Archbishop's Palace
With a façade considered one of the best of the Sevillian baroque period
These houses were built on Almohad constructions which in turn were built on a thermal complex from Roman times, found at a deeper level. Of the palace ordered to be built for Don Raimundo, who was the first bishop of Seville after the reconquest, there are practically no remains. Over the centuries it was expanded until the mid-sixteenth century one of the reforms leaves it with the structure that can be seen today, around two courtyards of mannerist style that is the first thing that the visitor perceives the monument. It has an area of 6,700 m² occupying almost an entire block.
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The cover, Baroque style, the work of Lorenzo Fernandez de Iglesias and Diego Antonio Diaz, was built in the eighteenth century, is considered one of the best of the Sevillian Baroque, noteworthy colors albero and bull’s blood with which it is decorated, colors that accompany other landmark buildings in the city. In the last decades of the 18th century, the then archbishop, Alonso Marcos de Llanes Argüelles, endowed and opened the palace library. In addition, he made several commissions to the painter José Suárez for the decoration of the palace, and also for the archbishop’s palace of Umbrete, used by the archbishops as a summer residence.
During the Spanish War of Independence, it was used as the headquarters of the general command of the army and residence of Marshal Soult and his officers. Years later it was the Dukes of Montpensier, who were newly arrived in the city, who occupied its rooms as an occasional dwelling while work was being carried out at the palace of San Telmo.
