Exclusive Seville

Fine Arts Museum

This is the second most important public art museum in Spain, and one of the main ones in Europe. Located in the old Carmelita de la Merced convent, Seville's Fine Arts Museum was originally founded as a Portrait Gallery in 1835, and it opened its doors to the public in 1841 with works obtained from closed convents and monasteries. It was designed by Fray Francisco Bartholomew de Roxas, who began its construction in 1729.
It holds exceptionally unique, internationally famous Spanish paintings. Among them the paintings of the Immaculate Virgin by Bartholomew Esteban Murillo, the works by the Court-appointed painter Diego de Velázquez, those by Francisco de Zurbarán and the Chiaroscuros by Valdés Leal are worthy of a special mention. The museum also contains a collection of works from between the 12th and 15th centuries and of Baroque and Romantic paintings (17th and 19th centuries) and a selection of sculptures by artists such as Martínez Montañés. There are also works by Spanish painters like Frutet and Alejo Fernández and Flemish artists such as Martin de Vos and Lucas Cranach. Of the works by Alonso Vázquez, the Last Supper (1580) - painted for the refectory of the la Cartuja Monastery - is outstanding. With respect to turn of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the works of Gustavo Bacarisas, Alfonso Grosso and Gonzalo from Bilbao can be singled out.


Contemporary Arts Museum

Since 1997, the Andalusian Centre of Contemporary Art has been located in the Santa María de las Cuevas de Sevilla Monastery in la Cartuja in Seville, on the fertile right bank of the Guadalquivir. Here, the remains of Christopher Columbus were held for thirty years, due to the fact that the admiral was an assiduous visitor to the Monastery, in whose inn he prepared his second voyage. Santa María de las Cuevas was also the spiritual retreat of Felipe II and was frequented by personages such as Arias Montano and Teresa de Jesús, as well as all of the Spanish kings and queens who passed through Seville. With respect to its art, the Monastery became rich with important collections by Alejo Fernández, Durero, Pace Gazini and Aprile de Carona; Montañés and Mesa; Murillo, Cano y Zurbarán; Pedro Duque y Roldán, etc. The Monastery was acquired in 1839 by the English retailer Charles Pickman, who would install a stoneware and Chinese porcelain factory in the convent in 1841.
In the museum, visitors can find works by Romero de Torres and Gustavo Bacarisas. There are Expressionist works by Ortega Muñoz, Cortijo, by Mateos, Barjola, Saura and Mensa and abstract paintings by Tapies, Cuixart, Violate, Zobel, Tarrats, Guerrero, Manrique and Millares. In terms of the contemporary Sevillian school, the museum houses works by Gordillo, Joaquín Sáenz, Francisco Molina, Pérez Eyrie, etc.

Popular Arts Museum

The building was originally constructed by Aníbal González for the Iberoamericana Exhibition of 1929. It was designed in 1910 and its construction was carried out between 1911 and 1916, although the complex that it sits inside in the Plaza de América is from 1913. It was called the Palacio de Arte Antiguo (Palace of Old Art) and nowadays it is known as the Mudéjar pavilion. The material used for its construction is the brick that can be seen, with applications of ceramic displaying decorative motifs. The building has four floors that occupy an area of almost 8 thousand square meters, distributed between facilities and internal services.
In 1972, it became a Museum, whose permanent collection occupies only the rooms found on the first floor and in the basement. The main floor is used for exhibiting pieces from their reserve collection or from other institutions. Their collections are essentially ethnographic and anthropological, spanning from the 17th to the 20th centuries, including pieces of great artistic value.

General Archive of the Indias

The Archives hold documents concerning the New World, from the moment of its discovery in 1492 up until the last century. Documents as peculiar as a samples of Columbus' signature, his diary, Don Miguel de Cervantes' application for a job there, the autographs of the main protagonists of the Colonization effort, the original of the Demarcation Bull of Alexander VI, maps of the main American cities, letters, maps, etc. The Archives constitute a research centre for American History, conserving 40,836 files and 6.782 pieces of maps and sketches, documentation that runs chronologically from 1408 to 1887. This special collection has incalculable historical value.

Carriages Museum

The Carriage Museum belonging to the Real Club de Enganches was created in 1999, and is housed in the former Convento de los Remedios, located in Plaza de Cuba (no street number). This building harboured the former Convent of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios (constructed in 1573 on the lot of a previous hermitage by the Barefoot Carmelites and founded in 1632), This monastic order remained in the building until the year 1810, when they abandoned it due to the War of Independence with France, returning a year later after which time they remained resident until the year 1835 when the religious order abandoned the premises for good. In July 2000, the Real Club de Enganches de Andalucia de Teba requested that the Museo de Carruajes de Sevilla be included in the Registry of Museums in Andalusia, under the Provincial Delegation of the Cultural Council of Seville. By order of 8 of April of 2003, its creation was authorized and it was added to the Registry of Museums in Andalusia.

Naval Museum

The Torre de Oro (golden tower), currently houses the Marine Museum, which is accessed through an opening with a small arch that is flanked by two Spanish cannons from the 17th century. In its interior, the museum contains items related to sailing (flags, anchors, maps, etc.), old navigation instruments and charts, pictures of illustrious personages, scale models of ships, views of the port and documents related to great marine discoveries.

Bullfighting museum

A door to the right of the Puerta del Principe leads to the Bullfighting Museum, opened in 1989, under stands 10 and 12. It is divided into four rooms that hold articles ranging from old bullfighting collections (from the 17th or 18th century) to pieces carved in bronze, bull heads, bullfighting suits, fighting tools such as capes, rapiers, banderillas, bullfighting posters, oil paintings and contemporary paintings, etc. The works by Mariano Benlliure and busts of legendary bullfighters like Curro Cúchares, Pepe-Hillo or Espartero are especially worthy of mention. One of the museum's curiosities is a purple cape painted by Picasso.

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Guide to Seville