Sevilla tiene un color especial. Los del Río, a Spanish group from Seville, sang this song in 1992 for the Universal Expo in 1992 and it became a non-official hymn of the city. It describes all the things that make you fall in love with this beautiful city: its people, its smell, its fairs, its traditions… and, as the title says, its color. The blue sky, the white walls, the albero… Seville has indeed a special color!
A few days ago I had the opportunity to spend some time in this great city in south Spain. Since I started taking photos, Seville has been a city I always wanted to visit. Not only because it is a beautiful city, but because I lived there a few years when I was a little girl. I have nice memories of this city and I wanted to revisit it and see it with new eyes and through my lens! The last time I visited Seville was about 10 years ago and I didn’t have a camera then… A wedding has been a great excuse to plan a 5 days trip to the capital of Andalusia.
We arrived in Seville in mid October. I knew the climate there is nothing like Switzerland. But instead of an autumn day, we were welcomed by a very summery day, with a clean blue sky and temperatures over 30ºC… It was really hot!! Coming from a country were trees were already golden, Seville was a bit of a shock. Everything was green, flowers were still blooming and a delicious jasmine and orange scent floated delicately in the air. And there were people everywhere! I found the city very changed since the last time I was there. Tourism industry has thrived in Seville and lots of new businesses have emerged to satisfy the tourists needs. Modern cafes and ice cream parlours and souvenir shops now coexist along with the most typical Sevillian bars. There were infinite queues to visit monuments that I remembered as being free. Segways and rental bikes and a modern tram now share the streets with the traditional horse carriages… And even at night, it was a almost impossible to find a quiet place to take photos…
But apart from that, I love Seville. Its historic centre is one of the largest and most beautiful in Europe. The narrow winding streets of Santa Cruz, the palaces with their beautifully decorated courtyards, the modest churches that hide impressive altarpieces and beautiful wooden sculptures of Jesus and the Virgin (part of the pasos that take part in the processions during Easter) are found together with majestic buildings like the Cathedral, the Alcázar, the city hall or the famous Plaza de España… I enjoyed wandering around Seville, finding again familiar places that brought me many memories from my early childhood and realizing that, just a few metres away from the busiest streets and touristic attractions it is still posible to find quiet places where to enjoy the magnificent gastronomy and the real atmosphere of Seville.
Here are some photos I took during the first days of this trip. I hope you like them!
Courtyard. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 24mm f/11 1/30sec. ISO100
Santa Cruz. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 65mm f/11 1/1000sec. ISO100
Autumn flowers. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 70mm f/2.8 1/2000sec. ISO100
Santa Cruz. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 59mm f/11 1/100sec. ISO100
Courtyard. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 24mm f/11 1/25sec. ISO100
Virgen del Rosario. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 70mm f/11 1/100sec. ISO100
Courtyard. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 24mm f/11 1/8sec. ISO100
Calle Sagasta. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 70mm f/11 1/20sec. ISO100
Antiques. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 44mm f/11 1/6sec. ISO640
Jardines de Murillo. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 24mm f/11 1/320sec. ISO200
Sunset in Plaza de España. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 24mm f/11 3.2sec. ISO100
Blue hour in Plaza de España. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 24mm f/11 6sec. ISO100
La Giralda. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 70mm f/6.3 1/25sec. ISO4000
Plaza Virgen de los Reyes. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 30mm f/6.3 1/30sec. ISO2500
Midnight music. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 45mm f/6.3 1/25sec. ISO2500
What a beautiful city, and captured so well through your lens. Your writing is now as great as your photography. Looking forward to seeing more!
Thanks a mil, Anne!! So happy you liked the post! Seville will have always a place in my hearth and I was so looking forward to making this trip!! It was the first time I visited the city with a camera and, despite of all the tourist industry and huge flocks of people that I found, I enjoyed the city so much!! It is simply gorgeous and it has still such an authentic soul!! You can’t say that about many cities these days…
Funny that you think my writing is better… after two years in Switzerland and now that I’m learning German, I sometimes feels I’m forgetting all my English!!! But it’s been 4 years since I started the blog. I feel a bit more confident… not so much more, but just enough to write more about what I was thinking or feeling when I pressed down the shutter of my camera, hehehe 🙂
Have a fantastic week, Anne!!
Your photos are wonderful! We walked many of the same streets. 🙂 🙂 Unfortunately Plaza de Espana was closed for a Green Day concert on All Saint’s Day but I had been before so not too disappointed.
Thanks a mil, Jo! So happy you like my photos!!!
I’m pretty sure we walked the same streets!! Probably more than just one time!! At least I did, hehehe. I kept coming back to the area of Santa Cruz, it’s so beautiful!! And the same with Plaza de España and Maria Luisa Park. My father used to work in the central part of the building of Plaza de España and my family used to spend a lot of time in the park when my siblings and I were very little, so I’m very fond with these parts of the city 🙂 And I was super lucky with the weather and no events during the time I was in Seville! So I could take a lot of photos 🙂
What a fabulous place to play 🙂 🙂
It was!! I only lived in Seville for a couple of years, but all I have from this city are good memories! And Parque de Maria Luisa is at the top of these nice memories 🙂
What a fabulous place to play 🙂 🙂
Magical, images, Mercedes! <3 Your talent is amazing. I visited Sevilla once, just for a day., and it was 46C that day – well the thermometer was probably in the sun, but still, quite hot.
Thanks a mil, Snow!! So happy you like the photos! We went there in October… it’s funny, I was so worried about wearing a coat for the weeding that weekend… And when we arrived, it felt like summer, with more than 30º!! I remember that Switzerland was already getting beautiful autumnal tones and Sevilla was still in summer, everything was green and flowers were blooming… What a contrast!!