On the Banks of the Guadalquivir, Seville

On the southwest side of Seville's old town, along the left bank of the Guadalquivir, here canalized (Canal de Alfonso XIII), is the Paseo de Cristóbal Colón, beginning at the Puente de Isabel II. On this stretch of the river, extending south along the Avenida de las Delicias, are the port installations.

Not far from the Paseo de Cristóbal Colón in Seville is the Plaza de Toros, with seating for 14,000 spectators, the largest and one of the most important bullrings in Spain. There is also a bullfighting museum.

Along the left bank of the Guadalquivir in Seville stands the La Maestranza cultural center which was built for the World Exhibition.

On the east side of a square half way along Seville's Paseo de Cristóbal Colón, between the Puente de Isabel II and the Puente San Telmo, stands the Hospital de la Caridad (1661-64), founded by Miguel de Mañara, who is supposed to have been the prototype of Don Juan. The church, entered from a pillared courtyard, has five azulejo pictures on the facade and contains pictures by Valdés Leal (just inside the entrance) and six paintings by Murillo in the aisles.

Just beyond the Hospital de Caridad, on the banks of the river, rises the hexagonal Torre del Oro (1220, with additions in 1760), originally a Moorish defensive tower clad with gold azulejos and later, in the reign of Pedro the Cruel, used as a treasury and a prison. It now houses the Maritime Museum of Seville.

In the Avenida de las Delicias in Seville, beyond the Puente San Telmo, is the Palacio de San Telmo, built in 1743 as a naval college and now a seminary for the training of priests (Universidad Pontificia), with a handsome Baroque doorway.

To the east of the Palacio de San Telmo in Seville, on Calle de San Fernando, is the former Fábrica de Tabacos, a Baroque building (1757) which is now occupied by University lecture rooms.

On the right bank of the Guadalquivir lies the Barrio de Triana, a working-class district which has been from time immemorial the potters' quarter of Seville, producing the best azulejos in the city. From here, near the Puente San Telmo, Magellan set out on his voyage round the world.