Seville on foot: from the Giralda to Triana
Sevilla, del centro a Triana
A walk of about two kilometres links Seville's cathedral and Giralda, the Real Alcázar, the old Jewish quarter of Santa Cruz, the Archive of the Indies, the Torre del Oro on the river and, across the Triana bridge, the market built over the castle of the Inquisition.
2.0 km, about 4 h 16 min
Seven stops and about two kilometres on foot, from the Giralda to the market in Triana. You'll walk through al-Andalus, the Castile that took it, the port that sent ships to the Americas, and over the river into a barrio that keeps its own name. Allow most of a day if you go inside everything; the plazas between the stops are part of the walk.
Stops
1. The cathedral and the Giralda
La Catedral y la Giralda
50 min
Start in the Plaza Virgen de los Reyes, under the tower you will have seen in photographs. The Giralda began as the minaret of the great mosque that the Almohad caliph Abu Yaqub ordered in 117212. You climb it by ramps rather than stairs, built wide enough to ride up, and a bronze figure about four metres high, the Giraldillo, turns on the top as a weathervane2. When Fernando III took Seville, the mosque became the church of Santa María, and the king was buried in it in 12521. The canons decided to build anew in 1401, and the Gothic cathedral opened in 15071. Before you leave, find the Patio de los Naranjos: it was the mosque's courtyard, and its fountain stands where worshippers washed before prayer3.
between 1236 and 1248 · Valencia and Seville fall to the Christian kings
There today: Fernando III, who took Seville in 1248, is buried in the cathedral of Seville, which you can visit; the great mosque of Córdoba, taken in 1236, is open too as the Mezquita-Catedral.
Guess the year
between 1236 and 1248 — Fernando III of Castile took the city in 1248 after a long siege, and the mosque became the church of Santa María that year1.
2. The Real Alcázar
El Real Alcázar
60 min · 390 m from the stop before
Cross the Plaza del Triunfo to the Patio de Banderas and the gate in the old walls. The palace began in 913 as a new seat of government for the Umayyad rulers of Córdoba4. The kings of the taifa of Seville added a palace of their own, and the Almohads finished the works of the Arab period in the twelfth century4. After the Castilian conquest of 1248 it stayed a palace of kings4: Alfonso X built a Gothic palace inside it, and in the middle of the fourteenth century Pedro I built the Mudéjar palace, Christian in purpose and Andalusian in its arches, tiles and carved ceilings4. Leave time for the gardens behind the palaces, and for the shade.
1252–1284 · Alfonso the Wise and the Castilian language
Guess the year
913 — The palace's own history dates the first seat of government on this site to 9134.
3. Barrio de Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter
El barrio de Santa Cruz
25 min · 180 m from the stop before
Turn into the lanes east of the Alcázar, so narrow that the balconies almost meet. This was the judería, the Jewish quarter, enclosed by a wall of its own and covering about 15 hectares; the Barrio de Santa Cruz grew up on its land5. Plaques along Calle Mateos Gago now mark where that wall ran5. In June 1391 the quarter was attacked, and its people were killed or forced to give up their religion5; the violence spread across Castile and Aragon within months6. Sit for a while in the Plaza de Doña Elvira under the orange trees: the long story of living side by side, and its ending, is written into these few streets.
6 June 1391–1392 · The anti-Jewish riots of 1391
Guess the year
6 June 1391–1392 — The archdeacon Ferrand Martínez had preached against the Jews of Seville for years; the attack came in June 1391, and the violence spread through the kingdoms in the months that followed6.
4. The Archive of the Indies
El Archivo de Indias
25 min · 220 m from the stop before
Back across the square from the cathedral stands a plain stone building, square in plan and 56 metres a side7. It was built in the reign of Philip II as the Lonja de Mercaderes, the merchants' exchange, to a design by Juan de Herrera7. Charles III turned it into the General Archive of the Indies, gathering in one place the papers of Spain's overseas possessions from the fifteenth century to the nineteenth7. Among them is the almanac of the astronomer Abraham Zacuto that Columbus read and annotated to work out his latitude at sea7. The paperwork of the silver fleets, and of a whole empire, ended up here.
