Royal Alcázar of Seville, Spain

The Royal Alcázar of Seville is a walled palatial complex built in different historical stages. Although the original palace was built in the High Middle Ages, some vestiges of Islamic art are preserved and, from the period after the Castilian conquest, a Mudejar palatial space and another in the Gothic style. In later reforms, Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque elements were added.

It is the residence of the members of the Spanish Royal Family when they visit Seville. This makes it the oldest royal palace in use in Europe. The Unesco declared it a World Heritage Site, next to Seville Cathedral and the Archive of the Indies, in 1987.

In 2019, it received 2,067,016 visitors, making it one of the most visited monuments in Spain.

History
The plot where the Alcazar enclosure is framed has been occupied since the 8th century BC. Remains of a Roman building from the 1st century have been found, of which its function is not known with certainty. This 1st century building stretched from the Banderas courtyard to the interior of the current site. On its ruins a early Christian church was built, identified by some as the Basilica of San Vicente, which was one of the three main temples of the city during the Visigoth era. Some remains of this primitive temple have been found in the courtyard of Banderas. Some capitals and shafts of this ancient temple were used in the construction of the palace of Pedro I. The tombstone of Bishop Honorato, who was probably in this church, is currently found in the Cathedral of Seville.

Islamic stage
In 914 the Umayyads built a citadel with a square wall attached to the old Roman city wall. The only known access door to this citadel was at number 16 of the Banderas courtyard and of which the north jamb of an arch is preserved. Inside were some simple outbuildings attached to the walls, such as warehouses, stables, and barracks.

After the fall of the caliphate, the abbey aristocracy took over the city. This one carried out a neat constructive activity. In the middle of the 11th century, the citadel expanded to the south, doubling its area. A new entrance with a control castle was created, of which a double horseshoe door is preserved in the current Joaquín Romero Murube street. Inside, a series of small buildings were built and there was probably a main palace building, where the Gothic palace currently stands. In the second half of the 11th century, King Al-Mutamid expanded the fortress to the west and some palatial buildings were built. This was the primitive Alcazar of the Blessing (Al-Mubarak). Of the two alcazabas and the Al-Mutamid Alcázar, only a few remains remain on the walls.

In the 12th century the Almohads completely reformed this entire space. They created a system of walls that linked the Alcázar with other fortifications to the Guadalquivir riverbed. The Alcazar reached the Abd el Aziz tower, located on the current Avenida de la Constitución. Inside, a dozen new and larger buildings were built. The walls of the Alcázar also became part of new and reformed fortifications for the defense of the city. These defensive works culminated in the early 13th century with the construction of the Torre del Oro.

Christian stage
After the conquest of the city, Fernando III did not perform any performance on the quarterdeck. The Christian court was established for decades in the old Almohad spaces. Between 1252 and 1260 Alfonso X took advantage of the space in the main building to build the Gothic palace. The other buildings of the Alcázar Almohad were renovated for later use. In the 14th century, after the earthquake in 1356, which severely affected the city, King Pedro I ordered the demolition of three Almohad palatial buildings to build the Mudéjar palace, which was attached to the Gothic Alfonsí palace. Construction began the same year 1356 and, according to the inscriptions of the Alcázar itself, completed in 1364.

In 1366 a civil war began that confronted Pedro I with his half brother Enrique II, which ended with Pedro’s death in 1369, so it does not seem that he could have lived in it for long.

The Alcazar and the Spanish monarchy
Throughout history, the Alcázar has been the scene of various events related to the Spanish Crown. Between 1363 and 1365, as the seat of the Castilian court, Ibn Jaldún, philosopher, and Ibn al-Jatib, chronicler and poet, visited the court of Granada to sign a peace treaty with King Don Pedro. In 1367 the Prince of Wales sent English diplomats Neil Loring, Richard Punchardoun and Thomas Balastre to this Alcazar to meet Don Pedro and collect payments.

