Seville, capital of Andalusia, is one of the Spanish cities that has the greatest attraction in the field of tourism. If you have not yet had the opportunity to visit it, at we encourage you to do so. In addition, we also tell you curiosities of Seville so you can make the most of your trip to this incredible city.
Seville, the capital of Andalusia, in Spain, is a city that knew 6 cultures. Phoenicians, Tartessians, Romans, Visigoths, Arabs and Christians loved her. Currently, its metropolitan area has more than 1.6 million inhabitants and countless secrets to share.
25 curiosities about Seville that you don’t know
1. The first of the curiosities of Seville We dedicate it to an expression that you have surely said at some point: What is the origin of the expression «he who went to Seville lost his chair»? We use this saying to refer to the loss of possessions due to the abandonment of them. However, we do not know where the saying comes from. Well, to answer this question, we must go back to the reign of Henry IV of Castile, in the 15th century. In this context, a confrontation took place between two archbishops: Alonso de Fonseca the Elder and Alonso de Fonseca the Younger, uncle and nephew respectively.
The nephew resorted to his uncle’s help so that he could restore peace in Galicia while he replaced him in the archbishopric of Seville. Once the problem was resolved in Santiago de Compostela, the nephew refused to return the chair to his uncle. And although each eventually returned to their original archbishopric, the resolution of the political-family conflict required the intervention of Pope Pius II, the king himself, and the hanging of some supporters.
2. The Triana Bridge is one of the main jewels of Seville. Its official name is Isabel II Bridge, since it was built under her command, between 1845 and 1852. Its architects were the French Ferdinand Bernadet and Gustavo Steinacher.
These were based on the Carrousel Bridge, located in his native country, Paris. The Parisian bridge was built in 1834 over the Seine River (although it does not currently exist, it would be located near the Louvre museum) and was represented by Vincent Van Gogh in one of his impressionist paintings. In it you can see the enormous degree of similarity between both bridges.
3. In the Plaza de España we can find a commemorative statue of its creator, Aníbal González. This bronze statue keeps a secret that is only available to the most observant. And if we look closely, we can discover the footprints belonging to three small hands.
The explanation is found in the group that was in charge of its construction. The Seville City Council organized a competition to decide who would take care of the work. Two sculptors, Manuel Nieto and Guillero Plaza, and an architect, Manuel Osuna, were the winners. Coincidentally, the three became parents that same year, and decided to dedicate a small space of their work to their children.
4. The 48 ceramic benches represent 46 peninsular Spanish provinces (Seville has a different representation) plus two insular ones (the Canary Islands at that time was only a province) and they seem to be in alphabetical order, but if you check you will see that the one that would correspond to Navarra was replaced by Pamplona, altering that order.
5. The Golden Tower is hidden in the shields of Santander and Laredo (Cantabria). The Golden Tower of Seville can be seen on both shields. The reason is the representation of the reconquest of Seville during the reign of Ferdinand III, since Cantabrian sailors participated. The Tower appears tied to a chain and next to a boat, representing the chains that had to be broken to release the boat bridge that linked the city with Triana.
6. One of the curiosities of Seville They are the «Vítores» that appeared in the Cathedral and that can be considered the ancestors of graffiti. A few years ago, the cleaning of the walls of the Cathedral brought to light these reddish hieroglyphic graffiti, located on the wall facing Alemanes Street. In them, the repetition of a pattern was identified: a capital V accompanied by a te and an e, and a ce and an o could also be guessed. The cheer is a symbol of the Lower Roman Empire that was adopted by different Spanish universities (for example, they also appear in Salamaca). They serve as a commemorative event for some celebration or doctorate.
7. In the cathedral there is a door known as «the lizard door.» If you enter through it you can see a stuffed crocodile on the ceiling as well as other curious objects. The crocodile was a gift from the Sultan of Egypt who wanted the hand of Alfonso X’s daughter, Berenguela. It was not granted, but the animal remained in Seville and upon death it was stuffed and hung in the cathedral.
8. The popular Giralda, the cathedral’s bell tower, was built taking advantage of the old minaret from which the muezzin called Muslims to prayer since the city’s mosque had been there. The base, made of bricks, are the remains of the minaret and on top of it stood the baroque bell tower that was topped with the «giraldillo», reaching 104 meters that made it the tallest building in Spain for centuries.
9. The «giraldillo», the figure with the function of a weather vane that tops the tower known as «la Giralda» is actually the figure of a scantily clad woman with a shield and a palm in her hands.
