Placa de Espana, Seville

The Plaza de Espana, located on the Maria Luisa Park's edge, was built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. It was designed by Aninbal Gonzalez, who combined a mix of 1920's Art Deco and Spanish Renaissance Revival, Spanish Baroque Revival and Neo-Mudejar styles.

The whole complex is a huge half-circle

 

the buildings are accessible by four bridges over the moat, which represent the ancient kingdoms of Spain. 

View of the moat and the whole square from the first floor

In the centre is the Vicente Traver fountain.

As I said in my post on Santa Cruz, I don't remember very much about our first trip to Seville, except for the very vivid and detailed memories of the religious processions during the Holy Week of Easter. 

What I do remember very well is one day when I had very bad period pains and, despite the pain killers, I could not do much. So, I convinced Ken to go for a walk and I stayed in our hotel room, which was in this area. When Ken came back he said, 'come on, I will take you on a boat ride, all you'll have to do is sit'. And that's what we did. I remember walking along one of the avenues in Parque Maria Luisa, then we came to the square, got in a boat and Ken rowed us around the moat. 

There is elaborate tile work all around the square, including around the moat

and on the ground.

We stepped on one of the bridges

and stopped to look: the next bridge with its elaborate ceramic tiling

the building ahead of us

looking closer

ducks in the water

as well as boats

In the colonade fronting the building there were some buskers at the other end of the bridge.

We decided to explore the tiled alcoves that were built under the colonade fronting the building, each representing a different province of Spain and a moment in its history. Today they are used by visitors to either sit and rest, or to take selfies.

The Barcelona alcove depicts Columbus being greeted by the Catholic Monarchs on his return from the Americas. 

He bows to the king and queen while the indigenous people that he enslaved and brought back with him from the Caribbean lay gifts at their feet.

The Madrid alcome depicts the city's resistance to Napolen's troops during the Peninsular War. The image reminded me of a painting by Goya.

Each alcove is flanked by a pair of covered bookshelves.

We looked at all the alcoves

and then started exploring the building itself

It's all so grand

Today the building has been renovated and adapted for use as offices for government agencies. 

We moved on to the first floor

Where we could get panoramic views of the plaza

but also of the building itself

looking down we could see the crowd around the buskers that we had seen earlier

We moved downstairs

through the plaza towards the fountain

past the man blowing bubbles

 

and into the Maria Luisa park for some shade and quiet.