Real Alcázar of Seville

Why go

The Real Alcázar is a palace complex with gardens in Seville, run by the Patronato del Real Alcázar y de la Casa Consistorial de Sevilla, whose governing council is chaired, under its statutes, by the mayor of Seville. Its history page traces the complex to 913, when the caliph of Córdoba Abd al-Rahman III ordered a new seat of government, the Dar al-Imara, on the city's southern flank, and says the Castilian conquest of 1248-49 gave it the role it still has as a seat of the Crown and of the city's municipal power; the site's home and institution pages instead speak of a history from the 11th century. The Alcázar's visit page says tickets are sold online and at the ticket office in the Patio de Banderas, where payment is by credit card only, and lists entry to the Cuarto Real Alto separately from general entry. The same page says tickets are not refunded except in listed cases, and that the occasional closure of some spaces for maintenance, urgent needs or weather alerts brings no discount or refund. According to Seville Cathedral's site, UNESCO inscribed the cathedral, the Alcázar and the Archive of the Indies together as one World Heritage property in 1987; this record is the Alcázar alone.