Real Alcázar de Sevilla

Real Alcázar de Sevilla rises in Seville as a royal palace complex beside the Cathedral and General Archive of the Indies. Courtyards, gardens, towers, and decorated rooms bring together more than a thousand years of Islamic, Castilian, Gothic, Mudéjar, and Renaissance history.

An Umayyad fortified enclosure occupied this site in the early tenth century, before the Abbadids and Almohads expanded it with palaces, gardens, and defensive works. After the Castilian conquest in 1248, Alfonso the Tenth added a Gothic palace, while Pedro the First created the ornate Mudéjar palace of the 1360s. Its Patio de las Doncellas and domed Hall of the Ambassadors show that transformation, while the Patio del Yeso preserves an Almohad courtyard with a central pool and intricate arcades.

Tilework gives the interiors another distinctive layer: geometric, arabesque, floral, animal, and cherub designs cover majolica and arista ceramics. Above the Puerta del León, a tiled lion marks the entrance, which opens onto a courtyard retaining part of an Almohad defensive wall and three arches.