Seville Day 3 Royal Alcazar

Today we are going to the Royal Alcazar. Only 15 minutes walk from the apartment. Where we are staying is very convenient!

Purchased dos cafe con leche to enjoy while we await our entry time. Met our tour guide, Fran and the 4 others who were on the tour.

The Royal Alcazar is situated where a Moorish palace was located in the 10th c, but it was destroyed when the Christians took over in the 1300's. Seville was a major commercial and governance centre due to its location on the only navigable Spanish river that reaches the ocean. Christopher Columbus set sail from here. Once trade started with the colonies of the America's, it became even more important.

The Alcazar was built in stages over many years, and each stage has its own look. The Medieval times saw the building of the city wall and some parts of the palace which are not really evident today.

In 1248-49, the territory was conquered by the Castilians, who gave it the role it still retains as a Royal Residence and as the city's political hub. This was a historical moment, the crux of the cultural synthesis that has defined the city of Seville, when palaces rose up around the original foundations, like Alfonso the Tenth’s Gothic Palace, shaped by the new cultural framework that had taken hold of the city. In the middle of the fourteenth century, at a time when al-Andalus was already under the rule of the Crown of Castile, we see the re-appearance of old Mediterranean concepts, now dressed up in Arabic style, in the Mudéjar Palace of Pedro I.

Aside from its architectural framework, the elements that breathe life to the Alcazar of Seville are it's gardens and the fountains of water seen throughout the palace and it's grounds. Some episodes of the Game of Thrones were filmed here.Read more