As we said in our Top Seville Sights post, this is not a city that wears you out with too much stuff to do. But there are a handful of interesting museums in Seville, plus one church and a factory, which we think are worth exploring.
Museo de las Bellas Artes
This is the most important of the museums in Seville, containing examples of all of the great Spanish artists (except Picasso). So it’s perfect for learning, or reacquainting yourself, with this tradition, which starts in the seventeenth century. Whether you go for Murillo, Velázquez, Zurbarán, Valdés Leal, or Roldan, you’ll find ’em here. And there’s an El Greco too (one of our favourites).
The space itself – the former Convento de la Merced Descalza – is beautiful in its own right, with the traditional courtyard and wide staircases we’ve come to know and love.
Palacio de las Dueñas
Our favourite of the many palaces-turned-museum in Seville, this stately home features lovely gardens with bouganvillea and orange trees. The rest is a delightful mélange: a few excellent paintings, some 18th century furniture, family collages, indifferent sculptures, bull’s heads, and riding equipment. It is exactly how we imagine our family home would look if we lived in a palace for three hundred years and couldn’t bear to throw anything away.
All kinds of famous people lived or stayed here, including Spanish poet Antonio Machado, a bunch of European royalty, and Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
Hospital de la Caridad
The history of this place makes it even more interesting, we think, than it would otherwise be. Manuel Mañara, a wealthy libertine of the 17th century who was the real-life inspiration for Don Juan, had second thoughts about his dissolute life. So he created a charity hospital for retirees and the infirm. More importantly, he filled it with pretty things for them to look at. You can see the pretty things, and so can the people who live there to this day. Highlights are the Murillos in the chapel (some copies, since the originals were taken by Napoleon), and the courtyard.
Basílica de Santa María de la Esperanza Macarena
There are a lot of churches in Seville, most of them lined with shiny gold objects. The shiniest of all, though, is a bit out of the way, in the north part of town. It contains the statue of La Macarena, who forms part of Seville’s Holy Week procession. Also in this church, you can see the devout line up to kiss the foot of the statue of Nuestro Padre Jesús de la Sentencia. And there’s an attendant standing there, to wipe it clean after each person.
Fábrica de Tabacos de Sevilla
This eighteenth-century building, now part of the University of Seville, was once a tobacco factory. At the time of its construction, it was the second-largest building in Spain. Which tells you everything you need to know about Spanish trade with the Americas. At first, cigar- and snuff-makers across Spain were men, but they worked less efficiently and caused more trouble. Which tells you everything you need to know about labour, and gender. So they replaced the men with women. And – speaking of musical inspiration – this factory provides the locale for Bizet’s Carmen.
So, as we said, there’s no reason to run about going to museums in Seville. But if you like art, music, or pretty places, give these a try!
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