Seville and Huelva Garden Route

The orange court on the north of Seville Cathedral belonged to the mosque that stood there before the church. Bitter oranges, water, a walled yard. It is one of the old mosque patios of al-Andalus still in use — not “the oldest garden in Europe”, and not a substitute for Cordoba’s larger court. Map.

The Real Alcazar is the garden you came for. In a small ground it holds several manners at once: Mudejar courts (Patio de Dona Maria de Padilla, Patio del Yeso, La Galera); Renaissance walks (La Danza, Las Damas, the grounds around Charles V’s pavilion, with a myrtle and cypress maze); an English landscape piece; and early-twentieth-century rooms (Jardin de los Poetas, Vega Inclan). Look for silk-floss trees (Ceiba speciosa, still often labelled Chorisia) — one large tree by the Charles V pavilion — ginkgo, and trumpet trees (Tabebuia) in the English garden. Ticketed. Map.

The garden of the Torre de Don Fadrique (Don Fabrique in older spelling) sits on former orchards by a medieval tower. Enclosed, small, easy to miss. Map.

Jardin de las Delicias is the romantic public garden by the river: a branching Phoenix reclinata and myrtle-leaf oranges (Citrus myrtifolia). Map. Jardines de Cristina and Casa Rosa add a walk of sago palms (Cycas revoluta). Map.

Parque de Maria Luisa is the city’s great park, laid out mainly by Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier in a Hispano-Arabic manner for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition: plazas, tiled benches, big trees, water. The Murillo gardens and Avenida de Catalina de Ribera run along the Alcazar wall. This is the free afternoon after the Alcazar ticket. Map.

Gardens of La Lonja and the old Royal Tobacco Factory — now part of the university — are civic planting of the last century. Paseo de la Palmera still has private plots with serious trees behind walls. Map.

Parque de los Principes is a modern neighbourhood park. Isla de la Cartuja keeps the monastery orchard — a very old sapodilla is the tree the old guides point at — and the Expo ’92 layouts: Jardines del Guadalquivir as a short history of garden styles, and the American garden of useful New World plants. Map.

Seville’s squares are planted rooms. Plaza del Cristo de Burgos and Plaza del Museo hold large Ficus (the old list said Ficus dealbata; what you see are big ornamental figs). Plaza del Duque has silk oaks (Grevillea robusta). Plaza San Leandro has a laurel fig (Ficus microcarpa, often still called F. retusa). Plaza de Santa Cruz has a pineapple guava (Acca sellowiana, the old Feijoa). The patios that matter to a visitor are in Santa Cruz. Hospital de los Venerables has a sunken court and a fountain you can enter on a ticket.

Casa de Pilatos and Palacio de las Duenas are the palace gardens: tiled courts, a little water, a house attached. Buy the house ticket; the street only shows a door. Map.

Castilleja de Guzman: Colegio Mayor Santa Maria del Buen Aire, a Forestier garden on a hill. Institutional; ask whether the grounds are open. Map. Castilleja de la Cuesta: El Carambolo arboretum. Dos Hermanas: Alqueria del Pilar and Hacienda de la Torre de Dona Maria. Map.

Hacienda Benazuza in Sanlucar la Mayor is a country house turned hotel. The garden is for guests, not a municipal park. Parque de Oromana in Alcala de Guadaira is river woodland and paths, closer to a natural park than to the Alcazar. Map.

Parque Moret is the city’s large park: woodland, fruit trees, allotments, a view over the Odiel. It is where Huelva walks, not a historic court. Map.

Jardin Botanico Jose Celestino Mutis, by the monastery of La Rabida, covers about twelve hectares of labelled plants, many of them from this coast. Pair it with the monastery cloister. Map.

Jardin Botanico Dunas del Odiel sits in the dune and marsh reserve and shows the flora between the Guadiana and the Barbate cliffs — salt, sand and wind, not orange courts. Map.

Jardines del Muelle are port gardens with tropical trees. Green, not quiet. Map.

Villa Onuba in Fuenteheridos, in the sierra, is a garden with Spanish fir (Abies pinsapo) and sequoia — mountain air, not the estuary. Map.

La Rabida monastery gardens and cloister are the calm piece. In Moguer, the old convent of Santa Clara and the house of the poet Juan Ramon Jimenez keep patios you can ask to see on a museum ticket. Map.