The Spanish city's historical clash of cultures has led to unforgettable architecture, and its tapas will bring you back for more, writes Olivia Kelly
THE BIGGEST FOOD phenomenon to hit Ireland in the past decade has to be tapas, but if you want the real thing, go to Seville.
Tapas are the ultimate pub grub, but often what's served in an Irish pub as tapas would make you wish your local had stuck to a carvery. Sevillians say they invented tapas, and I'm happy to believe them. The things these people can do with a pig's cheek or prawn would make you disinclined to argue with them.
The best places offer exquisite little dishes at between €2 and €5 a pop. Three would make a decent-sized meal; anything over five and you'll have to be carried out of the place.
Tapas are ideal short-break food, as the little dishes mean you get to try lots of restaurants and bars, and if your Spanish isn't up to scratch and you choose something you really don't like, it's only a little mistake and you can move on without wasting a whole night of your holiday.
The suck-it-and-see attitude to eating has a particular application in Seville, as in some of the better tapas bars the menus are written in Spanish only.
As always happens when cities get a reputation for being particularly good at something, however, many places are resting on their tapas-capital laurels. All the guidebooks will send you to the Calle Mateos Gago strip, but apart from Bodega Santa Cruz, which has a great atmosphere and pretty good tapas, most of the rest are overpriced tourist traps that are best avoided.
The food alone would be reason enough to go to Seville, but it's not just the tapas that makes Seville the ideal short-break destination.
It's a very compact, walkable city, with a stunning and varied range of architecture. The vast Gothic cathedral - one of the biggest in the world - is just metres from a Moorish palace. Go north from the cathedral and you're into Renaissance territory, with imposing highly ornate buildings and large formal plazas. Go east and you'll quickly find yourself in a maze of lanes - some just the width of two people - which lead into the orange-tree-filled, beautifully tiled little squares of the medieval Jewish quarter of Barrio Santa Cruz. Head south from the cathedral and you'll find yourself in parkland, with grandiose buildings built in the early 20th century in a flamboyant classical style. Head west and you hit the bullring and the Río Guadalquivir, the river that once made Seville one of the world's richest trading ports.
The must-see attractions are the cathedral and the Moorish palace, or Alcázar. After the fall of the Roman empire and until the 13th century, Seville was a Muslim city.
When the Christians came along they turned the main mosque into a church, but in the 14th century they decided they needed a landmark building all of their own, and the legend goes that they decided to "create such a building that future generations will take us for lunatics".
You have to admire such a sentiment and the edifice it created. The cathedral, completed in 1507, is a Gothic-Renaissance masterpiece. (It houses the tomb of Christopher Columbus.) The city fathers in their wisdom retained the original mosque's minaret tower, La Giralda, which at 90m high affords the best views of the city.
Just across Plaza del Triunfo, the Alcázar, with its ornate halls decorated with exquisitely detailed plasterwork and tiles and its beautifully sculptured gardens, is a tranquil joy if you get there at a quiet time. In high season it's best to go in the evening, when the light really makes the most of the gardens and the tour groups have trudged off.
Originally founded in the Muslim era, in 913, the palace has over the centuries been the main residence of both Muslim and Christian rulers.
While pretty much everywhere is accessible on foot, there's also a recently introduced tram system and a great bike-rental scheme. Subscribe for a week for €5 and, by returning the bikes regularly to their stations, you won't pay much more than that.
It's hard to find anything bad to say about Seville except that accommodation is surprisingly expensive compared with other Spanish cities (although cheap food makes up for this) and that it's best avoided in July and August, when temperatures reach a scary 40-degrees-plus.
Seville hot spots
Where to stay, where to eat and where to go
5 places to stay
Hotel Alfonso XIII. 2 Calle San Fernando, 00-34-95- 4917000, www.hotel-alfonsoxiii.com. Commissioned by the king of Spain in 1928 to be Europe's most luxurious hotel, this is the place to stay if money is no object. Rooms can cost upwards of €400, but if you book last minute you can get a room for about €300.
Las Casas del Rey de Baeza. Calle Santiago, 2 Plaza Jesús de la Redención, 00-34-95- 4561496, http://lascasasdel reydebaeza.arteh-hotels.com. This elegant hotel, in a converted 18th-century monastery, is a little less likely to break the bank, at about €180 a night.
