Visitors flock to the popular Barrio Santa Cruz in Seville, to experience the quarter’s characteristic narrow streets, its stately manors, its flower-studded courtyards, the murmur of its fountains, the scent of orange blossom,…and the enchantment and legends that surround it.  It is worth your time to take this tour calmly, lose yourself in its streets and plazas, and delight in any corner, shadow, aroma…

We begin our tour of the Barrio Santa Cruz in Plaza Virgen de los Reyes, formerly the Corral de los Olmos.  We recommend you stand on the corner of Calle Mateos Gago, where you will find the famed Restaurante El Giraldillo, a classic of Sevillian restaurants, and contemplate from its doorway the marvelous view the plaza affords, adorned in the center with an original fountain-streetlamp designed by Lafita and monumentally enclosed by the S.I. Catedral de Sevilla, la Giralda, the Palacio Arzobispal (Archbishop’s Palace), and the Convento de la Encarnación, a convent for Augustine nuns.

We enter the Barrio Santa Cruz along Calle Mateos Gago, a big tourist attraction with its souvenir shops, bars, and restaurants.  From there you can contemplate one of the best views of the Giralda.  We turn up Calle Rodrigo Caro, walk through the Plaza de la Alianza, formerly called Plaza del Pozo Seco, which borders one of the Alcázar’s walls, and arrive at the emblematic and oft-praised Plaza de Doña Elvira, formerly Corral de Comedias.  Here we find possibly the most photographed house in Barrio Santa Cruz, according to popular legend the birthplace of the mythical Doña Inés de Ulloa, the impossible love of Don Juan.

This house is the work of famous architect Don Juan Talavera, author of unique edifices in the typical Sevillian style.  Today marked number 6, it is now home to Restaurante Doña Elvira, a leader in Sevillian cuisine and obligatory stop for any visitor who wants to enjoy delicious food right in the Plaza de Doña Elvira beneath the scent of orange trees in bloom.

Continuing our tour, there are various streets that radiate out from the Plaza de Doña Elvira, all of them with names that reach out to tempt us:

Calle de la Gloria, Calle Vida, and Calle Susona, once known as Calle de la Muerte.

If we walk down the Calle Gloria (Glory Street), we arrive at the heart of the Barrio Santa Cruz, the Plaza de los Venerables, which takes its name from the old Hospital para Venerables Sacerdotes.  Founded in 1675 by the Canon of Seville’s Cathedral, Don Justino de Neve, it now serves as headquarters for the FOCUS Foundation, and offers a beautiful courtyard, with a stair-stepped sunken fountain, designed by the great baroque architect Leonardo de Figueroa.

The Plaza de los Venerables, always very lively and crowded during the day, was also, according to hearsay, the birthplace of Don Juan Tenorio.  The Sevillian manor house where the famous seducer might have been born now houses the Restaurante Santa Cruz, where you will be able to sample the most select and refined Andalusian cuisine from its extensive menu of dishes and characteristic tapas.

The house is open to visitors and has a lovely interior courtyard graced by marble columns and the joyful murmur of a fountain, in the very purest Sevillian style.  And do not miss its Salón Taurino (Bull Room), a miniature museum in itself.

The rest of the building houses Apartment-Suites for rent, offering the most demanding tourist a unique place to stay, with all the comforts and quality of service needed to guarantee an unforgettable experience.

From the Plaza de los Venerables we can continue along Calle Justino de Neve.  From this street’s casa nº 1, with a façade facing onto the plaza itself, Don Justino de Neve directed the building of the Hospital para Venerables Sacerdotes.  Today a branch of the well-known Restaurante Santa Cruz occupies the ground floor, and the second and third floors house exclusive Apartments. 

In this street we recommend you take a look at casa nº 4, an example of the characteristic Sevillian courtyard house, recently restored and typical of the quarter’s enchantment.

We arrive at Callejón del Agua (Water Alley), which runs alongside the Reales Alcázares’s wall and gardens.  In this street the most prominent house is the stately casa nº 2, with its columned courtyard studded with flowerpots, and a stone plaque on the façade in memory of Washington Irving.

If we turn left, we arrive at the Plaza de Alfaro, Plaza de Santa Cruz and Jardines de Murillo (Murillo Gardens).

In the Plaza de Santa Cruz, originally home to the church that gives the quarter its name, a plaque reminds us that here lie the remains of the famous painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and other Seville notables. 

A beautiful forged Cross presides over the center of the plaza, surrounded by a well-tended garden.

The labyrinthine streets transport us along Calle Mezquita to the Plaza de los Refinadores (Refiners’ Square), where a striking statue of Don Juan Tenorio is located. Following Calle Santa Teresa we arrive at the Convento Carmelita de Santa Teresa (Carmelite Convent of Saint Teresa), founded in the sixteenth century by the saint of Ávila.  Directly across from this is the Casa de Murillo.

We find ourselves once again on Callejón del Agua, and we turn onto the popular and poetic Calle de la Pimienta, where we recommend, among others, casa nº 6, a sample of the characteristic family courtyard house, recently remodeled and offering elegant apartments for rent.

Down Calle Pimienta, across a little street, we arrive at a tiny hidden plaza and Calle Susona, formerly known as Calle de la Muerte, or Death Street.  And arriving back at the Plaza de Doña Elvira or Callejón del Agua, from there passing along Calle Vida (Life Street) we can enter Callejón de la Judería (Jewry Alley), which takes us to the proud Patio de Banderas (Coutyard of Flags), today bounded by houses that surround the Palacio Real and its walls.

We come out at the Plaza del Triunfo, dominated by the monument to the Inmaculada Concepción de María (Mary’s Immaculate Conception), and we find the Palacio Real, where up to recently the Provincial Government was housed.  Also here is the Archivo de Indias (Archive of the Indies), formerly the Casa de la Lonja merchant’s exchange, a templete o triunfo erected in thanksgiving after the Lisbon earthquake of 1775, the Puerta del León (Lion’s Gate) entrance to the Reales Alcázares, and again the S. I. Catedral and Plaza Virgen de los Reyes, where our tour comes to an end.

We said at the beginning that to get a feel for the Barrio Santa Cruz it is necessary to lose yourself in its streets and plazas, breathe its aromas, live its history and legends on every corner…