Sevillian tiles: relics that you find walking around Seville
Seville is a city with many facets. All of them endow the city with unique characteristics that make it a place rich in tradition, culture, history, crafts, heritage and art.
It is known for a multitude of aspects, but one of the most important is undoubtedly tile-making, a type of craftsmanship that is intrinsic to Sevillian culture, especially that of Triana.
To understand the importance of tiling in Seville, you have to go back centuries. So here we go.
Let's recap a bit
Seville has a long tradition of pottery making, as pottery has been one of the city’s main economic activities since ancient times. However, ceramics became particularly important in the Hispano-Muslim period, as the coexistence of Christian and Muslim kingdoms led to a wide-ranging cultural exchange, including the art of tile-making. This Hispano-Muslim influence led to tiling, a type of glazed clay tile cut to form a mosaic of geometric figures, which quickly led to the spread of this type of art throughout the city and, later, to other countries. Seville thus built its hallmark identity, filling itself with an element that would form the backbone of its tradition and culture: the tile.
The tile relic
The district with the greatest production of this relic has been Triana, which to this day continues to be a fundamental pillar of Sevillian tile-making. Triana tiles are characterised by their colourful designs with floral or geometric motifs. The tile thus became an important part of the architecture and decoration of the city, and was also exported to America, Portugal, Italy and southern England.
The tiles reflect the rich history of the city and carry great symbolic and cultural weight, as Arab and Mudejar culture is represented in many of the designs and patterns used in their production. In addition, they also depict scenes from Seville’s history and religion, thus preserving the city’s historical memory.
But… where exactly can we find these relics? We’ll show you.
A journey full of jewels
As we have said, Seville is the living representation of the art of tile-making, so as you walk around the city, you will come across many of these artistic gems. There are many places where you can find them: the Cartuja Monastery, the Mudejar Palace in the Real Alcázar, Plaza de España, Plaza de América, María Luisa Park, the Santa Clara convent, Santa Paula monastery, Casa de Pilatos…
And if you want to immerse yourself completely in Triana’s tilework, you have to add a few obligatory stops in Triana to your tour: the Capillita del Carmen chapel, the Casa Montalbán, the Santa Ana Ceramics Shop and the Plaza del Altozano.
Now you know a little bit more about Seville, all you need to do is discover it!
