Tales of the Royal Alcázar of Seville

The Alcázar or Royal Palace of Seville has almost a millennium of history beginning in the Islamic period of the 11^th century and continuing to the present day, when it continues to fulfil its original role as a royal residence. Over the centuries buildings have been added in very different periods and styles, while the gardens have evolved to reflect the cultures and uses to which the palatine complex has been put by its varied occupants.

In 40 chapters, Tales of the Royal Alcázar of Seville evokes figures as diverse as the ‘Poet King’ Al Mutamid, who ended his life in North African exile, and Saint Ferdinand III who reconquered the city in 1248. During the reign of his son, Alfonso X ‘the Learned’, the palace became a centre for multicultural endeavours that laid the basis for the European Renaissance. In the 14^th century King Pedro of Castile spent much of his tempestuous reign in the Alcázar, which he rebuilt in the Mudéjar style with the aid of Islamic craftsmen from his own city of Toledo and from his vassal state of Granada.

Other key moments in the history of the palace are the visits of Ferdinand and Isabel the Catholic, and the marriage in 1526 of the Emperor Charles V to Isabel of Portugal. Philip II and Philip IV both spent important if brief moments in the Alcázar, and Spain’s first Bourbon monarch, Philip V, lived there for almost five years in the 18^th century. Later in that century the palace was frequented by eminent figures of the Enlightenment, while in the 19^th century it experienced the drama of invasions and even bombardment.

The 20^th century offered an opportunity for more peaceful events, further development of the gardens and renovation of the various palaces making up this most striking testimony to the multi-ethnic history of Spain and Europe.