In 1477 the Catholic Monarchs arrived in Seville, using the enclosure as a room, and a year later, on June 14, 1478, their second son, Prince Juan, was born in the palace. It is known that this royal delivery was attended by a Sevillian midwife known as “la Herradera” and who had the presence, as witnesses appointed by King Fernando, of Garci Téllez, Alonso Melgarejo, Fernando de Abrejo and Juan de Pineda, as they marked the Castilian rules, to dispel the slightest doubt that the son was the queen’s. In 1526 the wedding of Carlos I with his cousin Isabel de Portugal was celebrated in the Alcázar.

In 1823, on the occasion of the military intervention of the Hundred Thousand Sons of San Luis, the royal family, with Fernando VII at the head, resided in Seville for two months, in which the Alcázar served as a royal residence. Coinciding with this royal stay, on April 17, 1823, the infant Enrique de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias was born in the city, son of the infant Francisco de Paula de Borbón and Luisa Carlota de Borbón-Dos Sicilias, and to whom the king A few days after his birth, Fernando VII granted him the title of Duke of Seville.

By decree of April 22, 1931, the Government of the Second Spanish Republic, at the proposal of its Minister of Finance, Indalecio Prieto, ceded the Alcázar and its gardens to the municipality of Seville. The last event associated with the monarchy was the 18 of March of 1995, where a lunch and reception for the wedding was held Infanta Elena de Borbón, daughter of King Juan Carlos I, with Jaime de Marichalar.

Layout

Lion’s Gate
The Lion’s Gate, located on the outer wall of the complex, is the main access route to the site. Between the lintel of this door and under a matacán stretched a painting of a lion, whose origin is unknown, although it already appears in the drawings made by Richard Ford in 1832. This painting was restored by Joaquín Domínguez Bécquer, in 1876. In 1892 the painting was replaced by a tile mural designed by Manuel Tortosa and Fernández, with the historical advice of José Gestoso. The tile was made at the Mensaque 21 factory[]And it also represents a lion, in the Gothic style, which appears holding a crucifix with its right claw and with a flag under its left claw. On the chest there is a phylacterium in which is read in Latin Ad utrumque, which means “for one thing and for another”, the word ‘paratus’ would be missing; Ad utrumque paratus, meaning “prepared for one thing and another”.

The name of Puerta del León probably dates from the 19th century. Historically this door had been known as the Montería. According to Ortiz de Zúñiga (17th century), it was named that way because it was where the king with his hunters used to go hunting. This hypothesis is based, since Pedro I’s father, Alfonso XI, was so fond of hunting that he wrote a book about hunting. According to José Gestoso, the name was due to the fact that it was decorated with hunting reliefs. On the left side of the arch you can see the reliefs of two very worn polygonal medallions. In one of them you can see something similar to a quadruped animal.

After the door you enter the courtyard of the Lion. At the end of the patio there is an Almohad wall canvas with three porticos. This wall seems to have been reinforced later. In addition, the arches were horseshoe but in Christian times they were transformed into semicircular arches. Behind this canvas of the wall is the patio de la Montería.

Justice Hall
The Justice room is accessed through the courtyard of León, this was part of the primitive Muslim palace, this palace was the so-called mexuar, where the council of viziers met, work that continued under the Christian monarchy.

It is square in plan, Mudejar style and was built in the reign of Alfonso XI. It is a room with a square floor plan and a coffered ceiling (qubba). In it there is a shield of the Order of the Band, created by Alfonso XI around 1340. The room would have been made between 1340 and 1350. However, although the room was dated in the reign of Alfonso XI thanks, among other details, this shield, the shield of the order also appears in other parts of the palace decorated in the reign of his son, Pedro I. similarity with the living Guarda Comares of the Alhambra. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was known as the Council Chamber. Most likely, it would have been an Almohad room used to gather a council (maswar) and was renovated with Mudejar art by the Christians, who continued to use it for the same purpose. [32 This] probably went to the room where the court presided by Pedro I was, although there are other hypotheses about its possible location. In this court there were three brick steps with a stone throne, although this structure was demolished before Felipe II’s visit in 1570. This performance displeased Felipe II, who was a great admirer of King Don Pedro and who was the first to indicate that he should be called “the Justiciero”.