12 October 1492 · Columbus reaches America
Guess the year
1646 — Begun under Philip II to Juan de Herrera's design, it took several architects and was completed in 16467.
5. The Torre del Oro
La Torre del Oro
25 min · 390 m from the stop before
Walk down to the river, to a twelve-sided tower 36 metres high that guarded the way into the city8. The Almohads built its first body in the thirteenth century, Pedro I added the second, and the cylinder and dome on top are from the eighteenth century8. In time of war a thick chain ran from here to the far bank to stop enemy ships, and the tower also defended the bridge of boats that crossed to Triana8. The Guadalquivir is why Seville mattered: the fleets of American silver crossed the Atlantic to this river before Cádiz took the trade. Today the tower is a small naval museum with a terrace over the water8.
between 1236 and 1248 · Valencia and Seville fall to the Christian kings
There today: Fernando III, who took Seville in 1248, is buried in the cathedral of Seville, which you can visit; the great mosque of Córdoba, taken in 1236, is open too as the Mezquita-Catedral.
6. The Triana bridge
El puente de Triana
10 min · 690 m from the stop before
Follow the river north and cross on the iron bridge Sevillanos call the Triana bridge; its official name is the Puente de Isabel II9. French engineers built it between 1845 and 1852 on the model of a bridge in Paris, to replace the Puente de Barcas, the bridge of boats that the Torre del Oro once protected9. It has three arches, and it was declared a national historic monument in 19769. Stop in the middle: behind you are the Giralda and the towers of the centre, ahead of you Triana, the barrio across the river from Seville with its own name and its own story.
Guess the year
1852 — Built from 1845 by the French engineers Gustavo Steinacher and Ferdinand Bennetot, the bridge was finished in 18529.
7. Triana market and the Castillo de San Jorge
El mercado de Triana
35 min · 90 m from the stop before
At the end of the bridge, the Triana market stands on the site of the Castillo de San Jorge, a fortress built under the Almohads in the twelfth century10. Under the Catholic Monarchs it became a prison, and then the Inquisition's, where people accused of heresy were held and tortured10. The Inquisition had been created to watch over the conversos, the families who had converted to survive the violence that began in 13916. The castle was pulled down in the nineteenth century to make room for a market, and in 2009 the city presented the project that turned its excavated ruins into an interpretation centre10. Then climb back up to the stalls for lunch.
6 June 1391–1392 · The anti-Jewish riots of 1391
Sources
- Catedral de Sevilla: su historia — Catedral de Sevilla (Cabildo) — opened on 2026-10-13
- La Giralda — Catedral de Sevilla (Cabildo) — opened on 2026-10-13
- El Patio de los Naranjos y Biblioteca Colombina — Catedral de Sevilla (Cabildo) — opened on 2026-10-13
- Historia — Real Alcázar de Sevilla — opened on 2026-10-13
- Señalizan la Antigua Judería en la nueva calle Mateos Gago — Patio Colorado, Universidad Pablo de Olavide — opened on 2026-10-13
- The anti-Jewish riots of 1391
- General Archive of the Indies — Andalucía Tourism (Junta de Andalucía) — opened on 2026-10-13
- Torre del Oro Museo Naval — Andalucía Tourism (Junta de Andalucía) — opened on 2026-10-13
- Puente de Isabel II (Puente de Triana) — Andalucía Tourism (Junta de Andalucía) — opened on 2026-10-13
- El Castillo de San Jorge y el mercado de Triana — Patio Colorado, Universidad Pablo de Olavide — opened on 2026-10-13
- Nominatim search of OpenStreetMap — OpenStreetMap contributors — opened on 2026-10-13