Seville → Granada

01 Church

Seville Cathedral

Catedral de Santa María de la Sede de Sevilla

In the Giralda and the Patio de los Naranjos, you can recognise the remains of the Almohad mosque that this immense Gothic vessel replaced from 1401 onwards. Symbolically completed in 1506, Seville Cathedral holds the tombs of Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand III and Alfonso X. In 1988, Guinness World Records named it the largest in the world.

02 Castle

Alcázar of Seville

Reales Alcázares

Behind its walls, the Alcázar of Seville layers an 11th-century enclosure, the Mudéjar palace of Peter I, a Gothic palace and Renaissance and Baroque additions. The kings of Spain still stay here, making it the oldest royal palace in Europe still in use. Linger in the Patio de Banderas, its oldest core.

03 Monument

Plaza de España, Seville

Plaza de España

Designed by Aníbal González for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929, the square spreads its vast semicircle of brick and ceramic on the edge of María Luisa Park. A canal, crossed by four bridges, follows the curve of the galleries. Stroll past the 48 benches dedicated to the Spanish provinces, each decorated with painted tiles.

04 Archaeology

Itálica

Scipio Africanus settled his wounded soldiers here in 206 BC, making Itálica the first Roman city in Hispania. Walk among the mosaics of the great houses to the ellipse of the amphitheatre, a few kilometres from Seville. Trajan and Hadrian were born here, two emperors who came from these Andalusian heights.

05 Archaeology

Conjunto Arqueológico de Carmona

Lean over the rock-cut chambers of this Roman necropolis at the gates of Carmona. Discovered by chance in 1868, it was excavated from 1881 by George Bonsor and Juan Fernández López. In the Tomb of the Elephant, a sculpture evokes the cult of Cybele; that of Servilia opens beneath a dome with an oculus.

06 Archaeology

Madinat Al-Zahra

Abd al-Rahman III had this palatine city built in the 10th century at the foot of the Sierra Morena to assert his new rank as caliph. Destroyed between 1010 and 1013, it has revealed only 10 of its 112 hectares, but they are those of the great palaces. Wander slowly across its stepped terraces, watching the Córdoba plain stretch out below.

07 Church

Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

Mezquita-catedral de Córdoba

Founded in 786 by Abd al-Rahman I and then enlarged until it covered 23,400 square metres, the Great Mosque of Córdoba was consecrated for Christian worship in 1236. Between 1523 and 1607, a cruciform nave was fitted into its heart, among the two-tone arches. Walk slowly between the columns to the mihrab of al-Hakam II, completed in 971.

08 Archaeology

Roman bridge of Córdoba

Puente romano de Córdoba

The only crossing over the Guadalquivir for twenty centuries, the so-called Roman bridge owes most of its sixteen arches, some of them pointed, to later rebuilding. Cross it on foot, from the Calahorra Tower to the Bridge Gate, raised in 1572. Halfway across, a Saint Raphael from 1651 watches over the river.

09 Archaeology

Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos

Picture Boabdil imprisoned behind these walls, where the Catholic Monarchs lived during the Granada War. Alfonso XI's fortress, begun in 1328 on the banks of the Guadalquivir, later housed the Inquisition until 1812. In the Women's Courtyard, an Almohad wall and late antique columns reveal earlier buildings.

10 Village

Zuheros

The white houses of Zuheros cling on at 656 metres in the Sierra Subbética, around their castle. The old olive oil railway, closed in 1985, has given way to a greenway running alongside the olive groves. Taste its cheeses, celebrated each year with a fair, then follow the road that climbs to the Cueva de los Murciélagos.

11 Castle

Castillo de Priego de Córdoba

This austere fortress of Priego held the border between Castile and the Nasrid kingdom of Granada. Take in the Torre Gorda, a 30-metre keep whose upper floor opens through paired horseshoe windows. A grain store until 1971, the castle has belonged to the town since 1996.

12 Nature park

El Torcal de Antequera

Torcal de Antequera

Slip through the passages of the Torcal, where frost and rain have shaped the limestone into forms named "Tornillo" or "Sombrerillo". These rocks formed on the floor of a Jurassic sea before being lifted more than a thousand metres high. The tholos of El Romeral, one of the Antequera dolmens, is aligned with its peaks.

13 Archaeology

Dolmen of Menga

Dolmen de Menga

Walk beneath the slabs of the Menga dolmen to its 6-metre-wide chamber, where a few intermediate pillars support the roof. The last slab alone weighs about 180 tonnes, and a deep, narrow well, unparalleled in Europe, opens at the back. The monument's axis points towards the Peña de los Enamorados.

14 Castle

Alcazaba of Antequera

Alcazaba de Antequera

A Nasrid bastion facing the Christian kingdoms, the Alcazaba of Antequera only fell in 1410, after a five-month siege led by Prince Ferdinand. Look up at its keep, nicknamed Papabellotas, topped in 1582 with a small belfry for the town's main bell. Further on, the Torre Blanca, 19.25 metres high, completes the hill's silhouette.

15 Castle  · Family

Alhambra

On the Sabika hill above Granada, the Nasrid dynasty built palaces, fortresses and gardens stretching some 740 metres. Listen to the water running from the pools of the Court of the Lions to the walkways of the Generalife. In 1984, the complex became the first Spanish site to be inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

16 UNESCO

Albaicín

Before the Alhambra, the Zirids built their citadel in the 11th century on this hill above the Darro, of which ramparts and the Monaita gate remain. Lose yourself in a maze of lanes laid out in the Nasrid era, between whitewashed walls. At the Mirador de San Nicolás, the Alhambra glows red before you at sunset.