Patio del Yeso
The Court of Yeso, which was built at the end of the 12th century, from the Almohad period, almost square in plan, is accessed from the Justice room and has a pool in the center and with arches porticoed on each side of the patio, on those with a rich decoration. On the south side there are caliph columns supporting arches with plaster decoration (sebka). This decoration covers an arcade. In the arcade there is an entrance with two horseshoe arches with a column in the center. Two windows open on the lintel of this entrance. On the opposite wall there is a walled exit with three Cordovan caliphal style horseshoe arches. As in other places in the Alcázar, various reforms have been carried out in this courtyard throughout its history. The entire wall where archery was sebka capped found. It was discovered by Francisco María Tubino in the late 19th century. The marquis of Vega-Inclán, then curator of the Alcázar, commissioned its recovery and restoration in 1912 from the architect José Gómez Millán.

Patio de la Montería
It is the main courtyard and is presided over by the door of the Pedro I palace. On the walls there are semicircular arches that were bricked up in the 15th century. To the right were the rooms of the Contracting House.

Admiral’s Room and Contracting House
The Catholic Monarchs approved the creation, in 1503, of the Casa de Contratación de Indias, which was an institution in charge of promoting and regulating trade and navigation with the Spanish territories overseas and which carried out tasks of sending and receiving merchandise, actions of a technical scientific nature and also judicial activities.

The Casa de Contratación ranged from the present Plaza de la Contratación, where it had its main façade to the patio de la montería, including the buildings to the west of the plaza. In 1717 this institution moved to Cádiz and in 1793 it disappeared.

From the Montería patio you can access the Almirante’s room, where the following paintings stand out: The inauguration of the Ibero-American Exhibition of 1929, which presides over the estancia, the work of the painter Alfonso Grosso; The final stages of San Fernando, by Virgilio Mattoni; The taking of Loja by Fernando el Católico, the work of Eusebio Valldeperas; and the portraits of Fernando VII and María Cristina de Nápoles by Carlos Blanco, dated in the first third of the 19th century. This place is used as a hall for public events.

Next, there is the so-called Audience Hall, transformed into a chapel in the 16th century. It is covered with a rich tracery roof from the 16th century with geometric decorations. The chapel has a stone step attached to the wall that runs along the perimeter and presiding over the room is a triptych-shaped altarpiece, the work of Alejo Fernández, made between 1531 and 1536. The central part is occupied by an image of the Virgen de los Navegantes, accompanied by Saint Sebastian and Saint James on one side and Saint Telmo and Saint John the Evangelist on the other.

Patio of the Cruise
The patio of the cruise is located to the west of the patio of the Montería. It was built in the 12th century, during the Almohad period, although it was later reformed. In Alfonso X’s time ribbed vaults were added. The garden had two levels, the highest corresponding to the one currently in the courtyard, with two main galleries in the shape of a cross and four other peripherals, and a second level, 4.7 meters below the previous one, occupied by a garden with orange trees., divided into four parts, with a large fountain in the center and pools at the ends.

Following the Lisbon earthquake, this lower garden was covered, filling it with earth and forming the current rectangular patio. The visible vestiges of this lower floor can be seen from the patio of the Cruise and the only part that survives are the so-called María Padilla baths, which are accessed from the Dance garden. This basement is made up of a large nave with ten sections covered by ribbed vaults. The entrance from the garden is covered with a long barrel vault.

Currently is a rectangular landscaped courtyard, divided into four hedges of myrtle and within the quadrants there bonetero, crape myrtles, palms, bougainvillea and jasmine.

