The Plaza de Espana, Seville – The perfect place to ‘people watch’ and soak in a city

You don’t always have to go a long way back through many centuries to find a building of great style and grace and Seville’s Plaza de Espana is one of them.

Built as recently as 1929, the Plaza de Espana is a true credit to the incredible city of Seville. Tastefully built and designed, the Plaza was to be the city’s main showpieces when its turn came to host the Ibero American Exposition in 1929.

Situated on the edge of the Maria Luisa Park, the Plaza de Espana was designed by the renowned Spanish architect, Anibal Gonzalez. Part of the Plaza’s incredibility stems from its art deco style of the twenties combined with a ‘neo-Mudejar’ mode, which leans heavily on the style of the Moors, who were in this part of Spain for more than seven centuries.

The building within the Plaza forms a grand semi-circle and boasts magnificent sporadic towers. There is a huge central island surrounded by a moat containing a central fountain, which joins the Plaza de Espana via several ornate and beautiful bridges.

In fact so magnificent is Seville’s Plaza de Espana that it has been used in several big films, including Star Wars.

It is the sort of place where in high summer where one would happily take a picnic and spend an hour or two ‘people watching,’ as all the tourists stop by to ponder at this architectural marvel.

Seville on the whole is a splendid Andalucian city, which has many marvellous buildings that pre-date the Plaza de Espana by several centuries.

Although it has to be said that the Plaza is rivalled by little in terms of architectural splendid even in a city like Seville, which has some of the finest architectural splendour in Europe. One only hopes that the architects of today can learn from the likes of Senor Gonzalez.