Things to do in Seville

If your trip to Seville coincides with Easter, you are in for a treat as this is when the two most important calendar events in the city, the Holy Week celebrations and the ensuing ‘Feria de Abril’, take place. During Holy Week, the solemn processions of hooded, cloak-clad penitents following sumptuously jewelled statues of the Virgin are an amazing spectacle to behold. The dramatic splendour of Holy Week contrasts starkly with the unrivalled merriment of the ‘Feria de Abril’, held two weeks later, when ‘sevillanos’ indulge in a week of eating, drinking, flamenco-dancing, bullfighting and equestrian activities in the riverside area of Los Remedios.

A trip to Seville would hardly be complete without experiencing authentic flamenco in its alleged birthplace. The Flamenco Dance Museum provides interesting background information on this unique art form, before witnessing the real thing in the larger ‘tablaos’, the smaller ‘peñas’ or in the impromptu flamenco evenings that suddenly spring up in any one of the city’s bars.

The ‘Jueves Flamencos Cajasol’ provide organised flamenco evenings every Thursday (dates differ from year to year), while the autumn ‘Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla’ brings the best flamenco artists to the city for a month of intense premier ‘flamenco’ every two years.

Another of Seville’s large religious festivals, the Romería del Rocío’, takes place during late spring in neighbouring village of El Rocío. At Pentecost, the peaceful village is completely transformed as over a million pilgrims descend on its dusty streets to pay their respects to the ‘Virgen del Rocío’. Andalusian Spain is on show here in all its glory as the pilgrims don traditional Andalusian clothing and set out in oxen-pulled wagons or horseback on the journey that will take them to the Virgin. The religious solemnity of the occasion is naturally accompanied by a great deal of merry-making as singing, dancing, eating and abundant drinking liven up the make-shift camp sites.

The legacy left behind by Seville’s former invaders provides some interesting alternatives. The Roman ruins of Itálica, one of the first Roman settlements in Spain, are located some 9 kms north of Seville outside the village of Santiponce and contain impressive examples of mosaics and a well-preserved amphitheatre.

Alternatively, Seville’s rich Moorish legacy lives on in its fabulous ‘hammams’ (Moorish baths) where visitors can judge the sensuality and re-vitalising power of these baths, so revered by Arabs, for themselves.

In Seville, there is never a dull moment. Andalusian hospitality, fabulous gastronomy, historical and cultural wealth and that inimitable Andalusian zest for life will leave you reeling.