Seville: A City that Stays with You, Seville, Spain

Seville is one of those cities that has quietly threaded itself through my life. I first met it during quick weekend escapes when I was living and working in Valencia, then again during the years my brother lived in Andalusia, between El Rocío and Tarifa. Later on, Seville became a recurring stop for work, especially during tourism fairs, when the city shows yet another face, more polished but no less intense. Over time, it has never become routine. Seville resists familiarity in the best possible way.

This is the city of Velázquez and Murillo, but also of Carmen, Don Juan and Figaro, the legendary Barber of Seville. The capital of Andalusia is a place with a strong, unmistakable character, shaped by centuries of overlapping civilisations and, perhaps even more, by its people. Walk its streets at almost any hour, and you realise it immediately. Seville feels like a vast open-air stage, and everyone is part of the play.

At the very centre of Seville lies Plaza del Triunfo, a rare urban space framed by not one but three UNESCO World Heritage sites. It is one of those places where history feels unusually concentrated.

Seville Cathedral dominates the square with its overwhelming scale. Built in the fifteenth century on the site of a former mosque, it is one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in the world. The coexistence of styles tells the story of Andalusia itself. Mudéjar details sit next to Gothic vaults, Renaissance chapels and Baroque additions. Inside, the monumental tomb of Christopher Columbus and the immense main altarpiece, carved with hundreds of cedarwood figures, are hard to forget. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).