Plaza de Armas: a bus terminal, or train terminal or shopping mall?

Plaza de Armas - a train terminal that no longer exists, next to a bus terminal that did not exist before...

Ready to get confused over what exactly "Plaza de Armas" refers to in Seville? (N.B. All the place names mentioned below also appear in the Seville City Layout & Orientation post and the custom Google Map displayed there.)

Due to redevelopment, Plaza de Armas on the western edge of the Old Town is no longer a busy plaza - but the plaza still survives in its bleak modern form on the corner of the busy riverside thoroughfare, Calle Torneo, and Calle San Laureano (Calle San Laureano is the beginning of an end-to-end series of west-to-east streets that cuts Seville Old Town in half).

Seville's Plaza de Armas Railway Station used to be the biggest train station in Seville, being the terminus of train services from northern stations such as Madrid and Cordoba - hence it was also commonly known as Seville's Cordoba Station. The other major station was known as Seville's Cadiz Station (at San Bernardo, south-east of Seville's centre), receiving trains from Cadiz and the south.

Plaza de Armas Railway Station when it was still the biggest train station in Seville - in its earlier glory days. Image Credit: geografiadesevilla.wordpress.com

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Now a shopping & entertainment complex. Image Credit: Evaristo Rodriguez Mateo, in this 2008 photo of the old "Estacion de Cordoba" at Seville's Plaza de Armas, geo-mapped on Google's Panoramio.com

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With the World Expo 1992 held in Seville, a set of plans were made in the 1980's to build Spain's first high speed rail line which would be between Madrid and Seville, and to close the Cordoba Station, and to make a new main train station for Seville and the high speed trains in Santa Justa (not far outside Seville's Old Centre, to the east).

The Cadiz Station would be closed slightly later than the Cordoba Station, and a replacement San Bernardo Station would be placed underground together with a new underground connecting track linking the southern line to the new Santa Justa Station - thus southern and northern lines would now be directly linked by the underground connection. (The underground San Bernardo Station also became integrated with Seville's Metro service when that began in 2009.)

Together with these plans, the older smaller inter-regional bus station at Prado de San Sebastian (just next to and west of San Bernardo) would continue to serve destinations to the south and east, but be complemented with a new and larger bus station for the other routes including buses to Madrid, the Plaza de Armas Bus Station - built and opened to coincide with Expo 1992, next to (separated by the busy Calle Torneo) the old Plaza de Armas Railway Station.

Here is the functional-looking Plaza de Armas Bus Station in Sevilla, that was newly built in 1992. Image Credit: Ivan Fernandez, Estacion de Autobuses Plaza de Armas, geo-mapped on Google's Panoramio.com

The old Plaza de Armas Railway Station gained a new lease on life in 1999 as a shopping and entertainment center, and it now houses cinemas, bars, clubs, restaurants, boutiques and a supermarket (Centro Comercial Plaza de Armas).

So the present Plaza de Armas Station is an inter-regional bus station serving destinations to the north and west, and is Seville's newest and largest bus terminal; and it sits next to - across a busy road - the old Plaza de Armas Railway Station (which was also known as Seville's Cordoba Station)  - that used to be Seville's largest railway station, but is now a shining temple to modern consumerism; and what is left of the Plaza with the same name, is tucked away as an afterthought behind this renovated shopping mall. (Explore the surrounds on this Wikimapia Plaza de Armas map.)

This friendly baker deserves a special mention - just diagonally opposite the Plaza de Armas Bus Terminal, near Calle Arjona 5. Calle Arjona / Calle Torneo is a large thoroughfare with lots of fast moving vehicular traffic, so there isn't much foot traffic passing this panederia. But just order a drink and sit down, and the baker himself will slice open a fresh bread roll, then cut some slices of charcuterie meat of your choice to fill it - and there you have your quick snack or lunch for a price which can hardly be beat at any other kind of place. It's a no frills joint, that's fresh, cheap and clean; what more could you ask for? And the service is so friendly (he'll make you feel happy you came to Seville) that you don't need any Spanish to feed your hunger and have a short relaxing rest in this bright little shop.

The Ubiquitous Cafe Bars of Seville

Of course, cafes along the streets, sidewalks and plazas in Sevilla are probably as numerous as elsewhere in Spain.

Here you can have your coffee or beer or snack (and breakfast!),and relax and chat for a while.

Out of the hundreds if not thousands in Seville, here are just three that I snapped photos of:

Sevilla: Architectural styles, the Golden Age, Islamic influences

Here are some architectural styles you might expect to see in Seville:

Fabric shop "Ciudad de Londres" of Seville, with exquisite Islamic arches, built 1912, designed by famous native Sevillano architect, José Espiau y Muñoz

This building is within the main shopping district, on the corner of Calle Cerrajería and Calle Cuna, not far from the busy pedestrian street of Calle Sierpes. Yes, Seville's shopping district still has stores selling textile fabrics, which is what "Ciudad de Londres" is (City of London - click for an even more beautiful photo of this intricate Espiau y Muñoz designed building, geo-mapped on Google's Panoramio.com).

