Plaza de España

We knew that we wanted to see Plaza de Espana and the adjoining Maria Louisa Park and today seemed to be the right day to visit them. It was a bit of a hike through the city but a good way to burn off some of the calories from last night’s flamenco show dinner.

Plaza de España was created for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. It was held to welcome the former colonies of Spain, which means most of South America, and even Portugal and the United States were invited.

The square is in the shape of a half-circle, which represented arms in a hug or a sign of welcome. The expo was welcoming the former colonies back to Spain.

Unfortunately, this expo wasn’t the biggest success. Travelling wasn’t easy at that time and those countries weren’t particularly happy to be ‘colonies’ of Spain.

There are 48 tiled benches on this square, one for each of the provinces of Spain.
It’s in alphabetic order and starts on the left with ‘Alava’ and ends with ‘Zaragoza’ on the right. In 1929 there were 49 provinces (now 52), but Sevilla is not represented. On every bench you can see a map of the province, a important moment in history for that province painted by a painter from that province and the Province’s coat of arms.

It is an impressive and massive building and anyone coming to Seville should visit it. Around the square is a moat. You can rent rowboats and peacefully row in the moat.

We walked around while listening to musicians playing relaxing music. In one spot flamenco dancers and singers were performing.

Maria Louisa Park is a historical garden created in 1850 and part of it was donated to the city in 1893. It is 34 acres and filled with flowering plants, ponds, bridges and sculptures. The ducks, swans, doves and parakeets aren’t afraid of people. I guess because people feed them.

We can see why people have recommended this area to us, with a smile. It is a great place to visit on a sunny day, and for us today it was a very visual 11 km walk, there and back.

On the way back to the hotel we passed the old Royal Tobacco Factory that is now the university building. At the time it was built in 1758, it was the second largest building in Spain. The factory was employed a thousand men, two hundred horses, and had 170 "mills". It also has a moat and watchtowers! Apparently, this is evidence of the importance given to protecting the King's tobacco monopoly, which at the time manufactured of all of Europe's cigars.Read more