Plaza de España, Seville, Spain
Plaza de España, Seville
Nigel Borrington
The Plaza De Espana is simply one of the most amazing locations to visit in Seville, the images here are taken from our visit at the end of last month (January 2017). It was late afternoon by the time we arrived, having already visited many of the cities great locations and the Plaza was the perfect way to end a great day.
Here are some basic details, including the buildings amazing history …
The Plaza de España
(“Spain Square”, in English) is a plaza in the Parque de María Luisa (Maria Luisa Park), in Seville, Spain, built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. It is a landmark example of the Regionalism Architecture, mixing elements of the Renaissance Revival and Moorish Revival (Neo-Mudéjar) styles of Spanish architecture.
The Plaza de España, designed by Aníbal González, was a principal building built on the Maria Luisa Park’s edge to showcase Spain’s industry and technology exhibits. González combined a mix of 1920s Art Deco and “mock Mudejar”, and Neo-Mudéjar styles. The Plaza de España complex is a huge half-circle with buildings continually running around the edge accessible over the moat by numerous bridges representing the four ancient kingdoms of Spain. In the center is the Vicente Traver fountain. By the walls of the Plaza are many tiled alcoves, each representing a different province of Spain.
Today the Plaza de España mainly consists of Government buildings. The central government departments, with sensitive adaptive redesign, are located within it. The Plaza’s tiled Alcoves of the Provinces are backdrops for visitors portrait photographs, taken in their own home province’s alcove. Towards the end of the park, the grandest mansions from the fair have been adapted as museums. The farthest contains the city’s archaeology collections. The main exhibits are Roman mosaics and artefacts from nearby Italica.
The Plaza de España has been used as a filming location, including scenes for the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia. The building was used as a location in the Star Wars movie series Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) — in which it featured in exterior shots of the City of Theed on the Planet Naboo. It also featured in the 2012 film The Dictator.
Gallery
Nigel Borrington 
I was there myself a couple of weeks ago. As you suggest, a great place to visit. We are are going back in a few weeks – our daughter is doing a 3 months internship there.
I don’t know if we’ll get time but I’d love a chance to wander around the old Expo site there.
February 22, 2017 at 11:47 pm
Oh boy, saw the shot of Granada’s alcove and instantly had to dig out my old photos from the 60’s to see which one I had photographed framed exactly the same way–of course it was in the very last of a huge bag of envelopes, and it was Málaga not Granada but at least we both chose a province in Andalucía!
February 23, 2017 at 2:47 pm
🙂 🙂 🙂
February 23, 2017 at 2:51 pm