it, and the clever thing is that there are no stairs, only a wide ramp built so a rider could go up on horseback, which makes the climb far gentler than it looks. Walk a slow circle around the outside first to feel the sheer bulk of the place, then head for the palm-filled courtyard on its southern flank.

Archivo General de Indias

Just across the square sits a calm, square Renaissance building that most people walk straight past, the Archivo General de Indias. It looks almost plain next to its giant neighbors, which is part of its quiet dignity. Behind those walls lies one of the most extraordinary collections of documents anywhere, the entire paper record of Spain's empire in the Americas, mile upon mile of shelves holding letters, maps, and ledgers going back five hundred years, including papers in the hand of Columbus and the conquistadors. It was built in the sixteenth century as the city's merchant exchange, back when Seville held a royal monopoly on trade with the New World and gold flowed up the river to this very spot. Step inside if it is open, since entry is usually free, and climb the grand marble staircase to see the beautiful vaulted galleries lined with dark wooden shelves. Even a short look gives you a sense of the wealth and reach that once ran through these streets. When you come out, the entrance to the royal palace is only a few steps away across the square, behind a modest stone gateway.