Commissioned by King Alfonso XIII for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition, and intended to be the finest hotel in Europe.
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Overview
Nineteen Twenty-Eight
A hundred and fifty-one rooms and suites around a Mudéjar courtyard.
King Alfonso XIII wanted somewhere to put the guests of the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition, and the brief was explicit: the grandest hotel in Europe. The competition was won by the Sevillian architect José Espiau y Muñoz, who built it in the neo-Mudéjar manner — horseshoe arches, exposed brick, wrought iron, ornamental towers and ceramic finials — around a great central courtyard with a fountain and orange trees. The King opened it himself on 28 April 1928. The 151 rooms keep the marble and wood floors and the tiled bathrooms they were built with, and some have Juliet balconies or private terraces.
The courtyard is the building. Everything is arranged around the central patio — mosaics, marble, a fountain and orange trees. It is where the hotel is at its best, at dusk.
1928
Opened by the King
151
Rooms & Suites
1929
Built for the Exposition
1
Central Mudéjar Patio
Rooms
Marble, Wood and Tile
Original floors and tiled bathrooms, some rooms with balconies over the gardens.
Deluxe Room — Hotel Alfonso XIII
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Original MaterialsMarble and wood floors, and marble, copper and white-tiled bathrooms throughout.
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Three Decorative StylesRooms are finished in Castilian, Moorish or Andalusian registers.
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Balconies and TerracesSelected rooms carry Juliet balconies or private terraces over the gardens.
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Courtyard FacingThe best rooms look inward over the central patio and its orange trees.
Experiences
Seville, Out the Door
The Alcázar, the cathedral and the old Jewish quarter, all within a few minutes.
Palace
Real Alcázar
The royal palace next door, still in use, and the oldest of its kind in Europe.
Cathedral
Seville Cathedral
The largest Gothic cathedral in the world, and the Giralda tower above it.
Quarter
Santa Cruz
The old Jewish quarter, and the right place to get lost for an hour.
Square
Plaza de España
Built for the same 1929 Exposition as the hotel, and on the same scale.
Flamenco
A Tablao Evening
Flamenco in the city it came from, in rooms small enough to hear the feet.
River
The Guadalquivir
The river, the Torre del Oro, and Triana on the far bank.
Dining
Andalusian, in the Patio
Two dining rooms and a bar, and courtyard tables when the evening cools.
01San Fernando, the principal restaurant, for Andalusian cooking
02Ena, the tapas room, in a more contemporary register
03The Bar Americano, off the main hall
04Courtyard and garden tables through the warm months
The Central Patio — Hotel Alfonso XIII
Location
Beside the Alcázar
In the historic centre of Seville, next to the royal palace.
On calle San Fernando, immediately beside the Real Alcázar.
A few minutes on foot to the cathedral, the Giralda and Santa Cruz.
Close to the Plaza de España and the María Luisa park.
Roughly 20 minutes from Seville Airport; two and a half hours from Madrid by AVE.
Rail
Two and a half hours from Madrid by AVE, or fly into Seville.
Drive
Fifteen minutes from the station into the historic centre.
Arrive
Check in, then sit in the patio as the temperature drops.
Seville
A King’s Commission, Kept
Neo-Mudéjar arches, a fountain courtyard, and the Alcázar next door.