In the 18th century, various works were carried out in the courtyard of the Cruise and in the Gothic palace. The facade of the Gothic palace that overlooked the patio of the Cruise was completely renovated in the Baroque style. The other facades of the courtyard were also remodeled. The entire garden was buried to bring its soil to the level of the living rooms. The sides of the patio corridors were covered and these remained as underground chambers.

Mudéjar or Pedro I Palace
It was built next to the Gothic palace of Alfonso X at the initiative of King Pedro I, between 1356 and 1366, in its construction artisans from Toledo, Granada and Seville themselves collaborated, later it was transformed in the time of the Catholic Monarchs and the first Austrias. According to archaeological investigations, the palace of King Pedro constituted a project for a new floor plan, which was erected in a place where previous buildings existed.

This palace was born to serve as a private building for King Pedro I, in front of the most formal character represented by the Gothic palace, built in the previous century by order of Alfonso X, especially in Tordesillas and Seville, he used Arabic epigraphy to extol its virtues. This is because, from the fourteenth century, the Castilian monarchs stopped copying European trends to be inspired by Andalusian models. This made this palace of Pedro I lodge diverse writings in Arabic extolling its figure. The interior is structured around two nuclei, one dedicated to the official life that is located around the courtyard of the Doncellas and another to the private one around the courtyard of the Dolls. Walking along the galleries and rooms decorated with beautiful tiles and admiring the beautiful Mudejar ceilings, from the lobby you reach the Patio de las Doncellas, the main patio, a masterpiece of Andalusian Mudejar art. From the entrance to the courtyard of the maidens we find the Royal Alcove on the right, in front is the ambassadors room and on the left the Roof room of Carlos V. On the upper floor of the palace are the royal apartments, redecorated in the century XVIII.

The wood used in the coffered ceilings, the doors with lattices and the window frames are usually made of pine. These lacerías are golden or polychrome.

It has a first floor that does not extend throughout the ground floor, but only for some rooms.

Facade
The main facade is in the Montería courtyard. At the top is a large wooden eaves, supported by golden muqarnas. Below is a tile mural with an Arabic inscription that speaks of the year the building was completed. This mural is bordered by an inscription in Gothic characters that says: ” The very tall and very noble and very powerful and very conqueror Don Pedro by the grace of God, King of Castile and León, ordered these fortresses and these palaces et these covers that was dated in the era of mill et quatro hundred y dos años. ”

The entrance door is rectangular, with a lintel decorated with fine alaurique. On both sides there are separate lobed arches decorated with sebka and lowered on marble columns. In the upper band there are windows, mullioned on both sides and tripartite in the central space, with marble columns supporting their lobed arches.

Patio of the Dolls
The cover gives access to a hall, from which a corridor leads to the patio of the Dolls. This area of the palace is believed to have been intended for the queen, this being a domestic courtyard. It underwent a reform between 1847 and 1855. In this reform, a cornice with muqarnas and a neo-Mudejar mezzanine were added between the ground floor and the first floor. This reform was led by Juan Manuel Caballero and José Gutiérrez. The current ten marble columns were made by the marble worker José Barradas in that reform.

The name “of the Dolls” is ancient. In 1637 the historian Rodrigo Caro speculated that it could be called that because it was there where children were raised or because it was a very small patio. It is currently believed that it may be due to the faces of girls or dolls at the beginning of the arches.

Prince’s room
It is accessed through the north gallery of the Patio de las Muñecas. It receives this name from Juan de Trastámara, son of the Catholic Monarchs, born in the Alcázar in 1478. On the roof there is heraldry of the Catholic Monarchs. The room is divided with plaster arches into three rooms. According to the chronicles of the time, it was in this room that Queen Elizabeth gave birth to Prince John, her ill-fated heir.

Courtyard of the Maidens
It is a 21×15 meter rectangular patio surrounded by four galleries; two of seven and two of five arches. In the center there is a pool with large beds sunk one meter on both sides. The sides of these flower beds are decorated with interlocking semicircular arches. The lobed arches are decorated with sebka and plaster reliefs. Between 1580 and 1584 all this was buried and a marble paving was laid, for which artisans from Macael, Espera and Achan were brought. flowerbeds and pool were discovered in some archaeological studies in 2002.

