Plaza de Espana, Sevilla

Favorite thing: Another night view.
This square was inaugurated in 1929, it was constructed due to the Exposicion Iberoamericana.

Curiosity: It was digitally added as a background to one scene of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

Favorite thing: New blossoming of Seville is connected with International Ibero-Americana exhibition which took place there in 1929.
In 1992 Seville became one of the centers of celebrating of the 500 anniversary of the discovery of America. There has passed world Expo-1992.

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Favorite thing: All along the facade of the main building are beautiful tiled benches, representing the Provinces of Spain. The benches pictured here are of : Barcelona - Albacete - Alicante - Avila and the Monuments in Seville.
By the way, these are just a few of the dozens of tiled benches that can be found in front and all around the Plaza de Espana.

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Favorite thing: Against the front facade of the main building, you will find beautiful tiled benches representing the Provinces of Spain. The first five tiled benches represent Cadiz - Canarias - Caceres - Burgos and Balearics.
Right in front of the tiled benches, there are tiled maps showing where the Province is located in Spain.

Favorite thing: Azulejos are glazed tiles in lovely colors. They are strong, cool in summer and for those reason everywhere in Seville. The art of making them is brought to Spain by the Moors. The word azulejos comes from the Arab word az-zulayj (stone). Origianlly it was used to make colorfull mosaics with little stones of one color. The colors the Moors used were blue,green,black, white and ochre.
Later the art of glazing was further developped and the tiles had several colors in one tile and even entire pictures were glazed on a tile.

The tiles in the pictures are on a balustrade in front of the Plaza de Espana. Here you can find some great examples of the azulejos. More pictures can be found in our Plaza de Espagna travelogue.

Fondest memory: Around the vicinity of Plaza De Espana, there are many interesting buildings such as those pictured above & some of them are those of Plaza de America, Pabellon de Chile, Pabellon de Uruguay & the Neo-Renaissance Pabellon de las Bellas Artes which houses the provincial Museo Arqueologico, which we never get to visit on a tour! You have to go on your own, such a wasted trip :-(( ; but luckily for all of us, there are many architectural wonders in Spain!

Favorite thing: Absolutely see PLAZA DE ESPANA (actually I've got no choice over this matter, I go where my guide brings me ;-) & she's the beautiful Victoria, you'll see more of her later!): The plaza's ground is a donation from Princess Maria Luisa to the city in 1893 & landscaped by Jean Forestier. Here, you can see the beauty of many paintings on ceramic tiles depicting regional scenes.

Favorite thing: By coming out at night you will be able to enjoy the place almost to yourself as most tourists are packed away on their tour buses and off to have dinner or whatever. You will also be able to take your time to appreciate what you are seeing without the heat of the hot sun bearing down on you.