The Duquesa de Alba was one of Spain's most famous aristocrats, and one of Seville best-loved personalities, until her death in 2014. With palaces and castles all over Spain, Cayetana was happiest in her home in the historic city centre, Casa de las Dueñas.
The Alcázar Réal (Royal Palace) of Seville is one of the city’s most enchanting, and most popular, historic monuments. Along with the Cathedral and Archive of the Indies, it is recognised as UNESCO World Heritage. The word alcázar actually means fortified palace, and this one is hidden behind castle walls on Plaza del Triunfo opposite the Cathedral.
Seville has its fair share of magnificent family-owned palaces – In summer 2023, another such monument opened to the public for the first time: Palacio Bucarelli.
This area was originally an orchard and vegetable garden. Per Afán Enríquez de Ribera had amassed such a collection of classical statues that instead of modifying the existing palace to display them, in 1568, he commissioned Neapolitan architect Benvenutto Tortello to build a new palace around the old orchard, transforming it into an archaeological garden.
The upper floor can only be visited as part of a 30-minute guided tour which departs at regular intervals in different languages. The rooms on the upper floor form part of the private residence and include paintings dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
Casa de Pilatos, like many palaces, has its own chapel. The oldest room in the palace, this has both Muslim and Christian elements, with a wide entrance arch finely decorated with Mudejar plasterwork. It has the only tile skirting board in the palace, and one of a few in Seville made using the cuerda seca (dry string) technique.
Located beneath the Tower, this room corresponds to one of the quadras of the traditional palace's layout: an elongated room with square chambers in each corner. It also inherited some characteristics of the main ceremonial room (Aula Regia or majestic room, qubba in the Islamic world) of Hispano-Islamic architecture.
The single grand staircase to the top floor Winter Palace is decorated with tiles and a cupola ceiling of Mudéjar honeycomb, made by Cristobal Sanchez and inspired by the Ambassador's Hall in the Alcazar. It was Seville's first magnificent staircase, and one of the most original in Europe at the time.
The Gold Room, although small, is one of the most extravagant with its gold-leaf coffered ceiling. Looking onto the Small Garden, this room's decoration is Mudejar, plus sculptures and busts collected by his nephew Per Afan.
Until the beginning of the 20th century the Small Garden, on the east side, was actually divided into two smaller areas separated by buildings. Removing these allowed the gardens to be joined together with a pond and fountain.
The room was built in the 1530s as a result of the Renaissance-style widening of the courtyard by Don Fadrique, and was possibly named after a salon in Pontius Pilate's palace in Jerusalem. It conserves all its original elements, including Mudejar inlaid marquetry windows and doors in which the remains of the old polychrome paintwork can still be distinguished.
The main courtyard is typically Mudejar in style, with exquisite plaster-decorated arches, and later elements of Gothic, Renaissance and romantic. Built at the end of the 15th century by Pedro Enríquez and Catalina de Rivera, the patio features an open patio surrounded by irregularly sized arches.
The marble Renaissance entrance arch of the palace which dominates the north side of Plaza de Pilatos (the palace's western façade) was designed and manufactured for Don Fadrique in Genoa in 1529; the Italian port city was an important trading partner of Seville.
The initial construction of the palace was begun by Pedro Enríquez de Quiñones (1435-1492), IV Chief Governor of Andalucía, a noble title bestowed by the King, and his second wife Catalina de Rivera, founder of the Casa de Alcalá, and completed by their son Fadrique Enríquez de Rivera (1476 - 1539), First Marquess of Tarifa.
This magnificent palace is one of Seville's most impressive buildings, and certainly the city's finest example of the baroque style. Situated to the south of the centre, between the Hotel Alfonso XIII and the river, its 40-million-euro, 10-year refurbishment finished in 2010. The palace is the seat of the Regional Government's President.
One of the least known of Seville’s museums, this is a family palace with a wonderfully varied private collection. It is situated at the Campana end of Calle Cuna, parallel to Calle Sierpes. Look out for the impressive but discreet stone doorway (there is no obvious sign) and huge wooden doors.
La Casa de Pilatos (Pilate's House) is the finest example of a civil (as opposed to royal) palace in Seville. The building is a mixture of Italian Renaissance and Spanish Mudéjar adorned with precious tiles, and has well-kept gardens.
The Casa de Pilatos is the richest and most important palace after the Alcazar. Its architecture is the result of a perfect combination of Gothic, Mudejar and Renaissance.