Around the ground floor there were some rooms that were accessible to guests, while on the upper floor there were only private rooms. The upper floor of this courtyard was renovated between 1540 and 1572. The semi-circular arches supported by marble columns with Ionic capitals made in Genoa by Antonio María Aprile da Carona and Bernardino da Bissone date from this time. The columns on the ground floor were replaced between 1560 and 1569 by others carved in the same Italian city by Francisco and Juan Lugano and Francisco da Carona.

Royal bedroom
The Royal bedroom, which was also called the bedroom of the Moorish Kings, has its access from the courtyard of the Doncellas. The interior is divided into two rooms, which are connected by an entrance with three horseshoe arches. The first room accessed from the patio, known as the Lost Steps room, has a coffered ceiling from the reign of the Catholic Monarchs.

Its walls have plaster friezes and it is covered by a 15th century coffered ceiling. The doors leading to the patio are decorated with lattices, among which figures of six arms with a circular shape stand out. The two windows of this room are decorated with stars and eight-armed wheels.

Carlos V Roof Hall
From the Patio de las Doncellas you can also access the Carlos V Roof Hall. It has wooden doors with Mudejar lattices. In the center of the gates are geometric figures with eight arms in the form of wheels. The two shutters of this room are decorated with four, six and eight pointed stars.

It is believed that it could have been a chapel, due to the Corpus Christi inscription on the door. If so, the Royal bedroom, located next door, could have been a presbytery. However, it is possible that religious inscription outside the door simply by desire Pedro I.

It receives that name for its coffered ceiling, made between 1541 and 1543. This coffered ceiling has 75 octagonal casings. It is attributed to Sebastián de Segovia.

Ambassadors Hall
The entrance doors from the patio de las Doncellas are from the 14th century. They are made of wood with geometric lattices decorated with plant motifs. In the central parts of the gates are figures of eight and twelve arms in the shape of wheels. They have a lefe path on the margins. They indicate the completion date of the Mudéjar palace; 1364. On the outside they have inscriptions in Arabic praising the lord of the palace and, on the upper part of the inner side, there are phylacteries with Gothic characters in Latin with Psalm 54 and the beginning of the Gospel of Saint John.

The Ambassadors’ Hall is the most sumptuous place in the palace. Here was the hall Al-Turayya or the Pleiades of the Al-Mubarak Keep or the Al-Motamid Blessing. The current room corresponds to the construction of Pedro I. It has a square plan (qubba) and is covered by a golden hemispherical dome. This type of dome responds to a model that is called “better half”. The dome was made by Diego Ruiz in 1427. Under the dome is a Gothic frieze with portraits of monarchs. This wooden frieze is medieval, but the portraits were replaced in a reform that took place between 1599 and 1600. There are 56 tables painted by Diego de Esquivel in chronological order, from Chindasvinto to Felipe III. Pedro I is located in the southern half of the wall.

In them, the kings, identified by name, appear seated and crowned; in the right hand they carry a sword and in the left a globe; at a lower level is his coat of arms and, below, his period of reign. Above the series there is a continuous frieze with the coat of arms of Castilla y León.

The walls, as in other rooms of the palace, are decorated with tiles and plasterwork. At the top of the living room there are wooden balconies built in the late sixteenth century. On two sides there are entrances with two marble columns that support triple horseshoe arches.

Next to this room there are two rooms, one to the north and the other to the south, in which there are 26 cut plaster plates cut and outlined with a burin so that the figures represented stand out against the ataurique background. In the north room they measure approximately 50 centimeters, and are somewhat larger in the south room. In both rooms the plaster plates represent kings, princes, knights, ladies, tournaments and fantastic animals. These scenes may be inspired by the Book of the Montería, written by Alfonso XI, and the Trojan Chronicle. This chronicle was commissioned by Alfonso XI and carried out by the scribe and miniaturist Nicolás González. Gonzalez finished it in December 1350, when Alfonso XI had already been succeeded by Peter I.

