Category Archives: Andalusia / Andalucía

Metropol Parasol (Las setas) / The mushrooms square (Seville)

Emblematic buildings, Gastronomy, Seville / Sevilla

seville mushrooms

Metropol Parasol is the official name of this construction placed in Plaza de la Encarnación, near the city centre of Sevilla. Popularly, the structure is known as “Setas de la Encarnación” because of its similarity to a big-scale mushrooms.

The construction consists in a group of six wooden structures (mushrooms) which covers the square. Inside it, there are some different levels in where you can find a roman museum (Antiquarium), a market and two terraces. Also, all of this is surrounded by restaurants, benches and other places to rest and to enjoy the square.
Metropol Parasol was finished in 2011 and cost 86 million euros. It has received a lot of complaints about its expensive price and because its architecture doesn’t fit with the traditional buildings of the area. However, to visit the mushrooms is a unique experience.

If you have the opportunity to visit Seville and you have enough time, our recommendation is to visit this place and to dinner in the square. Surely, you will feel the sensation of being a smurf in the middle of an urban jungle 🙂

 

What to do in Metropol Parasol (Seville)

– To go to the terrace of the upper levels and see the whole city.

– To have a lunch in the restaurants of the area.

– To visit the museum in the underground level of Metropol Parasol.

– If you are young, to go party in the pubs and discothèques that you can find near the square (at 5 minutes on foot).

 

 

More places to visit in Seville

– Plaza de España: It is located in the middle of Maria Luisa Park, in the city center. The square has a fountain in the middle, rounded for a small lake and a building behind it that gives a traditional style to all the place.

– Santa Maria Cathedral and La Giralda: Situated in the heart of Seville, near Guadaquivil river, the Gothic Santa María Cathedral in Seville is the largest Cathedral in Spain, and the largest Gothic Christian Cathedral in the world. In fact, the imposing Cathedral measures 116 metres in length and 76 metres in width, being together with the Zaragoza and the Toledo Cathedrals the three unique Gothic Cathedrals with five naves in Spain.

– Torre del Oro: This ancient tower is by the river, near to San Telmo Bridge. The first part of its structure was constructed in the 13th century when the Muslims lived in Andalusia, one century later it was improved and finished by Pedro I.

– Plaza Nueva: There is the Seville’s Town hall.

– Plaza de toros de la Maestranza.

– Archeological Museum and Arts Museum of Seville: Both of them are placed in Maria Luisa Park.

– Canal de Alfonso XIII: This watercourse passes just alongside Maria Luisa Park.

Plaza de España / Spain Square (Seville)

Seville / Sevilla, Streets and monuments

spain square

Plaza de España (Spain Square) is one of the places that you must visit when visiting Andalusia. Although most of cities in Spain have a square called “Plaza España” (it’s like Gran Via or Plaza Mayor, all cities have one of them) this one is, surely, the most impressive.

Inspain square seville Seville, Plaza de España is located in the middle of Maria Luisa Park, in the city center. The square has a fountain in the middle, rounded for a small lake and a building behind it that gives a traditional style to all the place.

The main building was built in 1929 for the Iberoamerican Exposition of Seville. It has a semicircular shape, with a small lake in its perimeter where people can go boating. You can visit the building for free, rent a boat or walk through the park. As a curiosity, in the base of the building you will find 48 stands, each one with a picture of all the provinces of Spain.

 

What to do in Plaza de España (Seville)

– plaza españa sevillaTo rent a boat by the lake.
– To visit the building and the regional stands.
– To walk through Maria Luisa Park.
– To drink something fresh and refresh yourself in the fountain. (Seville is very hot in Summer!)

Our recommendation is to spend between one and three days visiting Seville. The most common is to visit Maria Luisa Park and Plaza España in two hours (aprox.) and then visit the same day the rest of the city center. For example, you can do it the first day and, the second day you will have time visit other places like monuments, museums, cathedrals, restaurants…

 

plaza españa panoramica

 

 

Places to visit in Seville near Plaza España

– Santa Maria Cathedral and La Giralda: Situated in the heart of Seville, near Guadaquivil river, the Gothic Santa María Cathedral in Seville is the largest Cathedral in Spain, and the largest Gothic Christian Cathedral in the world. In fact, the imposing Cathedral measures 116 metres in length and 76 metres in width, being together with the Zaragoza and the Toledo Cathedrals the three unique Gothic Cathedrals with five naves in Spain.

– Torre del Oro: This ancient tower is by the river, near to San Telmo Bridge. The first part of its structure was constructed in the 13th century when the Muslims lived in Andalusia, one century later it was improved and finished by Pedro I.

– Plaza Nueva: There is the Seville’s Town hall.

– Plaza de toros de la Maestranza.

– Archeological Museum and Arts Museum of Seville: Both of them are placed on Maria Luisa Park.

– Canal de Alfonso XIII: This watercourse passes just alongside Maria Luisa Park.