The building is reminiscent of Islamic forms; but it was only born in 1912 and designed by native Sevillano architect José Espiau y Muñoz. This happens to be one of his more famous buildings.

Municipal Government building, 1526 (Ayuntamiento de Sevilla) or "City Hall" of Seville

This is the southern end of Seville's City Hall. It's elaborate style is consistent with the building's early origins in 1526 during the "Golden Age" of Seville. Even then, Seville was never a capital of a united Spain, but it was from Seville that Spain's vast empire in the Americas was controlled, and to Seville that the empire's riches flowed through.

This building (fronting Plaza Nueva, at the northern end of Avenida de la Constitucion after just running past the Cathedral) is usually marked on maps as being the seat of Municipal Government in Seville (Ayuntamiento de Sevilla), although the building might be more properly referred to as the Town Hall of Seville (Casa Consistorial de Sevilla - in English Wikipedia)(Seville Town Hall on Google Maps).

Leafy spots in Seville - green intimate plazas

Sevilla is full of small intimate plazas with seats and trees and cafes nearby - perfect for some shade and a refreshing rest on a hot day.

Plaza San Juan de la Palma

Next to the Santa Catalina church on Plaza Ponce de Leon

Small plaza on the corner of Calle Churruca & Calle Almirante Espinosa

You'll notice some bicycles with red wheel-guards lined up in racks in two of the photos above. They are available for hire and are part of the SEVICI bicycle sharing system in Seville, with over 250 parking rack stations spread around the city. They offer a live online Sevici map showing the number of bicycles and spaces currently available at each station, and the municipal government offers a live online map of Sevici availability as well. (For more information on transportation options in Seville, SEE the transportation section of my Seville Travel Links page.)

View Seville leafy spots geotagged photos in a larger map

Feria Market - for local fruit, veg, fish & meat - a little gem

The Feria Market - fronting on to a street of the same name and in a northerly neighborhood with the same name; or it could be considered part of the Alameda area - consists of two fairly small and unpretentious buildings with some stalls and bars facing outwards, as well as stalls inside, as you can see in the pictures below.

This modest yet somewhat charming market is said to be Seville's oldest remaining one.

TIP: The cheapest fruit & vegetables are in two stalls next to each other at the front near the main street - they do a roaring trade! (That's where I got my grapes and fresh prunes from in the photo below.)

Feria Market, Seville - Market staff wear white, and all produce purchased is wrapped in paper, God bless their souls!

Even vegetables hang from the ceiling in this market; and as you can see, 

everything comes wrapped in paper.

Feria Market, Seville - there are various stalls on the outside, including a tapas bar. You can see the market is squashed in at an angle next to an old church. That's ancient Seville!

See more photos of Feria Market on "Azahar's" blog. She has a great write-up, chock full of photos, on the tapas bar pictured above: "La Cantina" at the Mercado de la Feria.

View Seville geotagged photos in a larger map

Food in Seville - bread... and snails in your bananas...

Food anyone?

This is the way they like their bread in Sevilla... No crustless white sandwich bread slices?

If you're lucky, looks like you might get a free snail with your banana - market under Metropol Parasol at Plaza Encarnacion

Seville Cathedral - the world's third largest - was a mosque!

Perhaps the first place that you might want to see is Seville's famous Cathedral, near the center of the old town.

When it was completed in 1506, "Seville Cathedral supplanted Hagia Sophia (in Istanbul) as the largest cathedral in the world, a title the Byzantine church had held for nearly a thousand years. The cathedral is also the burial site of Christopher Columbus" - says Wikipedia. That was an indication of the wealth and importance of the city, built upon the riches from the Americas. Seville Cathedral's record was itself supplanted much later in that same century by the completion of St Peter's Basilica in Rome. After the passing of over 500 years, Seville Cathedral is still the world's third largest church building.

As with many other churches in Spain, Seville Cathedral was built over a grand Muslim mosque. When work started in 1402, the mosque on the site had already been standing for over 200 years.

At the cathedral, you may still see sections of the old mosque building, including the bell tower, so imposing, it has its own name, the Giralda - and you can see the distinct resemblance to the minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque, still the largest mosque in what was then the capital of the reigning Almohad Dynasty, in Marrakech, Morocco, built a few decades earlier - a reminder of their dynastic capital in their new capital of their Al-Andalus territories in Seville (Ishbiliyya) which they had just moved from Cordoba.

NO, that's not in Seville - it's the earlier Koutoubia Mosque, Marrakech, Morocco, upon which the original Seville mosque was modeled - and it's just about as tall as Seville Cathedral's surviving Giralda bell tower  
(Image Credit: Mitchell Owens via architecturaldigest.com)

Here is an interesting article by Paul Lunde that goes into the travails of how the Muslim Moors constructed the Giralda: [ http://islamic-arts.org/2012/the-giralda/ ].

That's the kind of view of the Giralda from the typical narrow lanes that is more recognizable as Seville

Seville Cathedral shows Islamic influences beside Christian symbols

Seville Cathedral - one of the side entrances