Philip II Roof Hall
It is accessed through an entrance in the Ambassadors Hall. That entrance is known as the Pavones arch, for having bird decoration. It is a rectangular room with a mullion that opens onto the Prince’s garden.

Second floor
The second floor of the Mudéjar palace was built in the 14th century by Pedro I, although it was renovated by the Catholic Kings and in the 19th century.

It is known as the Royal High room. There are various rooms for the use of monarchs. In the room that served as a dining room in the 19th century there is a painting by Murillo, El milagro de san Francisco Solano y el toro.

Among these rooms located on the upper floor of the palace, the Oratory of the Catholic Monarchs stands out, where there is the altar and tile altarpiece of The Visitation of the Virgin made in 1504 by the Italian ceramist Francisco Niculoso Pisano.
Gothic Palace
Alfonso X ruled from 1252 to 1284. In the 13th century, Gothic was a common architectural style in Spain. King Alfonso built his Gothic palace next to the patio of the Cruise.

The first news of works in the period of King Alfonso date from March 22, 1254, when he ordered a duct to be made to carry water from the Caños de Carmona aqueduct to the interior of the Alcázar.

The Gothic palace of the Alcázar was renovated by Carlos I, although the Gothic structure on the ground floor was preserved. The baseboards of the walls are decorated with tiles made by Christopher Augustus between 1577 and 1578, during the reign of Felipe II.

Chapel
Probably, here was the chapel of San Clemente, created in 1271. Today it is presided over by an altarpiece of the Virgen de la Antigua, made in the 18th century by Diego de Castillejo and containing an anonymous copy of the one existing in the cathedral of Seville.

Great Hall
The Great Hall, also known as the Vaults room or Party room, has four twills commissioned by Alfonso XIII to the painter Gustavo Bacarisas for the Royal pavilion of the Ibero – American Exposition of 1929. The twill paintings are related to the Columbian navigation.

Next to it is a smaller room, known as the Cantarera room, which since 2015 has been used for temporary exhibitions.

Tapestry Hall
It was totally rebuilt in the 18th century. The façade of this room is the southern façade of the Crucero patio.

It is decorated with six tapestries from the conquest of Tunis by Charles I, made in the 1730s. In the 16th century, a series of Flemish tapestries were made in Willem de Pannemaker’s workshop on the conquest of Tunis by Charles I with drawn cardboard. by Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen (who had been present at that event as a Court painter) and Pieter Coecke van Aelst. In the 18th century, Zenón de Somodevilla y Bengoechea, Marquis of La Ensenada, planned the creation of new tapestries to avoid wear and tear caused by the continued use of Flemish tapestries in the Madrid palace. In 1732 the Royal Tapestry Factory commissionedJacobo Vandergoten the Younger making these tapestries. He carried out this work with the supervision of Andrea Procaccini and his disciple Domenico Maria Sani. They were made with traces of Jaime Alemán, who was supervised by Procaccini. Of the 10 tapestries produced in the 1730s, six are in this room in the Alcázar of Seville and the other four are in Madrid. Those found in the Alcázar of Seville are: The map, Toma de La Goleta, Toma de Tunis, The army camped in Rada and La Goleta re-boarding.

Gardens
The gardens are a fundamental element of the Alcázar They are the oldest in the city and since their creation they have undergone major alterations that have transformed their original layout. In the late Middle Ages, it had set up an Alcázar with buildings from different periods, small landscaped courtyards and large orchards. They were reformed in the 16th century and at the beginning of the 17th century, preserving as a Muslim heritage the concept of compartmentalized gardens without any link between them, as well as the usual practice of low fountains, tiles and orange trees.

Leaving the halls of the Gothic palace, one enters the garden known as China. The beds are separated with myrtle hedges. A fake grapefruit is planted in them. This garden was separated from the Mercury pond area in the 16th century, during the reign of Felipe II.