10. The name Giralda was originally that of the statue and comes from the Italian term «girlala» which applies to something that rotates. From the figure it went to the entire tower and the sculpture became known as «giraldillo.»
11. Another of the curiosities of Seville which shows the amalgamation of cultures it represents, you can see it at the bottom of the Giralda. There, if you look closely, you can see among the stones at the base two funerary tombstones of Roman soldiers from the 2nd century that were used for its construction, possibly in Muslim times, and that must have been extracted from some building in ancient Hispalis (name Roman of Seville).
12. The Patio de los Naranjos is the other vestige that remained of the old mosque that was demolished to build the cathedral.
13. The Cathedral of Seville, the third largest temple in Christendom, is surrounded by chains. It is one of the curiosities of Seville that attract the most attention of tourists. That metal cord marks the change of jurisdiction between that of the city and that of the Church. If you were persecuted by justice and wanted to take refuge, you simply had to put yourself on the other side of the chains.
14. Seville is crossed by the Guadalquivir River. Years ago, remains of boats were discovered on dry land. Scholars believe that the explanation for this discovery is that the channel of the Guadalquivir was modified by the Visigoths, leaving it as we know it today.
15. One of the curiosities of Seville is that it was the most important port in Europe during the 16th century since it was the only one authorized to trade with the New World. The surprising thing about this fact is that the city has no sea.
16. In Seville there is the Archive of the Indies. It is said that if all your documents were placed side by side they would take up 9 kilometers!
17. One of the most emblematic places in the Andalusian capital is the María Luisa Park. Maybe you don’t know who this «María Luisa» was. This woman who gave its name to the park was María Luisa Fernanda de Borbón, duchess of Montpensier, married to Antonio de Orleans. The couple settled in Seville and the park lands formerly belonged to them.
18. Numerous films and television series have been filmed in Seville. The most famous have been «Star Wars episode II. The attack of the clones» which was filmed in the Plaza de España, the Kingdom of Dorne from the series «Game of Thrones» is almost entirely recreated between Seville and Osuna, «The Kingdom of Heaven» or «Lawrence itself of Arabia.
19. In the post about Barcelona, we talked about the columns hidden in a building in the Gothic Quarter, since Seville also has 3 impressive Roman columns hidden behind some modern buildings. Marbles are found on the street and are the remains of a Roman temple that was in that place.
20. In the crypt of the Church of the Annunciation in Seville is the Pantheon of Illustrious Sevillians where the remains of some of them rest, such as the Becquer brothers, Ponce de León or Francisco Duarte de Mendicoa.
21. If you want to eat at one of the curiosities of Sevilleyou just have to go to the Italian restaurant Restaurante San Marco Santa Cruz since its tables are installed in the middle of the remains of some Arab baths from the 12th century.
22. Seville is full of secret underground passages. Although practically none can be visited, the most important are: the Roman cistern under the Plaza de la Pescadería, the passage on Abades Street, the underground known as the Cueva de Hércules or the Casa de la Judería, which is currently a complex hotel that has 27 homes that communicate with each other through an underground tunnel.
23. If you travel to the city you will see that one of the most represented symbols throughout it is its motto: «NO8DO». This is one of the curiosities of Seville. The 8 (an eight) according to popular tradition represents a skein of wool. Knowing this, you can reread the inscription: NO MADEJA DO. That is, «he has not left me» and would refer to the fact that the city remained at Alfonso X’s side when he faced his son Sancho. However, some scholars point out other explanations such as that the eight is actually a knot, in Latin NODO, and represents the union between Alfonso X and the city.
24. In Seville there are magnificent palaces that you can visit. Some of them, such as the Casa de Pilatos or the Palacio de Lebrija, house impressive Roman remains such as mosaics and sculptures. The Alcázar, one of the city’s jewels, will begin work in 2018 to make the archaeological crypt visitable in its «Patio de Banderas.»
25. The last of our curiosities of Seville We will dedicate it to one of its most popular legends: that of Susona, «the beautiful female.» It is located in the current neighborhood of Santa Cruz, which was the Jewish quarter of Seville in the 14th century. There the Jews tried to take refuge from Christian persecution and also planned an uprising against them, with Diego Susón being one of its instigators. He was the father of a very beautiful girl, known as «the beautiful female.» The lady, in turn, had a secret affair with a renowned Christian gentleman, targeted for murder by her father. Upon discovering this fact, Susona, completely in love with her, went to warn her of the danger she was in. The knight, in response, alerted the city assistant and all the Jews were thrown into prison.
Guilt led Susona to become a nun. When she died, in her will she stipulated her will to place her head on the door of her house, as an example to the young people….