María Luisa Park

You are entering María Luisa Park, the great green lung of Sevilla. The land was originally part of the gardens of the Palace of San Telmo, residence of the Dukes of Montpensier. In 1893, the Infanta María Luisa Fernanda de Borbón donated this estate to the city, and it has carried her name ever since. The park as you see it today was redesigned for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition by the French landscape architect Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier. He shaped it with a Mediterranean mind and an Andalusian heart: glorietas with tiled benches, hidden fountains, palms, ponds, orange trees, jacarandas that turn purple in May and, above all, shade. Walk without hurry. You will find glorietas dedicated to poets like Bécquer, the Quintero brothers or Cervantes, all decorated with Triana ceramics. You will reach the Plaza de América, with the Archaeological Museum and the Museum of Folk Arts and Customs, both 1929 buildings. Pigeons gather there and, sometimes, peacocks too. Further on, Plaza de España welcomes you with its great brick-and-tile semicircle, four bridges symbolising the ancient kingdoms and the blue ribbon of the canal where you can rent a rowing boat. Visitor tip: come early or at sunset; in summer the middle of the day is too hot. Rent a bike if you can, but stop often: the park's best postcards live in the small corners, not the great monuments.