The Parque Maria Luisa in Seville

Having done the tourist walking around this wonderful Spanish city, my senses were screaming for something more restful such as a stroll through the gardens behind the Palacio de San Telmo. The Parque Maria Luisa.  The palace once belonged to this princess who, in 1893, donated the land for the park.

Most of the buildings were a part of The Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 which was held here and some of the extraordinary buildings represented various Latin American countries.

Nowadays they are put to other uses.  For example, the tourist office is in a tan and cream striped fort called the Queen's Sewing Box. It was once the Princess's garden lodge where she spent a lot of time. Sewing, one presumes.

The Peruvian Pavilion is modelled on the Archbishop's Palace in Lima. The Seville pavilion is now a theatre and casino with wonderful apple green, gold and cream interior decor and a gorgeous mosaic roof. Then there are the buildings of Uruguay, Chile and Argentina, which together form the Seville School of Dance.

There is a wonderful museum in Plaza de America. The Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares.  For anyone who is interested in Andalucia this is a must housing as it does an exhibition of the arts and traditions of the area.  There is the history of azulejos (ceramic tiles), and displays of costumes and musical instruments. The building is a glorious creamy structure called the Mudejar (Mohammedan) Pavilion. Green tiled roofs, tiled arches, towers and balconies.  Very picture postcard.

Opposite is the Archaeological Museum in all its neo-Renaissance splendour.

The gardens themselves are a variety of formal and natural with statues, fountains, pools and even a waterfall.  I fell in love with some of the wonderful ceramics which include everything from benches on which to relax to the playful – and colourful - ducks and frogs in the pool around the base of a fountain.

The piece de resistance in the park has to be Plaza de Espana.  As you would expect from the host country, the grandest building of the lot.

The square is, in places, like a huge chess board with a fabulous fountain in the centre. The building is crescent-shaped, curving round as if to protect the square. And all around is a stream edged with the most fantastic balustrade you have ever seen - blue, yellow and white azulejos. You can either stroll across the square to the main entrance or take a rowing boat round to it.

 

The entrance is fabulous. Across an arched bridge over the stream and into a colonnade of white pillars. And, of course, more azulejos to admire.  All around the building are arches and at either end towers that reach into the sky with tiled domes, looking like elaborate minarets. 

Totally breathtaking.