Pond of Mercury
The Mercury pond is likely to have been built in the Arab period as a storage and regulation element for the water supply of the entire citadel.

In the center of this pond there is a 1576 bronze statue of the Greek god Mercury, designed by Diego de Pesquera and cast by Bartolomé Morel. By the same authors are the railing that surrounds the pond, the figures of lions holding shields at its angles and the 18 balls with pyramidal spikes that surround the pond.

Grutesco Gallery
Behind the Mercury pond there is a 160-meter-long wall that runs in a northwest-southeast direction through the gardens and that compartmentalizes the green area into two distinct areas: on one side the primitive gardens and on the other, the old area of orchards that was also converted into gardens in the late nineteenth century, which abound with orange and lemon trees.

The origin of this construction is found in an old Almohad wall canvas from the 12th century, which served as a military defense and against the flooding of the Tagarete River. In 1612, the architect Vermondo Resta transformed the wall into the current Grutescos Gallery decorated on one of the faces of the wall. The ornamentation basically consisted of covering the walls with courses of different stones, plastering and painting between the stones, with imitations of marbles and frescoes by Diego Esquivel of classic mythological scenes. The transformations went as far as the 19th century, when this area acquired the appearance it currently has. This wall also has an upper gallery that can be visited since it has a splendid view.

Dance Garden
Going down some stairs, next to the pond of Mercury, is the garden of the Dance. This garden was made in the 1570s. Through a passage you can access the María Padilla baths, which are vaulted passages from the 12th century.

The name is due to the fact that in the 16th century there were two statues in the two columns at entrance that represented a satyr and a dancing nymph. These statues were last photographed by Jean Laurent in the 19th century, but are currently missing.

In the center there is a low fountain from the 16th century.

Trojan garden
It is a landscaped mannerist courtyard. On the south side there is a gallery with semicircular arches and grotesque details on the columns that was made by Vermondo Resta in 1606.

On the first floor on the opposite side there is a gallery with semicircular arches and Doric marble columns made by Lorenzo de Oviedo in the second half of the 16th century. There was a labyrinth here, but it was removed and a new floor was laid in 1599. From this point on it was no longer called the Labyrinth garden and became known as “Trojan”.

In the center is a fountain with a marble cup. The fountain was placed between 1675 and 1759.

Galley Garden
It is connected to the Troy garden by a semicircular arch and also by a staircase with a room in the palace of Pedro I. It has four flowerbeds with diverse vegetation. There is a marble column with an inscription in homage to Al-Motamid.

Flower garden
In the center there is a small rectangular pond. There are the remains of a small grotto built in the late sixteenth century and which today houses a bust of Carlos I.

Prince’s Garden
Next to the Flower Garden is the Prince’s Garden. Its name comes because it can be accessed from the Prince’s room, where Prince John was born in the 15th century. The façade in the background is the work of Lorenzo de Oviedo in the 16th century. In it there is a ground floor with a gallery with marble columns that support semicircular arches. Above is a first floor with windows and, above this, a second floor with another row of columns and semicircular arches. It is a mannerist architecture.

The garden is divided into four by hedges and has a fountain in its center.

Garden of the Ladies
It was made in 1526, on the occasion of the wedding of Carlos I and Isabel de Portugal. It was expanded in the 17th century in the direction of the old orchard of the Alcoba, having its limit in the Grutesco del Vermondo gallery Subtraction. In the 18th century, the Spanish heraldic shields were made here with box hedges. Today it is structured in eight quadrants delimited with myrtle and bonnet hedges. In the center is an 18th century marble fountain with a bronze statue of Neptune. On the wall is a 17th century hydraulic organ.

Carlos V Pavilion
The pavilion of Carlos V was built between 1543 and 1546 by Juan Fernández. It is in Mudejar style. It has a square plan. Inside there is a hemispherical vault. All its walls, both interior and exterior, as well as its benches, are covered with 16th century tiles made by Juan Polido and his father Diego Polido. The exterior is surrounded by four arcaded galleries with semicircular arches supported on marble columns.