Las Casas de los Mercaderes. 9-13 Calle Álvarez Quintero, 00-34-95-4225858, www.intergrouphoteles.com. Another well-located hotel in a historic building, at just over €100 a night.
Hotel Amadeus. Calle Farnesio, 6 Calle San José, 00-34-95-4501443, www.hotelamadeussevilla.com. Quirky, cute and right in the thick of things. By Seville standards a bargain, with rooms starting at €90 for a double. The Amadeus is stuffed full of musical instruments and has soundproof practice rooms.
Hotel Simon. 19 Calle García De Vinuesa, 00-34-95- 4226660, www.hotelsimonsevilla.com. A stone's throw from the cathedral, this traditional Sevillian house books up fast. It's a little frayed around the edges, but prices start at €80 for a double.
5 places to eat
La Cava del Europa. 40 Santa Maria La Blanca, 00-34- 95-4531652. Opened just six years ago, this tapas bar has yet to make it into most guide books and is all the better for that. It's busy - with mainly local customers - but rarely as packed as the superb quality of the food would merit. It also serves pintxos, which are hard to find in Seville. Not to be missed are the quail egg and chorizo pintxo and the hake.
Enrique Becerra. 2 Calle Gamazo 00-34-95-4213049, www.enriquebecerra.com. Sit down in the restaurant or pack into the small bar at the front; either way the food is great. The foie gras is particularly good here, as are the stewed pig's cheeks. It has a good selection of wines by the glass and is a good place to come for a glass and few slices of cheese at the end of the night.
Bar Eslava. 3-5 Calle Eslava, 00-34-954-906568. Everything here is fantastic, which is handy because the menu is only in Spanish, on blackboards behind the bar. Start at the top and work your way through, or point at the bowls of live shellfish on the bar.
Casa Cuesta. 1 Calle Castilla 00-34-95-4333335. A lot of tapas bars and restaurants in Seville are quite dark, but this lovely old bar, across the river in Triana, has glass on three sides, making it a great place for lunch. Try the baby broad beans with ham and the cazon (little pieces of deep-fried lemon-marinated fish).
Las Teresas. 2 Calle Santa Teresas, 00-34-95-4213069. The outdoor cafes in Santa Cruz's beautifully tiled squares are a great place for lunch, but if you want a night-time bite Las Teresas is probably your best bet in an area that is otherwise a bit of a tourist trap.
5 places to go
Seville Cathedral. Plaza del Triunfo. Even if churches don't ring your bell, this huge edifice that marks the centre of Seville is worth a look. You get to see Christopher Columbus's tomb and can climb the Giralda for great views of the city.
Alcázar. Plaza del Triunfo, 00-34-95-4502323. All glittering tiles and beautiful gardens, this Moorish palace is the perfect place to escape the heat.
Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza. 12 Paseo de Cristobal Colon, 00-34-95- 4210315, www.real maestranza.com. Seville's bullring. Not everyone's cup of tea, but even if you can't countenance the gore-fest, the bullring is reputably the oldest in Spain and is worth a look even just from the outside.
Hospital de la Caridad, 3 Calle Temprado, 00-34-95-4223232. A former 17th-century hospice, its church houses several masterpieces, including four Murillo paintings.
Museo de Bellas Artes. 9 Plaza Museo, 00-34-95- 4219500. Houses an impressive collection of the 17th-century Seville masters Murillo, Zurbaran and Valdes Leal in a beautiful former convent.
Hot spot
Hijos de E Morales. 11 Calle Garcia de Vinuesa, 00-34-95- 4221242. This ancient sherry bodega is a great place to start or end the night. The back room is the best; old casks serve as tables, and the fino is served cold in excitingly unmarked bottles. Try the chiccharones, bar snacks that are very similar to pork scratchings - but nice.
Shopping
Calles Sierpes, Cuna, Velazques and Tetuan are pedestrianised shopping streets with all the high-street names as well as independent shops.
Coffee break
Hosteria del Laurel. 5 Plaza de los Venerables, www.hosteriadellaurel.com. One of several places with outdoor tables in one of the prettiest squares in Barrio Santa Cruz.
Go there
Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies from Dublin to Seville three times a week until the end of October. Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus.com) flies from Dublin, Cork and Belfast to Malaga, two hours from Seville by train.