History of the Royal Alcázar

On 11 December 1987 the Royal Alcázar was declared a World Heritage Site. The palatine fortress, built by the Muslims to control the Guadalquivir, had been a royal residence since the 12th century. Under Peter I the Mudéjar palace was built and, although the decoration of the rooms, the fountains and the pavilions changed over the centuries, the original layout underwent no substantial changes. Today it is the oldest European royal palace still in use.

Roman and Visigothic origins

The site was first occupied in Roman times: remains have been found of a 1st-century BC building with walls up to 3 metres high that may have been part of harbour warehouses, given how close it was to the port. It was altered at the end of the 1st century BC until it was destroyed and replaced by a new building, begun in the 4th century AD, which may have been an early Christian basilica, that of Saint Vincent.

After the fall of the Roman world, the Visigoths occupied the peninsula; archaeological remains were found in the Alcázar itself, in the so-called English Garden. For four centuries, from the 6th to the 10th, the site was probably abandoned because of the river’s floods.

The Dar al-Imara and the palace of Al-Mutamid

In the Hispano-Muslim period, in the 10th century, Abd al-Rahman III ordered the building of the Dar al-Imara, the Governor’s Palace, following the design of Abdallah ben Sinan around 913-914. It had a square plan, and the wall from that Caliphal period is the one that today surrounds the Patio de Banderas. Its parade ground coincides with today’s Patio de Banderas, where remains have been found of the old basilica of Saint Vincent the Martyr, burial place of Saint Isidore.

The palace of Al-Mutamid dates from the 11th century and was found after almost ten centuries hidden among the walls of the houses of the Patio de Banderas. In 2014 archaeologists realised that the oldest remains of the Alcázar lay there, and carbon-14 tests confirmed that the remains in house number 8, next to the Palacio del Yeso, are the residence of Al-Mutamid. Its main gate stood where the Mañara or Plata arch is today; the domestic quarters coincided with today’s Patio del Crucero, and the throne room with the site of the Salón de Embajadores in Peter I’s palace.

The Almohads

The Almohads made Seville the capital of their empire, and the walled precinct reached its largest extent, with a large orchard, stretching south as far as today’s Calle San Fernando and west to the river. The palace buildings were arranged around different courtyards: the Palacio del Yeso was built over the Dar al-Imara, around the courtyard of the same name, and a large courtyard stood where the María de Padilla courtyard is today. In the domestic area of the old Qasr al-Mubarak they built the Patio del Crucero, now within the Casa de la Contratación.

Under the caliphate of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur (1184-1199) new buildings were raised to house the caliph and his court. The Patio del Yeso is the benchmark of the Almohad Alcázar: its gallery of lobed arches with sebka tracery is the most outstanding Almohad example in the complex.

Alfonso X and Alfonso XI

After the Christian conquest, Alfonso X settled in the Alcázar with his court and began a new Gothic building that altered the Almohad structure. His palace had four halls with Gothic windows and a portico facing the old Almohad crossing courtyard, which was remodelled by reinforcing the vaults of the lower level, where the Baths of Doña María de Padilla remained. Four towers with spiral staircases were built at the corners, giving the complex the name Palacio del Caracol (Palace of the Spiral).

In the early 14th century Alfonso XI ordered the construction of the Hall of Justice, or Council Hall, over Almohad buildings: a square room with a Mudéjar wooden ceiling and walls decorated with ataurique plant motifs and plaster coats of arms.

The Mudéjar palace of Peter I

Under Peter I the Alcázar regained its splendour. His Mudéjar palace, a clear example of this style in art history, was built in just ten years, between 1356 and 1366, by master builders from Toledo, Granada and Seville. It was the king’s private residence, in contrast to the public character of the Gothic Palace. Rectangular in plan, its rooms are arranged around two courtyards: the Patio de las Doncellas (Courtyard of the Maidens), with the most ceremonial rooms, and the Patio de las Muñecas (Courtyard of the Dolls), centre of the private quarters. The Patio de la Montería was the nerve centre of the complex and preserves one of its most significant features: the great monumental façade.

The façade of King Don Pedro

It is divided into two levels. On the lower level, at the sides, there are arcades that probably continued along the other three sides of the courtyard; above them are seven round arches, a wider and taller central one and three smaller ones on each side. In the centre opens the monumental doorway, divided into three vertical sections and into two levels by an impost: in the centre, the entrance door with a voussoired lintel and, on either side, multifoil arches on marble columns with sebka decoration.

The Patio de las Doncellas

A jewel of Sevillian Mudéjar, it is rectangular in plan, with a portico of multifoil arches on paired columns and a sunken garden divided by a long pool that ends in a T shape. In the late 16th century the pool and the garden were covered with marble slabs and a small fountain was placed in the centre; the courtyard kept that appearance until its original structure was uncovered in 2002.

From the Catholic Monarchs to the Bourbons

The Catholic Monarchs adapted part of the upper floor of Peter I’s palace for winter use and, after the discovery of America, ordered the building of the Casa de la Contratación (House of Trade, 1503) over the remains of the Al-Mubarak palace. Many expeditions to the Americas were organised from here, among them Magellan and Elcano’s circumnavigation of the globe, and it was the hub of trade with the new territories.

Charles V introduced the Renaissance style: he remodelled above all the upper floor, reshaped the Patio de las Doncellas, reformed the gardens and built the Alcoba or Charles V pavilion. Philip II continued the work on ceilings, coffered ceilings and columns, decorated the Gothic Palace and created the western arcade of the Patio de la Montería. His son and grandson commissioned the Italian architect Vermondo Resta to draw up a remodelling plan in a classicist Mannerist style: the new gateway from the Patio de Banderas, the Apeadero, the completion of the Patio de la Montería, new stables and kitchens, the gardens with sculptures, grottoes, bridges and fountains, and the Galería del Grutesco, built over the old city wall.

Under Philip V the Alcázar was the seat of the court, and the Royal Armoury was built next to the Apeadero. The Lisbon earthquake (1755) caused damage in some areas. Under Charles III, when the Patio del Crucero was filled in, the baths were left underground, and the gallery between the Apeadero and the Patio de la Montería and a new portico for the Gothic Palace were built. Under Ferdinand VII the galleries of the Patio de las Doncellas were whitewashed, losing their original colour, and Isabella II granted its use to the Dukes of Montpensier, who placed reproductions of Alhambra plasterwork in the Patio de las Muñecas.

The parts of the Alcázar