Arbor of the Lion
Diego Martín de Orejuela built two gazebos in the 17th century. These were the Ochavado gazebo, now disappeared, and the Lion gazebo, which is preserved. The Lion’s gazebo was built between 1644 and 1645. There is a room with a square floor plan which is accessed by a semi-circular arch. On the three remaining flanks there are windows inserted in ornacinas. This room is covered by a tiled dome on the outside. In front is a fountain with a lion, of unknown provenance.

English garden
This area has been located within the walls of the Alcázar since the Almohad expansion of the 12th century that was made in the direction of the current San Fernando street. Until the 20th century, this area had remained an agrarian space, of medieval origin, known as the Alcove orchard. The current space, which imitates the style of the English gardens, is from a 1927 reform.

Garden of the Marquis de la Vega-Inclán
From the China garden you can access the Marqués de la Vega-Inclán garden. The entrance to the China Garden is the 15th century Marchena Gate, moved to this place in 1913 by the then curator of the Alcázar, the Marquis de la Vega-Inclán. This gothic cover was acquired by Alfonso XIII in an auction of goods from the Casa de Osuna and came from an abandoned palace of the Dukes of Arcos in the town of Marchena.

This entire garden was created in the early 20th century. It was the old garden of the Retiro, which extended to the nearby Paseo de Catalina de Ribera. Today it is a garden of parallel and perpendicular streets decorated with various plant species and fountains.

Garden of the Poets
It was made between 1956 and 1958 by the then conservative, Joaquín Romero Murube. It has two large ponds and typologically recreates the Sevillian garden, a synthesis of Islamic, Renaissance and romantic influences.
Banderas stop and patio
In the Banderas courtyard is the door to the Apeadero del Alcázar. It is a rectangular hall with columns. The Halt was made in the 17th century by Felipe III. It was designed by the architect Vermondo Resta and made by the bricklayer Pedro Martín, the carpenter Alonso Durán and the stonemason Diego de Carballo in 1609. The cover, in a mannerist style, was designed by Vermondo Resta and made by Diego de Carballo in 1607. Felipe V located the Royal Armory here. For this, the room was renovated by Ignacio de Sala and Juan Vergel in 1729. A royal shield was added to the cover.

In the paint
Joaquín Domínguez Bécquer lived for years in a house in the courtyard of Banderas. He had his painting workshop in the Apeadero and lived in a house in the Banderas courtyard. He worked as a restorer in the Alcázar and was a house painter of the Royal House.

In 1851 Alfred Dehodencq painted A Gypsy Dance in the Alcázar Gardens, in front of the Carlos V Pavilion, which is located in the Thyssen Museum in Malaga. In 1868 Raimundo Madrazo painted Carlos V’s Pavilion in the Alcázar de Seville. This painting is in the Prado Museum in Madrid. In 1872 Manuel Wssel de Guimbarda painted the work Scene manners in the Alcázar of Seville, which is in the Thyssen Museum in Malaga. Around 1880 Emilio Sánchez Perrier painted his painting Jardines del Alcázar in Seville.

Joaquín Sorolla painted various paintings in the gardens of the Alcázar. In 1908 he painted the painting Palacio de Carlos V, Alcázar de Sevilla (found in a private collection). In 1910 he painted La alberca, Old garden of the Alcázar de Sevilla, Rincón de grotesque of the Alcázar of Seville, and Patio del rey don Pedro, which are in the Sorolla Museum in Madrid, and Jardines del Alcázar which is located in the Getty Center of Los Angeles.

Gustavo Bacarisas painted a picture of the Troy garden at the beginning of the 20th century. He also painted several pictures in the gardens of the Alcázar Manuel García Rodríguez. Between 1920 and 1925 Manuel García painted Jardines del Alcázar, Seville (where the door of Marchena appears), which is kept in the Thyssen Museum in Malaga.