There are cities whose history is studied. Seville’s history is something you walk through.

The capital of the world when the world had only just discovered its size, the port of the Indies, a city of three cultures: everything that Seville has been is etched in stone, brick and tiles, and still stands, just a short walk away. This guide takes you on a tour of these buildings for what they are: chapters in a single story.

We read them from where we live, next to the Puerta de Jerez, guided by the conviction that underpins everything we do: a building steeped in history is not simply visited – it is listened to.

The Cathedral and the Giralda: ambition set in stone

When the town council decided to build the Cathedral of Santa María de la Sede on the site of the former main mosque, it set out its aim: to construct a cathedral such that those who saw it completed would think them mad. Five centuries later, it remains the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and a World Heritage Site. Inside lie the remains of Christopher Columbus, held aloft by four heralds, as if the city had not yet decided to let him rest.

The Giralda deserves a separate discussion. With an Almohad minaret forming its body and a Renaissance bell tower crowning it, it is a vertical summary of Seville’s history: two civilisations in a single building, neither of which has overshadowed the other. You ascend via ramps rather than stairs – designed so that the muezzin could ride up on horseback – and at the top awaits the best panoramic view of the city.

The Real Alcázar: a thousand years as an inhabited palace

The Real Alcázar is not a famous ruin but a functioning palace – the oldest in Europe still in use: the royal family stays there when they visit Seville. Its Mudejar courtyards, built by master builders working for a Christian king using the language of Al-Andalus art, and its gardens, where water has for centuries helped to temper the heat, warrant the longest visit in this guide. Tickets must be booked in advance; this is the only way to guarantee a morning visit.

Plaza de España: the embrace of 1929

For the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition, Aníbal González designed a gesture: a 200-metre semicircle of brick and ceramic that embraces those who enter. The Plaza de España is the culmination of Sevillian regionalism, the style that reinvented the local tradition of exposed brick and ceramic tiles, and one of the few places that surpasses its photographs. Its ceramic benches depict each Spanish province; its canal, with its rowing boats, has earned it the nickname ‘the Venice of Seville’.

Santa Cruz and the Archivo de Indias: the neighbourhood and memory

The Santa Cruz neighbourhood, the old Jewish quarter, is a monument without a ticket office: its heritage lies in the layout itself – narrow streets designed to provide shade, courtyards the size of a patio, whitewashed walls and orange trees. You explore it on foot without a map, which is exactly how it was intended.

Next to it, the General Archive of the Indies houses the written history of the Americas in its Renaissance hall: kilometres of files where the letters of Columbus, Magellan and Cervantes lie dormant. Together with the Cathedral and the Alcázar, it forms the complex designated a World Heritage Site – three adjoining buildings that encapsulate the century in which Seville was the capital of the known world.

The Torre del Oro and Triana: the river as both a boundary and a bridge

On the banks of the Guadalquivir, the Torre del Oro has watched over the river since the 13th century. Originally an Almohad defensive tower, it used to block the river crossing with a chain stretched across to the opposite bank; today it houses the Naval Museum and remains the most recognisable landmark on the riverbank.

Across the river, Triana is a monument in a different sense: an entire neighbourhood that is a living heritage site. Its pottery workshops have supplied glazed ceramics to half of Seville, its streets have nurtured much of flamenco, and its identity remains so distinct that the people of Triana talk of “going to Seville” when they cross the bridge.

The ones that hardly anyone sees, but which are well worth watching

Now that we’ve covered the essentials, it’s time for the side of Seville we love to recommend most. These are the visits we save for guests who ask, ‘What else is there?’, and each one has its own special moment.

The Casa de Pilatos is our first recommendation: the palace where Mudejar and Renaissance styles coexist in the city’s most serene courtyards, with only a fraction of the visitors found at the Alcázar. It’s best to go first thing in the morning, when the tiles are still quiet.

To reach the Palacio de las Dueñas, the Alba family home where Antonio Machado was born, one enters through the courtyards and leaves via his verses: few visits better capture that intimate yet stately side of Seville which the poet called “the courtyard where the lemon tree ripens”.

The Hospital de la Caridad is for those who are not afraid to look: the two paintings by Valdés Leal in its church, created to remind us that all glory comes to an end, remain among the most awe-inspiring sights to be seen in Seville. You leave feeling quite different from when you entered.

In the north of the city, we suggest a late afternoon in two parts: the Basilica of La Macarena, to gain an insight into a devotion that is a living part of the local culture here, and the section of Almohad city walls that still stands beside it, the last remaining vestige of the enclosure that surrounded the city for centuries.

And as a counterpoint, the Metropol Parasol, or ‘Las Setas’: the world’s largest wooden structure, standing in a 21st-century square. Our advice is to walk along its walkway at sunset, when the Giralda stands out against the sky and you realise that Seville continues to dare to shape its own era.

Living with our heritage

Our approach to the hospitality industry stems precisely from this: from the conviction that historic buildings are the best gateway to a city. Tayko Sevilla stands at the Puerta de Jerez, the gateway through which, for centuries, people entered Seville from the river, with the Cathedral, the Alcázar and Santa Cruz just a few minutes’ walk away. The landmarks featured in this guide aren’t just excursions from the hotel: they’re part of the neighbourhood.

Tayko Seville. The start of your story in the city.